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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Madame Chrysantheme Complete, by Pierre Loti
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Madame Chrysantheme Complete
+
+Author: Pierre Loti
+
+Last Updated: March 4, 2009
+Release Date: October 5, 2006 [EBook #3995]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADAME CHRYSANTHEME COMPLETE ***
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+MADAME CHRYSANTHEME
+
+By Pierre Loti
+
+
+With a Preface by ALBERT SOREL, of the French Academy
+
+
+
+
+PIERRE LOTI
+
+LOUIS-MARIE-JULIEN VIAUD, "Pierre Loti," was born in Rochefort, of an
+old French-Protestant family, January 14, 1850. He was connected with
+the. French Navy from 1867 to 1900, and is now a retired officer with
+full captain's rank. 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
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 1.
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 2.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. HAPPY FAMILIES!
+
+
+July 18th.
+
+By this time, four officers of my ship are married like myself, and
+inhabiting the slopes of the same suburb. This arrangement is quite an
+ordinary occurrence, and is brought about without difficulties, mystery,
+or danger, through the offices of the same M. Kangourou.
+
+As a matter of course, we are on visiting terms with all these ladies.
+
+First, there is our very merry neighbor Madame Campanule, who is little
+Charles N-----'s wife; then Madame Jonquille, who is even merrier than
+Campanule, like a young bird, and the daintiest fairy of them all;
+she has married X-----, a fair northerner who adores her; they are a
+lover-like and inseparable pair, the only one that will probably weep
+when the hour of parting comes. Then Sikou-San with Doctor Y-----; and
+lastly the midshipman Z------with the tiny Madame Touki-San, no taller
+than a boot: thirteen years old at the outside, and already a regular
+woman, full of her own importance, a petulant little gossip. In my
+childhood I was sometimes taken to the Learned Animals Theatre, and I
+remember a certain Madame de Pompadour, a principal role, filled by a
+gayly dressed old monkey; Touki-San reminds me of her.
+
+In the evening, all these folk usually come and fetch us for a long
+processional walk with lighted lanterns. My wife, more serious, more
+melancholy, perhaps even more refined, and belonging, I fancy, to a
+higher class, tries when these friends come to us to play the part
+of the lady of the house. It is comical to see the entry of these
+ill-matched pairs, partners for a day, the ladies, with their disjointed
+bows, falling on all fours before Chrysantheme, the queen of the
+establishment. When we are all assembled, we set out, arm in arm, one
+behind another, and always carrying at the end of our short sticks
+little white or red paper lanterns; it is a pretty custom.
+
+We are obliged to scramble down the kind of street, or rather
+goat's-path, which leads to the Japanese Nagasaki--with the prospect,
+alas! of having to climb up again at night; clamber up all the steps,
+all the slippery slopes, stumble over all the stones, before we shall
+be able to get home, go to bed, and sleep. We make our descent in the
+darkness, under the branches, under the foliage, among dark gardens and
+venerable little houses that throw but a faint glimmer on the road; and
+when the moon is absent or clouded over, our lanterns are by no means
+unnecessary.
+
+When at last we reach the bottom, suddenly, without transition, we find
+ourselves in the very heart of Nagasaki and its busy throng in a long
+illuminated street, where vociferating djins hurry along and thousands
+of paper lanterns swing and gleam in the wind. It is life and animation,
+after the peace of our silent suburb.
+
+Here, decorum requires that we should separate from our wives. All
+five take hold of each others' hands, like a batch of little girls out
+walking. We follow them with an air of indifference. Seen from behind,
+our dolls are really very dainty, with their back hair so tidily
+arranged, their tortoiseshell pins so coquettishly placed. They shuffle
+along, their high wooden clogs making an ugly sound, striving to walk
+with their toes turned in, according to the height of fashion and
+elegance. At every minute they burst out laughing.
+
+Yes, seen from behind, they are very pretty; they have, like all
+Japanese women, the most lovely turn of the head. Moreover, they are
+very funny, thus drawn up in line. In speaking of them, we say: "Our
+little trained dogs," and in truth they are singularly like them.
+
+This great Nagasaki is the same from one end to another, with
+its numberless petroleum lamps burning, its many-colored lanterns
+flickering, and innumerable panting djins. Always the same narrow
+streets, lined on each side with the same low houses, built of paper
+and wood. Always the same shops, without glass windows, open to all
+the winds, equally rudimentary, whatever may be sold or made in them;
+whether they display the finest gold lacquer ware, the most marvellous
+china jars, or old worn-out pots and pans, dried fish, and ragged
+frippery. All the salesmen are seated on the ground in the midst of
+their valuable or trumpery merchandise, their legs bared nearly to the
+waist.
+
+And all kinds of queer little trades are carried on under the public
+gaze, by strangely primitive means, by workmen of the most ingenious
+type.
+
+Oh, what wonderful goods are exposed for sale in those streets! What
+whimsical extravagance in those bazaars!
+
+No horses, no carriages are ever seen in the town; nothing but people on
+foot, or the comical little carts dragged along by the runners. Some
+few Europeans straggling hither and thither, wanderers from the ships in
+harbor; some Japanese (fortunately as yet but few) dressed up in coats;
+other natives who content themselves with adding to their national
+costume the pot-hat, from which their long, sleek locks hang down; and
+all around, eager haggling, bargaining, and laughter.
+
+In the bazaars every evening our mousmes make endless purchases; like
+spoiled children they buy everything they fancy: toys, pins, ribbons,
+flowers. And then they prettily offer one another presents, with
+childish little smiles. For instance, Campanule buys for Chrysantheme an
+ingeniously contrived lantern on which, set in motion by some invisible
+machinery, Chinese shadows dance in a ring round the flame. In return,
+Chrysantheme gives Campanule a magic fan, with paintings that change at
+will from butterflies fluttering around cherry-blossoms to outlandish
+monsters pursuing each other across black clouds. Touki offers Sikou a
+cardboard mask representing the bloated countenance of Dai-Cok, god of
+wealth; and Sikou replies with a present of a long crystal trumpet, by
+means of which are produced the most extraordinary sounds, like a turkey
+gobbling. Everything is uncouth, fantastical to excess, grotesquely
+lugubrious; everywhere we are surprised by incomprehensible conceptions,
+which seem the work of distorted imaginations.
+
+In the fashionable tea-houses, where we finish our evenings, the little
+serving-maids now bow to us, on our arrival, with an air of respectful
+recognition, as belonging to the fast set of Nagasaki. There we carry on
+desultory conversations, full of misunderstandings and endless 'quid pro
+quo' of uncouth words, in little gardens lighted up with lanterns, near
+ponds full of goldfish, with little bridges, little islets, and little
+ruined towers. They hand us tea and white and pink-colored sweetmeats
+flavored with pepper that taste strange and unfamiliar, and beverages
+mixed with snow tasting of flowers or perfumes.
+
+To give a faithful account of those evenings would require a more
+affected style than our own; and some kind of graphic sign would have
+also to be expressly invented and scattered at haphazard among the
+words, indicating the moment when the reader should laugh--rather a
+forced laugh, perhaps, but amiable and gracious. The evening at an end,
+it is time to return up there.
+
+Oh! that street, that road, that we must clamber up every evening, under
+the starlit sky or the heavy thunder-clouds, dragging by the hands our
+drowsy mousmes in order to regain our homes perched on high halfway up
+the hill, where our bed of matting awaits us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. OUR "VERY TALL FRIEND"
+
+The cleverest among us has been Louis de S-------. Having formerly
+inhabited Japan, and made a marriage Japanese fashion there, he is now
+satisfied to remain the friend of our wives, of whom he has become
+the 'Komodachi taksan takai' ("the very tall friend," as they say, on
+account of his excessive height and slenderness). Speaking Japanese
+more readily than we, he is their confidential adviser, disturbs or
+reconciles our households at will, and has infinite amusement at our
+expense.
+
+This "very tall friend" of our wives enjoys all the fun that these
+little creatures can give him, without any of the worries of domestic
+life. With brother Yves, and little Oyouki (the daughter of Madame
+Prune, my landlady), he makes up our incongruous party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. OUR PIOUS HOSTS
+
+M. Sucre and Madame Prune, my landlord and his wife, two perfectly
+unique personages recently escaped from the panel of some screen,
+live below us on the ground floor; and very old they seem to have this
+daughter of fifteen, Oyouki, who is Chrysantheme's inseparable friend.
+
+Both of them are entirely absorbed in the practices of Shinto religion:
+perpetually on their knees before their family altar, perpetually
+occupied in murmuring their lengthy orisons to the spirits, and clapping
+their hands from time to time to recall around them the inattentive
+essences floating in the atmosphere. In their spare moments they
+cultivate, in little pots of gayly painted earthenware, dwarf shrubs and
+unheard-of flowers which are delightfully fragrant in the evening.
+
+M. Sucre is taciturn, dislikes society, and looks like a mummy in his
+blue cotton dress. He writes a great deal (his memoirs, I fancy), with
+a paint-brush held in his fingertips, on long strips of rice-paper of a
+faint gray tint.
+
+Madame Prune is eagerly attentive, obsequious, and rapacious; her
+eyebrows are closely shaven, her teeth carefully lacquered with black,
+as befits a lady of gentility, and at all and no matter what hours, she
+appears on all fours at the entrance of our apartment, to offer us her
+services.
+
+As to Oyouki, she rushes upon us ten times a day--whether we are
+sleeping or dressing--like a whirlwind on a visit, flashing upon us,
+a very gust of dainty youthfulness and droll gayety--a living peal of
+laughter. She is round of figure, round of face; half baby, half girl;
+and so affectionate that she bestows kisses on the slightest occasion
+with her great puffy lips--a little moist, it is true, like a child's,
+but nevertheless very fresh and very red.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Our dwelling is open all the night through, and the lamps burning before
+the gilded Buddha bring us the company of the insect inhabitants of
+every garden in the neighborhood. Moths, mosquitoes, cicalas, and other
+extraordinary insects of which I don't even know the names--all this
+company assembles around us.
+
+It is extremely funny, when some unexpected grasshopper, some
+free-and-easy beetle presents itself without invitation or excuse,
+scampering over our white mats, to see the manner in which Chrysantheme
+indicates it to my righteous vengeance--merely pointing her finger at
+it, without another word than "Hou!" said with bent head, a particular
+pout, and a scandalised air.
+
+There is a fan kept expressly for the purpose of blowing them out of
+doors again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. SLEEPING JAPAN
+
+Here I must own that my story must appear to the reader to drag a
+little.
+
+Lacking exciting intrigues and tragic adventures, I wish I knew how
+to infuse into it a little of the sweet perfumes of the gardens which
+surround me, something of the gentle warmth of the sunshine, of the
+shade of these graceful trees. Love being wanting, I should like it to
+breathe of the restful tranquillity of this faraway spot. Then, too, I
+should like it to reecho the sound of Chrysantheme's guitar, in which
+I begin to find a certain charm, for want of something better, in the
+silence of the lovely summer evenings.
+
+All through these moonlit nights of July, the weather has been calm,
+luminous, and magnificent. Ah, what glorious clear nights! What
+exquisite roseate tints beneath that wonderful moon, what mystery of
+blue shadows in the thick tangle of trees! And, from the heights where
+stood our veranda, how prettily the town lay sleeping at our feet!
+
+After all, I do not positively detest this little Chrysantheme, and when
+there is no repugnance on either side, habit turns into a makeshift of
+attachment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. THE SONG OF THE CICALA
+
+Forever, throughout everything, rises day and night from the whole
+country the song of the cicalas, ceaseless, strident, and insistent. It
+is everywhere, and never-ending, at no matter what hour of the burning
+day, or what hour of the refreshing night. From the harbor, as we
+approached our anchorage, we had heard it at the same time from
+both shores, from both walls of green mountains. It is wearisome and
+haunting; it seems to be the manifestation, the noise expressive of the
+kind of life peculiar to this region of the world. It is the voice of
+summer in these islands; it is the song of unconscious rejoicing, always
+content with itself and always appearing to inflate, to rise, in a
+greater and greater exultation at the sheer happiness of living.
+
+It is to me the noise characteristic of this country--this, and the cry
+of the falcon, which had in like manner greeted our entry into Japan.
+Over the valleys and the deep bay sail these birds, uttering, from time
+to time, their three cries, "Ha! ha! ha!" in a key of sadness that seems
+the extreme of painful astonishment. And the mountains around reecho
+their cry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. MY FRIEND AND MY DOLL
+
+Chrysantheme, Yves, and little Oyouki have struck up a friendship so
+intimate that it amuses me. I even think that in my home life this
+intimacy is what affords me the greatest entertainment. They form a
+contrast which gives rise to the most absurd jokes, and unexpected
+situations. He brings into this fragile little paper house his nautical
+freedom and ease of manner, and his Breton accent; and these tiny
+mousmes, with affected manners and bird-like voices, small as they are,
+rule the big fellow as they please; make him eat with chop-sticks; teach
+him Japanese pigeon-vole, cheat him, and quarrel, and almost die of
+laughter over it all.
+
+Certainly he and Chrysantheme take a pleasure in each other's society.
+But I remain serenely undisturbed, and can not imagine that this little
+doll, with whom I play at married life, could possibly occasion any
+serious trouble between this "brother" and me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. MY JAPANESE RELATIVES
+
+Japanese relatives, very numerous and conspicuous, are a great source
+of amusement to those of my brother officers who visit me in my villa
+on the hill--most especially to 'komodachi taksan takai' ("the tall
+friend").
+
+I have a charming mother-in-law--quite a woman of the world--tiny
+sisters-in-law, little cousins, and aunts who are still quite young.
+
+I have even a poor second cousin, who is a djin. There was some
+hesitation in owning this latter to me; but, behold! during the ceremony
+of introduction, we exchanged a smile of recognition. It was Number 415!
+
+Over this poor Number 415 my friends on board crack no end of jokes--one
+in particular, who, less than any one has the right to make them, little
+Charles N-----, for his mother-in-law was once a concierge, or something
+of the kind, at the gateway of a pagoda.
+
+I, however, who have a great respect for strength and agility, much
+appreciate this new relative of mine. His legs are undoubtedly the best
+in all Nagasaki, and whenever I am in haste, I always beg Madame Prune
+to send down to the djin-stand and engage my cousin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. A DEAD FAIRY
+
+Today I arrived unexpectedly at Diou-djen-dji, in the midst of burning
+noonday heat. At the foot of the stairs lay Chrysantheme's wooden shoes
+and her sandals of varnished leather.
+
+In our rooms, upstairs, all was open to the air; bamboo blinds hung on
+the sunny side, and through their transparency came warm air and golden
+threads of light. Today the flowers Chrysantheme had placed in the
+bronze vases were lotus, and as I entered, my eyes fell upon their wide
+rosy cups.
+
+According to her usual custom, Chrysantheme was lying flat on the floor
+enjoying her daily siesta.
+
+What a singular originality these bouquets of Chrysantheme always have:
+a something, difficult to define, a Japanese slightness, an artificial
+grace which we never should succeed in imparting to them.
+
+She was sleeping, face down, upon the mats, her high headdress and
+tortoise-shell pins standing out boldly from the rest of the horizontal
+figure. The train of her tunic appeared to prolong her delicate little
+body, like the tail of a bird; her arms were stretched crosswise, the
+sleeves spread out like wings, and her long guitar lay beside her.
+
+She looked like a dead fairy; still more did she resemble some great
+blue dragon-fly, which, having alighted on that spot, some unkind hand
+had pinned to the floor.
+
+Madame Prune, who had come upstairs after me, always officious and
+eager, manifested by her gestures her sentiments of indignation on
+beholding the careless reception accorded by Chrysantheme to her lord
+and master, and advanced to wake her.
+
+"Pray do nothing of the kind, my good Madame Prune; you don't know how
+much I prefer her like that!" I had left my shoes below, according to
+custom, beside the little shoes and sandals; and I entered on the tips
+of my toes, very, very, softly to sit awhile on the veranda.
+
+What a pity this little Chrysantheme can not always be asleep; she
+is really extremely decorative seen in this manner--and like this,
+at least, she does not bore me. Who knows what may be passing in that
+little head and heart! If I only had the means of finding out! But
+strange to say, since we have kept house together, instead of advancing
+in my study of the Japanese language, I have neglected it, so much have
+I felt the impossibility of ever interesting myself in the subject.
+
+Seated upon my veranda, my eyes wandered over the temples and cemeteries
+spread at my feet, over the woods and the green mountains, over Nagasaki
+lying bathed in the sunlight. The cicalas were chirping their loudest,
+the strident noise trembling feverishly in the hot air. All was calm,
+full of light and full of heat.
+
+Nevertheless, to my taste, it is not yet enough so! What, then, can have
+changed upon the earth? The burning noondays of summer, such as I can
+recall in days gone by, were more brilliant, more full of sunshine;
+Nature seemed to me in those days more powerful, more terrible. One
+would say this was only a pale copy of all that I knew in early years--a
+copy in which something is wanting. Sadly do I ask myself--Is the
+splendor of the summer only this? Was it only this? or is it the fault
+of my eyes, and as time goes on shall I behold everything around me
+fading still more?
+
+Behind me comes a faint and melancholy strain of music--melancholy
+enough to make one shiver--and shrill, shrill as the song of the
+grasshoppers, it began to make itself heard, very softly at first,
+then growing louder and rising in the silence of the noonday like the
+diminutive wail of some poor Japanese soul in pain and anguish; it was
+Chrysantheme and her guitar awaking together.
+
+It pleased me that the idea should have occurred to her to greet me with
+music, instead of eagerly hastening to wish me good-morning. At no time
+have I ever given myself the trouble to pretend the slightest affection
+for her, and a certain coldness even has grown up between us, especially
+when we are alone. But to-day I turn to her with a smile, and wave my
+hand for her to continue. "Go on, it amuses me to listen to your quaint
+little impromptu." It is singular that the music of this essentially
+merry people should be so plaintive. But undoubtedly that which
+Chrysantheme is playing at this moment is worth listening to. Whence can
+it have come to her? What unutterable dreams, forever hidden from me,
+surge beneath her ivory brow, when she plays or sings in this manner?
+
+Suddenly I hear some one tapping three times, with a harsh and bony
+finger, against one of the steps of our stairs, and in our doorway
+appears an idiot, clad in a suit of gray tweed, who bows low. "Come in,
+come in, Monsieur Kangourou. You come just in the nick of time! I was
+actually becoming enthusiastic over your country!"
+
+M. Kangourou brought a little laundry bill, which he wished respectfully
+to hand to me, with a profound bend of the whole body, the correct pose
+of the hands on the knees, and a long, snake-like hiss.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. ANCIENT TOMBS
+
+Pursuing the path that winds past our, dwelling, one passes a dozen
+or more old villas, a few garden-walls, and then sees nothing but the
+lonely mountain-side, with little paths winding upward toward the summit
+through plantations of tea, bushes of camellias, underbrush, and rocks.
+The mountains round Nagasaki are covered with cemeteries; for centuries
+and centuries they have brought their dead up here.
+
+But there is neither sadness nor horror in these Japanese sepulchres;
+it seems as if, among this frivolous and childish people, death itself
+could not be taken seriously. The monuments are either granite Buddhas,
+seated on lotus, or upright tombstones with inscriptions in gold. They
+are grouped together in little enclosures in the midst of the woods, or
+on natural terraces delightfully situated, and are usually reached by
+long stairways of stone carpeted with moss. Sometimes these pass under
+one of the sacred gateways, of which the shape, always the same, rude
+and simple, is a smaller reproduction of those in the temples.
+
+Above us, the tombs of our mountain are of an antiquity so hoary that
+they no longer alarm any one, even at night. It is a region of forsaken
+cemeteries. The dead hidden away there have long since become one with
+the earth around them; and these thousands of little gray stones, these
+multitudes of ancient little Buddhas, eaten away by lichens, seem to be
+now no more than a proof of a series of existences, long anterior to our
+own, and lost forever and altogether in the mysterious depths of ages.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. DAINTY DISHES FOR A DOLL
+
+The meals that Chrysantheme enjoys are something almost indescribable.
+
+She begins in the morning, when she wakes, with two little green wild
+plums pickled in vinegar and rolled in powdered sugar. A cup of tea
+completes this almost traditional breakfast of Japan, the very same that
+Madame Prune is eating downstairs, the same that is served in the inns
+to travellers.
+
+At intervals during the day the meals are continued by two little
+dinners of the drollest description. They are brought up on a tray
+of red lacquer, in microscopic cups with covers, from Madame Prune's
+apartment, where they are cooked: a hashed sparrow, a stuffed prawn,
+seaweed with a sauce, a salted sweetmeat, a sugared chili! Chrysantheme
+tastes a little of all, with dainty pecks and the aid of her little
+chopsticks, raising the tips of her fingers with affected grace. At
+every dish she makes a face, leaves three parts of it, and dries her
+finger-tips after it in apparent disgust.
+
+These menus vary according to the inspiration that may have seized
+Madame Prune. But one thing never varies, either in our household or in
+any other, neither in the north nor in the south of the Empire, and
+that is the dessert and the manner of eating it: after all these little
+dishes, which are a mere make-believe, a wooden bowl is brought in,
+bound with copper--an enormous bowl, fit for Gargantua, and filled to
+the very brim with rice, plainly cooked in water. Chrysantheme fills
+another large bowl from it (sometimes twice, sometimes three times),
+darkens its snowy whiteness with a black sauce flavored with fish, which
+is contained in a delicately shaped blue cruet, mixes it all together,
+carries the bowl to her lips, and crams down all the rice, shovelling it
+with her two chop-sticks into her very throat. Next the little cups and
+covers are picked up, as well as the tiniest crumb that may have fallen
+upon the white mats, the irreproachable purity of which nothing is
+allowed to tarnish. And so ends the dinner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. A FANTASTIC FUNERAL
+
+Below, in the town, a street-singer had established herself in a little
+thoroughfare; people had gathered around her to listen to her singing,
+and we three--that is, Yves, Chrysantheme, and I--who happened to be
+passing, stopped also.
+
+She was quite young, rather fat, and fairly pretty, and she strummed her
+guitar and sang, rolling her eyes fiercely, like a virtuoso executing
+feats of difficulty. She lowered her head, stuck her chin into her neck,
+in order to draw deeper notes from the furthermost recesses of her body;
+and succeeded in bringing forth a great, hoarse voice--a voice that
+might have belonged to an aged frog, a ventriloquist's voice, coming
+whence it would be impossible to say (this is the best stage manner, the
+last touch of art, in the interpretation of tragic pieces).
+
+Yves cast an indignant glance upon her.
+
+"Good gracious," said he, "she has the voice of a----" (words failed
+him, in his astonishment) "the voice of a--a monster!"
+
+And he looked at me, almost frightened by this little being, and
+desirous to know what I thought of it.
+
+Yves was out of temper on this occasion, because I had induced him to
+come out in a straw hat with a turned-up brim, which did not please him.
+
+"That hat suits you remarkably well, Yves, I assure you," I said.
+
+"Oh, indeed! You say so, you. For my part, I think it looks like a
+magpie's nest!"
+
+As a fortunate diversion from the singer and the hat, here comes a
+cortege, advancing toward us from the end of the street, something
+remarkably like a funeral. Bonzes march in front, dressed in robes
+of black gauze, having much the appearance of Catholic priests; the
+principal object of interest of the procession, the corpse, comes last,
+laid in a sort of little closed palanquin, which is daintily pretty.
+This is followed by a band of mousmes, hiding their laughing faces
+beneath a kind of veil, and carrying in vases of the sacred shape the
+artificial lotus with silver petals indispensable at a funeral; then
+come fine ladies, on foot, smirking and stifling a wish to laugh,
+beneath parasols on which are painted, in the gayest colors, butterflies
+and storks.
+
+Now they are quite close to us, we must stand back to give them room.
+Chrysantheme all at once assumes a suitable air of gravity, and Yves
+bares his head, taking off the magpie's nest.
+
+Yes, it is true, it is death that is passing!
+
+I had almost lost sight of the fact, so little does this procession
+recall it.
+
+The procession will climb high above Nagasaki, into the heart of the
+green mountain covered with tombs. There the poor fellow will be laid
+at rest, with his palanquin above him, and his vases and his flowers of
+silvered paper. Well, at least he will lie in a charming spot commanding
+a lovely view.
+
+Then they will return half laughing, half snivelling, and tomorrow no
+one will think of it again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. SOCIABILITY
+
+August 4th.
+
+Our ship, the 'Triomphante', which has been lying in the harbor almost
+at the foot of the hill on which stands my house, enters the dock to-day
+to undergo repairs rendered necessary by the long blockade of Formosa.
+
+I am now a long way from my home, and am compelled to cross by boat the
+whole breadth of the bay when I wish to see Chrysantheme; for the dock
+is situated on the shore, opposite to Diou-djen-dji. It is sunk in a
+little valley, narrow and deep, midst all kinds of foliage--bamboos,
+camellias, trees of all sorts; our masts and spars, seen from the deck,
+look as if they were tangled among the branches.
+
+The situation of the vessel--no longer afloat--gives the crew a greater
+facility for clandestine escapes from the ship at no matter what hour of
+the night, and our sailors have made friends with all the girls of the
+villages perched on the mountains above us.
+
+These quarters, and this excessive liberty, give me some uneasiness
+about my poor Yves; for this country of frivolous pleasure has a little
+turned his head.
+
+Moreover, I am more and more convinced that he is in love with
+Chrysantheme.
+
+It is really a pity that the sentiment has not occurred to me instead,
+since it is I who have gone the length of marrying her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV. UNWELCOME GUESTS
+
+Despite the increased distance, I continue my regular visits to
+Diou-djen-dji. When night has fallen, and the four couples who compose
+our society have joined us, as well as Yves and the "amazingly tall
+friend"--we descend again into the town, stumbling by lantern-light down
+the steep stairways and slopes of the old suburb.
+
+This nocturnal ramble is always the same, and is accompanied always by
+the same amusements: we pause before the same queer booths, we drink
+the same sugared drinks served to us in the same little gardens. But our
+troop is often more numerous: to begin with, we chaperon Oyouki, who
+is confided to our care by her parents; then we have two cousins of my
+wife's--pretty little creatures; and lastly friends--guests of sometimes
+only ten or twelve years old, little girls of the neighborhood to whom
+our mousmes wish to show some politeness.
+
+Thus a singular company of tiny beings forms our suite and follows us
+into the tea-gardens in the evenings! The most absurd faces, with sprigs
+of flowers stuck in the oddest fashion in their comical and childish
+heads. One might suppose it was a whole school of mousmes out for an
+evening's frolic under our care.
+
+Yves returns with us, when the time comes to remount our hill;
+Chrysantheme heaves great sighs like a tired child, and stops on every
+step, leaning on our arms.
+
+When we have reached our destination he says "Goodnight," just touches
+Chrysantheme's hand, and descending once more by the slope which leads
+to the quays and the shipping, he crosses the roadstead in a sampan, to
+get on board the 'Triomphante.'
+
+Meantime, we, with the aid of a sort of secret key, open the door of our
+garden, where Madame Prune's pots of flowers, ranged in the darkness,
+send forth delicious odors in the night air. We cross the garden by
+moonlight or starlight, and mount to our own rooms.
+
+If it is very late--a frequent occurrence--we find all our wooden panels
+drawn and tightly shut by the careful M. Sucre (as a precaution against
+thieves), and our apartment is as close and as private as if it were a
+real European house.
+
+In this dwelling, when every chink is thus closed, a strange odor
+mingles with the musk and the lotus--an odor essential to Japan, to
+the yellow race, belonging to the soil or emanating from the venerable
+woodwork; almost an odor of wild beasts. The mosquito-curtain of
+dark-blue gauze, ready hung for the night, falls from the ceiling with
+the air of a mysterious vellum. The gilded Buddha smiles eternally
+at the night-lamps burning before him; some great moth, a constant
+frequenter of the house, which during the day sleeps clinging to our
+ceiling, flutters at this hour under the very nose of the god, turning
+and flitting round the thin, quivering flames. And, motionless on the
+wall, its feelers spread out star-like, sleeps some great garden spider,
+which one must not kill because it is night. "Hou!" says Chrysantheme,
+indignantly, pointing it out to me with levelled finger. Quick! where is
+the fan kept for the purpose, wherewith to hunt it out of doors?
+
+Around us reigns a silence which is almost oppressive after all the
+joyous noises of the town, and all the laughter, now hushed, of our band
+of mousmes--a silence of the country, of some sleeping village.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. A QUIET SMOKE
+
+The sound of the innumerable wooden panels, which at nightfall are
+pulled and shut in every Japanese house, is one of the peculiarities of
+the country which will remain longest imprinted on my memory. From our
+neighbor's houses these noises reach us one after the other, floating to
+us over the green gardens, more or less deadened, more or less distant.
+
+Just below us, Madame Prune's panels move very badly, creak and make a
+hideous noise in their wornout grooves.
+
+Ours are somewhat noisy too, for the old house is full of echoes, and
+there are at least twenty screens to run over long slides in order to
+close in completely the kind of open hall in which we live. Usually, it
+is Chrysantheme who undertakes this piece of household work, and a great
+deal of trouble it gives her, for she often pinches her fingers in
+the singular awkwardness of her too tiny hands, which never have been
+accustomed to do any work.
+
+Then comes her toilette for the night. With a certain grace she lets
+fall the day-dress, and slips on a more simple one of blue cotton, which
+has the same pagoda sleeves, the same shape all but the train, and which
+she fastens round her waist with a sash of muslin of the same color.
+
+The high head-dress remains untouched, it is needless to say--that is,
+all but the pins, which are taken out and laid beside her in a lacquer
+box.
+
+Then there is the little silver pipe that must absolutely be smoked
+before going to sleep; this is one of the customs which most provoke me,
+but it has to be borne.
+
+Chrysantheme squats like a gipsy before a certain square box, made of
+red wood, which contains a little tobacco-jar, a little porcelain stove
+full of hot embers, and finally a little bamboo pot serving at the same
+time as ash-tray and cuspidor. (Madame Prune's smoking-box downstairs,
+and every smoking-box in Japan, is exactly the same, and contains
+precisely the same objects, arranged in precisely the same manner; and
+wherever it may be, whether in the house of the rich or the poor, it
+always lies about somewhere on the floor.)
+
+The word "pipe" is at once too trivial and too big to be applied to
+this delicate silver tube, which is perfectly straight and at the end
+of which, in a microscopic receptacle, is placed one pinch of golden
+tobacco, chopped finer than silken thread.
+
+Two puffs, or at most three; it lasts scarcely a few seconds, and the
+pipe is finished. Then tap, tap, tap, tap, the little tube is struck
+smartly against the edge of the smoking-box to knock out the ashes,
+which never will fall; and this tapping, heard everywhere, in every
+house, at every hour of the day or night, quick and droll as
+the scratchings of a monkey, is in Japan one of the noises most
+characteristic of human life.
+
+"Anata nominase!" ("You must smoke too!") says Chrysantheme.
+
+Having again filled the tiresome little pipe, she puts the silver
+tube to my lips with a bow. Courtesy forbids my refusal; but I find it
+detestably bitter.
+
+Before laying myself down under the blue mosquito-net, I open two of the
+panels in the room, one on the side of the silent and deserted footpath,
+the other on the garden side, overlooking the terraces, so that the
+night air may breathe upon us, even at the risk of bringing the company
+of some belated cockchafer, or more giddy moth.
+
+Our wooden house, with its thin old walls, vibrates at night like a
+great dry violin, and the slightest noises have a startling resonance.
+
+Beneath the veranda are hung two little AEolian harps, which, at the
+least ruffle of the breeze running through their blades of grass, emit
+a gentle tinkling sound, like the harmonious murmur of a brook; outside,
+to the very farthest limits of the distance, the cicalas continue their
+sonorous and never-ending concert; over our heads, on the black roof, is
+heard passing, like a witch's sabbath, the raging battle, to the death,
+of cats, rats, and owls.
+
+Presently, when in the early dawn a fresher breeze, mounting upward from
+the sea and the deep harbor, reaches us, Chrysantheme rises and slyly
+shuts the panels I have opened.
+
+Before that, however, she will have risen at least three times to smoke:
+having yawned like a cat, stretched herself, twisted in every direction
+her little amber arms, and her graceful little hands, she sits up
+resolutely, with all the waking sighs and broken syllables of a child,
+pretty and fascinating enough; then she emerges from the gauze net,
+fills her little pipe, and breathes a few puffs of the bitter and
+unpleasant mixture.
+
+Then comes tap, tap, tap, tap, against the box to shake out the ashes.
+In the silence of the night it makes quite a terrible noise, which wakes
+Madame Prune. This is fatal. Madame Prune is at once seized also with a
+longing to smoke which may not be denied; then, to the noise from above,
+comes an answering tap, tap, tap, tap, from below, exactly like it,
+exasperating and inevitable as an echo.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. THE PRAYERFUL MADAME PRUNE
+
+More cheerful are the sounds of morning: the cocks crowing, the wooden
+panels all around the neighborhood sliding back upon their rollers; or
+the strange cry of some fruit-seller, patrolling our lofty suburb in the
+early dawn. And the grasshoppers actually seem to chirp more loudly, to
+celebrate the return of the sunlight.
+
+Above all, rises to our ears from below the sound of Madame Prune's
+long prayers, ascending through the floor, monotonous as the song of a
+somnambulist, regular and soothing as the plash of a fountain. It lasts
+three quarters of an hour at least, it drones along, a rapid flow of
+words in a high nasal key; from time to time, when the inattentive
+spirits are not listening, it is accompanied by a clapping of dry palms,
+or by harsh sounds from a kind of wooden clapper made of two discs of
+mandragora root. It is an uninterrupted stream of prayer; its flow never
+ceases, and the quavering continues without stopping, like the bleating
+of a delirious old goat.
+
+   "After washing the hands and feet," say the sacred books, "the great
+   God Ama-Terace-Omi-Kami, who is the royal power of Japan, must be
+   invoked; the manes of all the defunct emperors descended from him
+   must also be invoked; next, the manes of all his personal ancestors,
+   to the farthest generation; the spirits of the air and the sea; the
+   spirits of all secret and impure places; the spirits of the tombs of
+   the district whence you spring, etc., etc."
+
+"I worship and implore you," sings Madame Prune, "O Ama-Terace-Omi-Kami,
+royal power! Cease not to protect your faithful people, who are ready to
+sacrifice themselves for their country. Grant that I may become as holy
+as yourself, and drive from my mind all dark thoughts. I am a coward and
+a sinner: purge me from my cowardice and sinfulness, even as the north
+wind drives the dust into the sea. Wash me clean from all my iniquities,
+as one washes away uncleanness in the river of Kamo. Make me the richest
+woman in the world. I believe in your glory, which shall be spread over
+the whole earth, and illuminate it for ever for my happiness. Grant me
+the continued good health of my family, and above all, my own, who, O
+Ama-Terace-Omi-Kami! do worship and adore you, and only you, etc., etc."
+
+Here follow all the emperors, all the spirits, and the interminable list
+of ancestors.
+
+In her trembling old woman's falsetto, Madame Prune sings all this,
+without omitting anything, at a pace which almost takes away her breath.
+
+And very strange it is to hear: at length it seems hardly a human voice;
+it sounds like a series of magic formulas, unwinding themselves from an
+inexhaustible roller, and escaping to take flight through the air. By
+its very weirdness, and by the persistency of its incantation, it ends
+by producing in my half-awakened brain an almost religious impression.
+
+Every day I wake to the sound of this Shintoist litany chanted
+beneath me, vibrating through the exquisite clearness of the summer
+mornings--while our night-lamps burn low before the smiling Buddha,
+while the eternal sun, hardly risen, already sends through the cracks of
+our wooden panels its bright rays, which dart like golden arrows through
+our darkened dwelling and our blue gauze tent.
+
+This is the moment at which I must rise, descend hurriedly to the sea by
+grassy footpaths all wet with dew, and so regain my ship.
+
+Alas! in the days gone by, it was the cry of the muezzin which used
+to awaken me in the dark winter mornings in faraway, night-shrouded
+Stamboul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. A DOLL'S CORRESPONDENCE
+
+Chrysantheme has brought but few things with her, knowing that our
+domestic life would probably be brief.
+
+She has placed her gowns and her fine sashes in little closed recesses,
+hidden in one of the walls of our apartment (the north wall, the only
+one of the four which can not be taken to pieces). The doors of
+these niches are white paper panels; the standing shelves and inside
+partitions, consisting of light woodwork, are put together almost too
+finically and too ingeniously, giving rise to suspicions of secret
+drawers and conjuring tricks. We put there only things without any
+value, having a vague feeling that the cupboards themselves might spirit
+them away.
+
+The box in which Chrysantheme stores away her gewgaws and letters, is
+one of the things that amuse me most; it is of English make, tin, and
+bears on its cover the colored representation of some manufactory in the
+neighborhood of London. Of course, it is as an exotic work of art, as
+a precious knickknack, that Chrysantheme prefers it to any of her other
+boxes in lacquer or inlaid work. It contains all that a mousme requires
+for her correspondence: Indian ink, a paintbrush, very thin, gray-tinted
+paper, cut up in long narrow strips, and odd-shaped envelopes, into
+which these strips are slipped (having been folded up in about thirty
+folds); the envelopes are ornamented with pictures of landscapes,
+fishes, crabs, or birds.
+
+On some old letters addressed to her, I can make out the two characters
+that represent her name: Kikousan ("Chrysantheme, Madame"). And when I
+question her, she replies in Japanese, with an air of importance:
+
+"My dear, they are letters from my woman friends."
+
+Oh, those friends of Chrysantheme, what funny little faces they have!
+That same box contains their portraits, their photographs stuck on
+visiting cards, which are printed on the back with the name of Uyeno,
+the fashionable photographer in Nagasaki--the little creatures fit
+only to figure daintily on painted fans, who have striven to assume
+a dignified attitude when once their necks have been placed in the
+head-rest, and they have been told: "Now, don't move."
+
+It would really amuse me to read the letters of my mousme's friends--and
+above all her replies!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. SUDDEN SHOWERS
+
+August 10th.
+
+It rained this evening heavily, and the night was close and dark. About
+ten o'clock, on our return from one of the fashionable tea-houses we
+frequent, we arrived--Yves, Chrysantheme and I--at the familiar angle
+of the principal street, the turn where we must take leave of the lights
+and noises of the town, to climb up the dark steps and steep paths that
+lead to our dwelling at Diou-djen-dji.
+
+But before beginning our ascent, we must first buy lanterns from an old
+tradeswoman called Madame Tres-Propre, whose regular customers we are.
+It is amazing what a quantity of these paper lanterns we consume. They
+are invariably decorated in the same way, with painted nightmoths or
+bats; fastened to the ceiling at the farther end of the shop, they hang
+in enormous clusters, and the old woman, seeing us arrive, gets upon
+a table to take them down. Gray or red are our usual choice; Madame
+Tres-Propre knows our preferences and leaves the green or blue lanterns
+aside. But it is always hard work to unhook one, on account of the
+little short sticks by which they are held, and the strings with which
+they are tied getting entangled together. In an exaggerated pantomime,
+Madame Tres-Propre expresses her despair at wasting so much of our
+valuable time: oh! if it only depended on her personal efforts! but ah!
+the natural perversity of inanimate things which have no consideration
+for human dignity! With monkeyish antics, she even deems it her duty to
+threaten the lanterns and shake her fist at these inextricably tangled
+strings which have the presumption to delay us.
+
+It is all very well, but we know this manoeuvre by heart; and if the
+old lady loses patience, so do we. Chrysantheme, who is half asleep, is
+seized with a fit of kitten-like yawning which she does not even trouble
+to hide behind her hand, and which appears to be endless. She pulls
+a very long face at the thought of the steep hill we must struggle up
+tonight through the pelting rain.
+
+I have the same feeling, and am thoroughly annoyed. To what purpose do
+I clamber up every evening to that suburb, when it offers me no
+attractions whatever?
+
+The rain increases; what are we to do? Outside, djins pass rapidly,
+calling out: "Take care!" splashing the foot-passengers and casting
+through the shower streams of light from their many-colored lanterns.
+Mousmes and elderly ladies pass, tucked up, muddy, laughing nevertheless
+under their paper umbrellas, exchanging greetings, clacking their wooden
+pattens on the stone pavement. The whole street is filled with the noise
+of the pattering feet and pattering rain.
+
+As good luck will have it, at the same moment passes Number 415, our
+poor relative, who, seeing our distress, stops and promises to help
+us out of our difficulty; as soon as he has deposited on the quay an
+Englishman he is conveying, he will come to our aid and bring all that
+is necessary to relieve us from our lamentable situation.
+
+At last our lantern is unhooked, lighted, and paid for. There is
+another shop opposite, where we stop every evening; it is that of Madame
+L'Heure, the woman who sells waffles; we always buy a provision from
+her, to refresh us on the way. A very lively young woman is this
+pastry-cook, and most eager to make herself agreeable; she looks quite
+like a screen picture behind her piled-up cakes, ornamented with little
+posies. We will take shelter under her roof while we wait; and, to
+avoid the drops that fall heavily from the waterspouts, wedge
+ourselves tightly against her display of white and pink sweetmeats, so
+artistically spread out on fresh and delicate branches of cypress.
+
+Poor Number 415, what a providence he is to us! Already he reappears,
+most excellent cousin! ever smiling, ever running, while the water
+streams down his handsome bare legs; he brings us two umbrellas,
+borrowed from a China merchant, who is also a distant relative of ours.
+Like me, Yves has till now never consented to use such a thing, but
+he now accepts one because it is droll: of paper, of course, with
+innumerable folds waxed and gummed, and the inevitable flight of storks
+forming a wreath around it.
+
+Chrysantheme, yawning more and more in her kitten-like fashion, becomes
+coaxing in order to be helped along, and tries to take my arm.
+
+"I beg you, mousme, this evening to take the arm of Yves-San; I am sure
+that will suit us all three."
+
+And there they go, she, tiny figure, hanging on to the big fellow, and
+so they climb up. I lead the way, carrying the lantern that lights
+our steps, whose flame I protect as well as I can under my fantastic
+umbrella. On each side of the road is heard the roaring torrent of
+stormy waters rolling down from the mountain-side. To-night the way
+seems long, difficult, and slippery; a succession of interminable
+flights of steps, gardens, and houses piled up one above another; waste
+lands, and trees which in the darkness shake their dripping foliage on
+our heads.
+
+One would say that Nagasaki is ascending at the same time as ourselves;
+but yonder, and very far away, is a vapory mist which seems luminous
+against the blackness of the sky, and from the town rises a confused
+murmur of voices and laughter, and a rumbling of gongs.
+
+The summer rain has not yet refreshed the atmosphere. On account of the
+stormy heat, the little suburban houses have been left open like sheds,
+and we can see all that is going on. Lamps burn perpetually before the
+altars dedicated to Buddha and to the souls of the ancestors; but all
+good Nipponese have already lain down to rest. Under the traditional
+tents of bluish-green gauze, we can see whole families stretched out in
+rows; they are either sleeping, or hunting the mosquitoes, or fanning
+themselves. Nipponese men and women, Nipponese babies too, lying side by
+side with their parents; each one, young or old, in his little dark-blue
+cotton nightdress, and with his little wooden block on which to rest the
+nape of his neck.
+
+A few houses are open, where amusements are still going on; here and
+there, from the sombre gardens, the sound of a guitar reaches our ears,
+playing some dance which gives in its weird rhythm a strange impression
+of sadness.
+
+Here is the well, surrounded by bamboos, where we are wont to make a
+nocturnal halt for Chrysantheme to take breath. Yves begs me to throw
+forward the red gleam of my lantern, in order to recognize the place,
+for it marks our halfway resting-place.
+
+And at last, at last, here is our house! The door is closed, all is
+silent and dark. Our panels have been carefully shut by M. Sucre and
+Madame Prune; the rain streams down the wood of our old black walls.
+
+In such weather it is impossible to allow Yves to return down hill, and
+wander along the shore in quest of a sampan. No, he shall not return
+on board to-night; we will put him up in our house. His little room has
+indeed been already provided for in the conditions of our lease, and
+notwithstanding his discreet refusal, we immediately set to work to make
+it. Let us go in, take off our boots, shake ourselves like so many cats
+that have been out in a shower, and step up to our apartment.
+
+In front of Buddha, the little lamps are burning; in the middle of the
+room, the night-blue gauze is stretched.
+
+On entering, the first impression is favorable; our dwelling is pretty
+this evening; the late hour and deep silence give it an air of mystery.
+And then, in such weather, it is always pleasant to get home.
+
+Come, let us at once prepare Yves's room. Chrysantheme, quite elated at
+the prospect of having her big friend near her, sets to work with a good
+will; moreover, the task is easy; we have only to slip three or four
+paper panels in their grooves, to make at once a separate room or
+compartment in the great box we live in. I had thought that these panels
+were entirely white; but no! on each is a group of two storks painted
+in gray tints in those inevitable attitudes consecrated by Japanese
+art: one bearing aloft its proud head and haughtily raising its leg, the
+other scratching itself. Oh, these storks! how tired one gets of them,
+at the end of a month spent in Japan!
+
+Yves is now in bed and sleeping under our roof.
+
+Sleep has come to him sooner than to me to-night; for somehow I fancy I
+had seen long glances exchanged between him and Chrysantheme.
+
+I have left this little creature in his hands like a toy, and I begin to
+fear lest I should have caused some perturbation in his mind. I do not
+trouble my head about this little Japanese girl. But Yves--it would be
+decidedly wrong on his part, and would greatly diminish my faith in him.
+
+We hear the rain falling on our old roof; the cicalas are mute; odors
+of wet earth reach us from the gardens and the mountain. I feel terribly
+dreary in this room to-night; the noise of the little pipe irritates
+me more than usual, and as Chrysantheme crouches in front of her
+smoking-box, I suddenly discover in her an air of low breeding, in the
+very worst sense of the word.
+
+I should hate her, my mousme, if she were to entice Yves into committing
+a fault--a fault which I should perhaps never be able to forgive.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX. A LITTLE DOMESTIC DIFFICULTY
+
+August 12th.
+
+The Y----and Sikou-San couple were divorced yesterday. The Charles
+N---and Campanule household is getting on very badly. They have had some
+trouble with those prying, grinding, insupportable little men, dressed
+up in gray suits, who are called police agents, and who, by threatening
+their landlord, have had them turned out of their house (under the
+obsequious amiability of this people lurks a secret hatred toward
+Europeans)--they are therefore obliged to accept their mother-in-law's
+hospitality, a very disagreeable situation. And then Charles N---fancies
+his mousme is faithless. It is hardly possible, however, for us to
+deceive ourselves: these would-be maidens, to whom M. Kangourou has
+introduced us, have already had in their lives one adventure, at least,
+and perhaps more; it is therefore only natural that we should have our
+suspicions.
+
+The Z-----and Touki-San couple jog on, quarrelling all the time.
+
+My household maintains a more dignified air, though it is none the
+less dreary. I had indeed thought of a divorce, but have really no good
+reason for offering Chrysantheme such a gratuitous affront; moreover,
+there is another more imperative reason why I should remain quiet: I,
+too, have had difficulties with the civilian authorities.
+
+The day before yesterday, M. Sucre, quite upset, Madame Prune, almost
+swooning, and Mademoiselle Oyouki, bathed in tears, stormed my rooms.
+The Nipponese police agents had called and threatened them with the
+law for letting rooms outside of the European concession to a Frenchman
+morganatically married to a Japanese; and the terror of being prosecuted
+brought them to me, with a thousand apologies, but with the humble
+request that I should leave.
+
+The next day I therefore went off, accompanied by "the wonderfully
+tall friend"--who expresses himself in Japanese better than I--to the
+registry office, with the full intention of making a terrible row.
+
+In the language of this exquisitely polite people, terms of abuse are
+totally wanting; when very angry, one is obliged to be satisfied with
+using the 'thou', a mark of inferiority, and the familiar conjugation,
+habitually used toward those of low birth. Sitting upon the table
+used for weddings, among the flurried little policemen, I opened the
+conversation in the following terms:
+
+"In order that thou shouldst leave me in peace in the suburb I am
+inhabiting, what bribe must I offer thee, oh, little beings more
+contemptible than any mere street porter?"
+
+Great and general dismay, silent consternation, and low bows greet my
+words.
+
+They at last reply that my honorable person shall not be molested,
+indeed, they ask for nothing better. Only, in order to subscribe to the
+laws of the country, I ought to have come here and given my name and
+that of the young person that--with whom--
+
+"Oh! that is going too far! I came here for that purpose, contemptible
+creatures, not three weeks ago!"
+
+Then, taking up myself the civil register, and turning over the pages
+rapidly, I found my signature and beside it the little hieroglyphics
+drawn by Chrysantheme:
+
+"There, idiots, look at that!"
+
+Arrival of a very high functionary--a ridiculous little old fellow in a
+black coat, who from his office had been listening to the row:
+
+"What is the matter? What is it? What is this annoyance put upon the
+French officers?"
+
+I state my case politely to this personage, who can not make apologies
+and promises enough. The little agents prostrate themselves on all
+fours, sink into the earth; and we leave them, cold and dignified,
+without returning their bows.
+
+M. Sucre and Madame Prune may now make their minds easy; they will not
+be disturbed again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI. BUTTERFLIES AND BEETLES
+
+August 23d.
+
+The prolonged sojourn of the Triomphante in the dock, and the distance
+of our dwelling from the town, have been my excuse these last two or
+three days for not going up to Diou-djen-dji to see Chrysantheme.
+
+It is dreary work in these docks. At early dawn a legion of little
+Japanese workmen invade us, bringing their dinners in baskets and gourds
+like the workingmen in our arsenals, but with a poor, shabby appearance,
+and a ferreting, hurried manner which reminds one of rats. Silently
+they slip under the keel, at the bottom of the hold, in all the holes,
+sawing, nailing, repairing.
+
+The heat is intense in this spot, overshadowed by the rocks and tangled
+masses of foliage.
+
+At two o'clock, in the broad sunlight, we have a new and far prettier
+invasion: that of the beetles and butterflies.
+
+There are butterflies as wonderful as those on the fans. Some, all
+black, giddily dash up against us, so light and airy that they seem
+merely a pair of quivering wings fastened together without any body.
+
+Yves, astonished, gazes at them, saying, in his boyish manner: "Oh, I
+saw such a big one just now, such a big one, it quite frightened me; I
+thought it was a bat attacking me."
+
+A steersman who has captured a very curious specimen carries it off
+carefully to press between the leaves of his signal-book, like a flower.
+Another sailor, passing by, taking his small roast to the oven in a
+mess-bowl, looks at him quizzically and says:
+
+"You had much better give it to me. I'd cook it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII. STRANGE YEARNINGS
+
+August 24th.
+
+Nearly five days have passed since I abandoned my little house and
+Chrysantheme.
+
+Since yesterday we have had a tremendous storm of rain and wind (a
+typhoon that has passed or is passing over us). We beat to quarters in
+the middle of the night to lower the topmasts, strike the lower yards,
+and take every precaution against bad weather. The butterflies no longer
+hover around us; everything tosses and writhes overhead: on the steep
+slopes of the mountain the trees shiver, the long grasses bend low as if
+in pain; terrible gusts rack them with a hissing sound; branches, bamboo
+leaves, and earth fall like rain upon us.
+
+In this land of pretty little trifles, this violent tempest is out of
+harmony; it seems as if its efforts were exaggerated and its music too
+loud.
+
+Toward evening the dark clouds roll by so rapidly that the showers
+are of short duration and soon pass over. Then I attempt a walk on
+the mountain above us, in the wet verdure: little pathways lead up it,
+between thickets of camellias and bamboo.
+
+Waiting till a shower is over, I take refuge in the courtyard of an
+old temple halfway up the hill, buried in a wood of century plants
+with gigantic branches; it is reached by granite steps, through strange
+gateways, as deeply furrowed as the old Celtic dolmens. The trees have
+also invaded this yard; the daylight is overcast with a greenish tint,
+and the drenching torrent of rain is full of torn-up leaves and moss.
+Old granite monsters, of unknown shapes, are seated in the corners,
+and grimace with smiling ferocity: their faces are full of indefinable
+mystery that makes me shudder amid the moaning music of the wind, in the
+gloomy shadows of the clouds and branches.
+
+They could not have resembled the Japanese of our day, the men who had
+thus conceived these ancient temples, who built them everywhere, and
+filled the country with them, even in its most solitary nooks.
+
+An hour later, in the twilight of that stormy day, on the same mountain,
+I encountered a clump of trees somewhat similar to oaks in appearance;
+they, too, have been twisted by the tempest, and the tufts of undulating
+grass at their feet are laid low, tossed about in every direction. There
+was suddenly brought back to my mind my first impression of a strong
+wind in the woods of Limoise, in the province of Saintonge, twenty-eight
+years ago, in a month of March of my childhood.
+
+That, the first wind-storm my eyes ever beheld sweeping over the
+landscape, blew in just the opposite quarter of the world (and many
+years have rapidly passed over that memory), the spot where the best
+part of my life has been spent.
+
+I refer too often, I fancy, to my childhood; I am foolishly fond of it.
+But it seems to me that then only did I truly experience sensations or
+impressions; the smallest trifles I saw or heard then were full of
+deep and hidden meaning, recalling past images out of oblivion,
+and reawakening memories of prior existences; or else they were
+presentiments of existences to come, future incarnations in the land of
+dreams, expectations of wondrous marvels that life and the world held
+in store for me-for a later period, no doubt, when I should be grown
+up. Well, I have grown up, and have found nothing that answered to my
+indefinable expectations; on the contrary, all has narrowed and darkened
+around me, my vague recollections of the past have become blurred,
+the horizons before me have slowly closed in and become full of gray
+darkness. Soon will my time come to return to eternal rest, and I shall
+leave this world without ever having understood the mysterious cause
+of these mirages of my childhood; I shall bear away with me a lingering
+regret for I know not what lost home that I have failed to find, of the
+unknown beings ardently longed for, whom, alas, I never have embraced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII. A GENEROUS HUSBAND
+
+Displaying many affectations, M. Sucre dips the tip of his delicate
+paint-brush in India-ink and traces a pair of charming storks on a
+pretty sheet of rice-paper, offering them to me in the most courteous
+manner, as a souvenir of himself. I have put them in my cabin on board,
+and when I look at them, I fancy I can see M. Sucre tracing them with an
+airy touch and with elegant facility.
+
+The saucer in which he mixes his ink is in itself a little gem. It is
+chiselled out of a piece of jade, and represents a tiny lake with a
+carved border imitating rockwork. On this border is a little mamma toad,
+also in jade, advancing as if to bathe in the little lake in which M.
+Sucre carefully keeps a few drops of very dark liquid. The mamma toad
+has four little baby toads, in jade, one perched on her head, the other
+three playing about under her.
+
+M. Sucre has painted many a stork in the course of his lifetime, and he
+really excels in reproducing groups and duets, if one may so express it,
+of this bird. Few Japanese possess the art of interpreting this subject
+in a manner at once so rapid and so tasteful; first he draws the two
+beaks, then the four claws, then the backs, the feathers, dash, dash,
+dash--with a dozen strokes of his clever brush, held in his daintily
+posed hand, it is done, and always perfectly well done!
+
+M. Kangourou relates, without seeing anything wrong in it whatever, that
+formerly this talent was of great service to M. Sucre. It appears that
+Madame Prune--how shall I say such a thing, and, who could guess it
+now, on beholding so devout and sedate an old lady, with eyebrows so
+scrupulously shaven?--however, it appears that Madame Prune used to
+receive a great many visits from gentlemen--gentlemen who always came
+alone--which led to some gossip. Therefore, when Madame Prune was
+engaged with one visitor, if a new arrival made his appearance, the
+ingenious husband, to induce him to wait patiently, and to wile away the
+time in the anteroom, immediately offered to paint him some storks in a
+variety of attitudes.
+
+And this is why, in Nagasaki, all the Japanese gentlemen of a certain
+age have in their collections two or three of these little pictures, for
+which they are indebted to the delicate and original talent of M. Sucre!
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 3.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV. THE FEAST OF THE TEMPLE
+
+
+Sunday, August 25th.
+
+About six o'clock, while I was on duty, the 'Triomphante' abandoned
+her prison walls between the mountains and came out of dock. After much
+manoeuvring we took up our old moorings in the harbor, at the foot of
+the Diou-djen-dji hills. 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.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 4.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII. A MIDNIGHT ALARM
+
+It is the middle of the night, perhaps about two o'clock in the
+morning. Our lamps are burning somewhat dimly before our placid idols.
+Chrysantheme wakes me suddenly, and I turn to look at her: she has
+raised herself on one arm, and her face expresses the most intense
+terror; she makes a sign, without daring to speak, that some one or
+something is near, creeping up to us. What ill-timed visit is this? A
+feeling of fear gains possession of me also. I have a rapid impression
+of some great unknown danger, in this isolated spot, in this strange
+country of which I do not even yet comprehend the inhabitants and the
+mysteries. It must be something very frightful to hold her there, rooted
+to the spot, half dead with fright, she who does comprehend all these
+things.
+
+It seems to be outside; it is coming from the garden; with trembling
+hand she indicates to me that it will come through the veranda, over
+Madame Prune's roof. Certainly, I hear faint noises, and they do
+approach us.
+
+I suggest to her
+
+"Neko-San?" ("It is Messieurs the cats?")
+
+"No!" she replies, still terrified, and in an alarmed tone.
+
+"Bakemono-Sama?" ("Is it my lords the ghosts?") I have already the
+Japanese habit of expressing myself with excessive politeness.
+
+"No! 'Dorobo'!" ("Thieves!")
+
+Thieves! Ah! this is better; I much prefer this to a visit such as I
+have just been dreading in the sudden awakening from sleep: from ghosts
+or spirits of the dead; thieves, that is to say, worthy fellows very
+much alive, and having, undoubtedly, inasmuch as they are Japanese
+thieves, faces of the most meritorious oddity. I am not in the least
+frightened, now that I know precisely what to expect, and we will
+immediately set to work to ascertain the truth, for something is
+certainly moving on Madame Prune's roof; some one is walking upon it.
+
+I open one of our wooden panels and look out.
+
+I can see only a vast expanse, calm, peaceful, and exquisite under the
+full brilliance of the moonlight; sleeping Japan, lulled by the sonorous
+song of the grasshoppers, is charming indeed to-night, and the free,
+pure air is delicious.
+
+Chrysantheme, half hidden behind my shoulder, listens tremblingly,
+peering forward to examine the gardens and the roofs with dilated eyes
+like a frightened cat. No, nothing! not a thing moves. Here and there
+are a few strangely substantial shadows, which at first glance were not
+easy to explain, but which turn out to be real shadows, thrown by bits
+of wall, by boughs of trees, and which preserve an extremely reassuring
+stillness. Everything seems absolutely tranquil, and profound silence
+reigns in the dreamy vagueness which moonlight sheds over all.
+
+Nothing; nothing to be seen anywhere. It was Messieurs the cats after
+all, or perhaps my ladies the owls; sounds increase in volume in the
+most amazing manner at night, in this house of ours.
+
+Let us close the panel again carefully, as a measure of prudence, and
+then light a lantern and go downstairs to see whether there may be any
+one hidden in corners, and whether the doors are tightly shut; in short,
+to reassure Chrysantheme we will go the round of the house.
+
+Behold us, then, on tiptoe, searching together every hole and corner
+of the house, which, to judge by its foundations, must be very ancient,
+notwithstanding the fragile appearance of its panels of white paper.
+It contains the blackest of cavities, little vaulted cellars with
+worm-eaten beams; cupboards for rice which smell of mould and decay;
+mysterious hollows where lies accumulated the dust of centuries. In the
+middle of the night, and during a hunt for thieves, this part of the
+house, as yet unknown to me, has an ugly look.
+
+Noiselessly we step across the apartment of our landlord and landlady.
+Chrysantheme drags me by the hand, and I allow myself to be led. There
+they are, sleeping in a row under their blue gauze tent, lighted by the
+night-lamps burning before the altars of their ancestors. Ha! I observe
+that they are arranged in an order which might give rise to gossip.
+First comes Mademoiselle Oyouki, very taking in her attitude of rest!
+Then Madame Prune, who sleeps with her mouth wide open, showing her rows
+of blackened teeth; from her throat arises an intermittent sound like
+the grunting of a sow. Oh! poor Madame Prune! how hideous she is!! Next,
+M. Sucre, a mere mummy for the time being. And finally, at his side,
+last of the row, is their servant, Mademoiselle Dede!
+
+The gauze hanging over them throws reflections as of the sea upon them;
+one might suppose them victims drowned in an aquarium. And withal the
+sacred lamps, the altar crowded with strange Shintoist symbols, give a
+mock religious air to this family tableau.
+
+'Honi soit qui mal y pense', but why is not that maidservant rather laid
+by the side of her mistresses? Now, when we on the floor above offer
+our hospitality to Yves, we are careful to place ourselves under our
+mosquito-net in a more correct style!
+
+One corner, which as a last resort we inspect, inspires me with a
+certain amount of apprehension. It is a low, mysterious loft, against
+the door of which is stuck, as a thing no longer wanted, a very old,
+pious image Kwanon with the thousand arms, and Kwanon with the horses'
+head, seated among clouds and flames, both horrible to behold with their
+spectral grins.
+
+We open the door, and Chrysantheme starts back uttering a fearful cry. I
+should have thought the robbers were there, had I not seen a little gray
+creature, rapid and noiseless, rush by her and disappear; a young rat
+that had been eating rice on the top of a shelf, and, in its alarm, had
+dashed in her face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII. UNUSUAL HOSPITALITY
+
+September 16th.
+
+Yves has let fall his silver whistle in the ocean, the whistle so
+absolutely indispensable for the manoeuvres; and we search the town all
+day long, followed by Chrysantheme and Mesdemoiselles La Neige and La
+Lune, her sisters, in the endeavor to find another.
+
+It is, however, very difficult to find such a thing in Nagasaki; above
+all, very difficult to explain in Japanese what is a sailor's whistle
+of the traditional shape, curved, and with a little ball at the end to
+modulate the trills and the various sounds of official orders. For
+three hours we are sent from shop to shop; at each one they pretend to
+understand perfectly what is wanted and trace on tissue-paper, with a
+paint-brush, the addresses of the shops where we shall without fail meet
+with what we require. Away we go, full of hope, only to encounter some
+fresh mystification, till our breathless djins get quite bewildered.
+
+They understand admirably that we want a thing that will make a noise,
+music, in short; thereupon they offer us instruments of every, and
+of the most unexpected, shape--squeakers for Punch-and-Judy voices,
+dog-whistles, trumpets. Each time it is something more and more absurd,
+so that at last we are overcome with uncontrollable fits of laughter.
+Last of all, an aged Japanese optician, who assumes a most knowing
+air, a look of sublime wisdom, goes off to forage in his back shop, and
+brings to light a steam fog-horn, a relict from some wrecked steamer.
+
+After dinner, the chief event of the evening is a deluge of rain, which
+takes us by surprise as we leave the teahouses, on our return from our
+fashionable stroll. It so happened that we were a large party, having
+with us several mousme guests, and from the moment that the rain began
+to fall from the skies, as if out of a watering-pot turned upside down,
+the band became disorganized. The mousmes run off, with bird-like cries,
+and take refuge under doorways, in the shops, under the hoods of the
+djins.
+
+Then, before long-when the shops shut up in haste, when the emptied
+streets are flooded, and almost black, and the paper lanterns, piteous
+objects, wet through and extinguished--I find myself, I know not how it
+happens, flattened against a wall, under the projecting eaves, alone in
+the company of Mademoiselle Fraise, my cousin, who is crying bitterly
+because her fine robe is wet through. And in the noise of the rain,
+which is still falling, and splashing everything with the spouts and
+gutters, which in the darkness plaintively murmur like running streams,
+the town appears to me suddenly an abode of the gloomiest sadness.
+
+The shower is soon over, and the mousmes come out of their holes like so
+many mice; they look for one another, call one another, and their little
+voices take the singular, melancholy, dragging inflections they assume
+whenever they have to call from afar.
+
+"Hi! Mademoiselle Lu-u-u-u-une!"
+
+"Hi! Madame Jonqui-i-i-i-ille!"
+
+They shout from one to another their outlandish names, prolonging them
+indefinitely in the now silent night, in the reverberations of the damp
+air after the great summer rain.
+
+At length they are all collected and united again, these tiny personages
+with narrow eyes and no brains, and we return to Diou-djen-dji all wet
+through.
+
+For the third time, we have Yves sleeping beside us under our blue tent.
+
+There is a great noise shortly after midnight in the apartment
+beneath us: our landlord's family have returned from a pilgrimage to a
+far-distant temple of the Goddess of Grace. (Although Madame Prune is a
+Shintoist, she reveres this deity, who, scandal says, watched over her
+youth.) A moment after, Mademoiselle Oyouki bursts into our room like a
+rocket, bringing, on a charming little tray, sweetmeats which have been
+blessed and bought at the gates of the temple yonder, on purpose for us,
+and which we must positively eat at once, before the virtue is gone
+out of them. Hardly rousing ourselves, we absorb these little edibles
+flavored with sugar and pepper, and return a great many sleepy thanks.
+
+Yves sleeps quietly on this occasion, without dealing any blows to the
+floor or the panels with either fists or feet. He has hung his watch on
+one of the hands of our gilded idol in order to be more sure of seeing
+the hour at any time of the night, by the light of the sacred lamps. He
+gets up betimes in the morning, asking: "Well, did I behave properly?"
+and dresses in haste, preoccupied about duty and the roll-call.
+
+Outside, no doubt, it is daylight already: through the tiny holes
+which time has pierced in our wooden panels, threads of morning light
+penetrate our chamber, and in the atmosphere of our room where night
+still lingers, they trace vague white rays. Soon, when the sun shall
+have risen, these rays will lengthen and become beautifully golden. The
+cocks and the cicalas make themselves heard, and now Madame Prune will
+begin her mystic drone.
+
+Nevertheless, out of politeness for Yves-San, Chrysantheme lights a
+lantern and escorts him to the foot of the dark staircase. I even
+fancy that, on parting, I hear a kiss exchanged. In Japan this is of no
+consequence, I know; it is very usual, and quite admissible; no matter
+where one goes, in houses one enters for the first time, one is quite at
+liberty to kiss any mousme who may be present, without any notice being
+taken of it. But with regard to Chrysantheme, Yves is in a delicate
+position, and he ought to understand it better. I begin to feel uneasy
+about the hours they have so often spent together alone; and I make up
+my mind that this very day I will not play the spy upon them, but speak
+frankly to Yves, and make a clean breast of it.
+
+Suddenly from below, clac! clac! two dry hands are clapped together; it
+is Madame Prune's warning to the Great Spirit. And immediately after
+her prayer breaks forth, soars upward in a shrill nasal falsetto, like
+a morning alarum when the hour for waking has come, the mechanical noise
+of a spring let go and running down.
+
+"... The richest woman in the world! Cleansed from all my sins, O
+Ama-Terace-Omi-Kami! in the river of Kamo."
+
+And this extraordinary bleating, hardly human, scatters and changes my
+ideas, which were very nearly clear at the moment I awoke.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX. RUMORS OF DEPARTURE
+
+September 15th.
+
+Rumor of departure is in the air. Since yesterday there has been vague
+talk of our being sent to China, to the Gulf of Pekin; one of those
+rumors which spread, no one knows how, from one end of the ship to the
+other, two or three days before the official orders arrive, and which
+usually turn out tolerably correct. What will the last act of my little
+Japanese comedy be? the denouement, the separation? Will there be
+any touch of sadness on the part of my mousme, or on my own, just a
+tightening of the heartstrings at the moment of our final farewell? At
+this moment I can imagine nothing of the sort. And then the adieus of
+Yves and Chrysantheme, what will they be? This question preoccupies me
+more than all.
+
+Nothing very definite has been learned as yet, but it is certain that,
+one way or another, our stay in Japan is drawing to a close. It is
+this, perhaps, which disposes me this evening to look more kindly on my
+surroundings. It is about six o'clock, after a day spent on duty, when
+I reach Diou-djen-dji. The evening sun, low in the sky, on the point
+of setting, pours into my room, and floods it with rays of red gold,
+lighting up the Buddhas and the great sheaves of quaintly arranged
+flowers in the antique vases. Here are assembled five or six little
+dolls, my neighbors, amusing themselves by dancing to the sound of
+Chrysantheme's guitar. And this evening I experienced a real charm in
+feeling that this dwelling and the woman who leads the dance are mine.
+On the whole, I have perhaps been unjust to this country; it seems to me
+that my eyes are at last opened to see it in its true light, that all my
+senses are undergoing a strange and abrupt transition. I suddenly have a
+better perception and appreciation of all the infinity of dainty trifles
+among which I live; of the fragile and studied grace of their forms, the
+oddity of their drawings, the refined choice of their colors.
+
+I stretch myself upon the white mats; Chrysantheme, always eagerly
+attentive, brings me my pillow of serpent's-skin; and the smiling
+mousmes, with the interrupted rhythm of a while ago still running in
+their heads, move around me with measured steps.
+
+Their immaculate socks with the separate great toes make no noise;
+nothing is heard, as they glide by, but a 'froufrou' of silken stuffs.
+I find them all pleasant to look upon; their dollish air pleases me now,
+and I fancy I have discovered what it is that gives it to them: it is
+not only their round, inexpressive faces with eyebrows far removed from
+the eyelids, but the excessive amplitude of their dress. With those
+huge sleeves, it might be supposed they have neither back nor shoulders;
+their delicate figures are lost in these wide robes, which float around
+what might be little marionettes without bodies at all, and which would
+slip to the ground of themselves were they not kept together midway,
+about where a waist should be, by the wide silken sashes--a very
+different comprehension of the art of dressing to ours, which endeavors
+as much as possible to bring into relief the curves, real or false, of
+the figure.
+
+And then, how much I admire the flowers in our vases, arranged by
+Chrysantheme, with her Japanese taste lotus-flowers, great, sacred
+flowers of a tender, veined rose color, the milky rose-tint seen on
+porcelain; they resemble, when in full bloom, great water-lilies, and
+when only in bud might be taken for long pale tulips. Their soft but
+rather cloying scent is added to that other indefinable odor of mousmes,
+of yellow race, of Japan, which is always and everywhere in the air. The
+late flowers of September, at this season very rare and expensive, grow
+on longer stems than the summer blooms; Chrysantheme has left them in
+their large aquatic leaves of a melancholy seaweed-green, and mingled
+with them tall, slight rushes. I look at them, and recall with some
+irony those great round bunches in the shape of cauliflowers, which our
+florists sell in France, wrapped in white lace-paper!
+
+Still no letters from Europe, from any one. How things change, become
+effaced and forgotten! Here am I, accommodating myself to this finical
+Japan and dwindling down to its affected mannerism; I feel that
+my thoughts run in smaller grooves, my tastes incline to smaller
+things-things which suggest nothing greater than a smile. I am becoming
+used to tiny and ingenious furniture, to doll-like desks, to miniature
+bowls with which to play at dinner, to the immaculate monotony of the
+mats, to the finely finished simplicity of the white woodwork. I am even
+losing my Western prejudices; all my preconceived ideas are this evening
+evaporating and vanishing; crossing the garden I have courteously
+saluted M. Sucre, who was watering his dwarf shrubs and his deformed
+flowers; and Madame Prune appears to me a highly respectable old lady,
+in whose past there is nothing to criticise.
+
+We shall take no walk to-night; my only wish is to remain stretched out
+where I am, listening to the music of my mousme's 'chamecen'.
+
+Till now I have always used the word guitar, to avoid exotic terms,
+for the abuse of which I have been so reproached. But neither the word
+guitar nor mandolin suffices to designate this slender instrument with
+its long neck, the high notes of which are shriller than the voice of
+the grasshopper; and henceforth, I will write 'chamecen'.
+
+I will also call my mousme Kikou, Kikou-San; this name suits her better
+than Chrysantheme, which, though translating the sense exactly, does not
+preserve the strange-sounding euphony of the original.
+
+I therefore say to Kikou, my wife:
+
+"Play, play on for me; I shall remain here all the evening and listen to
+you."
+
+Astonished to find me in so amiable a mood, she requires pressing a
+little, and with almost a bitter curve of triumph and disdain upon her
+lips, she seats herself in the attitude of an idol, raises her long,
+dark-colored sleeves, and begins. The first hesitating notes are
+murmured faintly and mingle with the music of the insects humming
+outside, in the quiet air of the warm and golden twilight. First she
+plays slowly, a confused medley of fragments which she does not seem to
+remember perfectly, of which one waits for the finish and waits in
+vain; while the other girls giggle, inattentive, and regretful of their
+interrupted dance. She herself is absent, sulky, as if she were only
+performing a duty.
+
+Then by degrees, little by little, the music becomes more animated, and
+the mousmes begin to listen. Now, tremblingly, it grows into a feverish
+rapidity, and her gaze has no longer the vacant stare of a doll. Then
+the music changes again; in it there is the sighing of the wind, the
+hideous laughter of ghouls; tears, heartrending plaints, and her
+dilated pupils seem to be directed inwardly in settled gaze on some
+indescribable Japanesery within her own soul.
+
+I listen, lying there with eyes half shut, looking out between
+my drooping eyelids, which are gradually lowering, in involuntary
+heaviness, upon the enormous red sun dying away over Nagasaki. I have
+a somewhat melancholy feeling that my past life and all other places in
+the world are receding from my view and fading away. At this moment
+of nightfall I feel almost at home in this corner of Japan, amidst the
+gardens of this suburb. I never have had such an impression before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L. A DOLLS' DUET
+
+
+September 16th.
+
+Seven o'clock in the evening. We shall not go down into Nagasaki
+tonight; but, like good Japanese citizens, remain in our lofty suburb.
+
+In undress uniform we shall go, Yves and I, in a neighborly way, as far
+as the fencing-gallery, which is only two steps away, just above our
+villa, and almost abutting on our fresh and scented garden.
+
+The gallery is closed already, and a little mousko, seated at the door,
+explains, with many low bows, that we come too late, all the amateurs
+are gone; we must come again tomorrow.
+
+The evening is so mild and fine that we remain out of doors, following,
+without any definite purpose, the pathway which rises ever higher
+and higher, and loses itself at length in the solitary regions of the
+mountain among the upper peaks.
+
+For an hour at least we wander on--an unintended walk--and finally find
+ourselves at a great height commanding an endless perspective lighted by
+the last gleams of daylight; we are in a desolate and mournful spot, in
+the midst of the little Buddhist cemeteries, which are scattered over
+the country in every direction.
+
+We meet a few belated laborers, who are returning from the fields with
+bundles of tea upon their shoulders. These peasants have a half-savage
+air. They are half naked, too, or clothed only in long robes of blue
+cotton; as they pass, they salute us with humble bows.
+
+No trees in this elevated region. Fields of tea alternate with tombs:
+old granite statues which represent Buddha in his lotus, or else old
+monumental stones on which gleam remains of inscriptions in golden
+letters. Rocks, brushwood, uncultivated spaces, surround us on all
+sides.
+
+We meet no more passers-by, and the light is failing. We will halt for a
+moment, and then it will be time to turn our steps homeward.
+
+But, close to the spot where we stand, a box of white wood provided with
+handles, a sort of sedan-chair, rests on the freshly disturbed earth,
+with its lotus of silvered paper, and the little incense-sticks, burning
+yet, by its side; clearly some one has been buried here this very
+evening.
+
+I can not picture this personage to myself; the Japanese are so
+grotesque in life that it is almost impossible to imagine them in the
+calm majesty of death. Nevertheless, let us move farther on, we might
+disturb him; he is too recently dead, his presence unnerves us. We
+will go and seat ourselves on one of these other tombs, so unutterably
+ancient that there can no longer be anything within it but dust. And
+there, seated in the dying sunlight, while the valleys and plains of the
+earth below are already lost in shadow, we will talk together.
+
+I wish to speak to Yves about Chrysantheme; it is indeed somewhat in
+view of this that I have persuaded him to sit down; but how to set about
+it without hurting his feelings, and without making myself ridiculous,
+I hardly know. However, the pure air playing round me up here, and the
+magnificent landscape spread beneath my feet, impart a certain serenity
+to my thoughts which makes me feel a contemptuous pity, both for my
+suspicions and the cause of them.
+
+We speak, first of all, of the order for departure, which may arrive at
+any moment, for China or for France. Soon we shall have to leave this
+easy and almost amusing life, this Japanese suburb where chance has
+installed us, and our little house buried among flowers. Yves perhaps
+will regret all this more than I. I know that well enough; for it is the
+first time that any such interlude has broken the rude monotony of his
+hard-worked career. Formerly, when in an inferior rank, he was
+hardly more often on shore, in foreign countries, than the sea-gulls
+themselves; while I, from the very beginning, have been spoiled by
+residence in all sorts of charming spots, infinitely superior to
+this, in all sorts of countries, and the remembrance still haunts me
+pleasurably.
+
+In order to discover how the land lies, I risk the remark:
+
+"You will perhaps be more sorry to leave little Chrysantheme than I."
+
+Silence reigns between us.
+
+After which I go on, and, burning my ships, I add:
+
+"You know, after all, if you have such a fancy for her, I haven't really
+married her; one can't really consider her my wife."
+
+In great surprise he looks in my face.
+
+"Not your wife, you say? But, by Jove, though, that's just it; she is
+your wife."
+
+There is no need of many words at any time between us two; I know
+exactly now, by his tone, by his great good-humored smile, how the case
+stands; I understand all that lies in the little phrase: "That's just
+it, she is your wife." If she were not, well, then, he could not answer
+for what might happen--notwithstanding any remorse he might have in the
+depths of his heart, since he is no longer a bachelor and free as air,
+as in former days. But he considers her my wife, and she is sacred. I
+have the fullest faith in his word, and I experience a positive relief,
+a real joy, at finding my stanch Yves of bygone days. How could I have
+so succumbed to the demeaning influence of my surroundings as to suspect
+him even, and to invent for myself such a mean, petty anxiety?
+
+We never shall even mention that doll again.
+
+We remain up there very late, talking of other things, gazing at the
+immense depths below, at the valleys and mountains as they become, one
+by one, indistinct and lost in the deepening darkness. Placed as we are
+at an enormous height, in the wide, free atmosphere, we seem already
+to have quitted this miniature country, already to be freed from the
+impression of littleness which it has given us, and from the little
+links by which it was beginning to bind--us to itself.
+
+Seen from such heights as these, all the countries of the globe bear a
+strong resemblance to one another; they lose the imprint made upon them
+by man, and by races; by all the atoms swarming on the surface.
+
+As of old, in the Breton marshes, in the woods of Toulven, or at sea
+in the night-watches, we talk of all those things to which thoughts
+naturally revert in darkness; of ghosts, of spirits, of eternity, of the
+great hereafter, of chaos--and we entirely forget little Chrysantheme!
+
+When we arrive at Diou-djen-dji in the starry night, the music of
+her 'chamecen', heard from afar, recalls to us her existence; she is
+studying some vocal duet with Mademoiselle Oyouki, her pupil.
+
+I feel myself in very good humor this evening, and, relieved from my
+absurd suspicions about my poor Yves, am quite disposed to enjoy without
+reserve my last days in Japan, and to derive therefrom all the amusement
+possible.
+
+Let us then repose ourselves on the dazzling white mats, and listen to
+the singular duet sung by those two mousmes: a strange musical
+medley, slow and mournful, beginning with two or three high notes, and
+descending at each couplet, in an almost imperceptible manner, into
+actual solemnity. The song keeps its dragging slowness; but the
+accompaniment, becoming more and more accentuated, is like the impetuous
+sound of a far-off hurricane. At the end, when these girlish
+voices, usually so soft, give out their hoarse and guttural notes,
+Chrysantheme's hands fly wildly and convulsively over the quivering
+strings. Both of them lower their heads, pout their underlips in the
+effort to bring out these astonishingly deep notes. And at these
+moments their little narrow eyes open, and seem to reveal an unexpected
+something, almost a soul, under these trappings of marionettes.
+
+But it is a soul which more than ever appears to me of a different
+species from my own; I feel my thoughts to be as far removed from theirs
+as from the flitting conceptions of a bird, or the dreams of a monkey;
+I feel there is between them and myself a great gulf, mysterious and
+awful.
+
+Other sounds of music, wafted to us from the distance, interrupt for a
+moment those of our mousmes. From the depths below, in Nagasaki, arises
+a sudden noise of gongs and guitars; we rush to the balcony of the
+veranda to hear it better.
+
+It is a 'matsouri', a fete, a procession passing through the quarter
+which is not so virtuous as our own, so our mousmes tell us, with a
+disdainful toss of the head. Nevertheless, from the heights on which
+we dwell, seen thus in a bird's-eye view, by the uncertain light of the
+stars, this district has a singularly chaste air, and the concert going
+on therein, purified in its ascent from the depths of the abyss to
+our lofty altitudes, reaches us confusedly, a smothered, enchanted,
+enchanting sound.
+
+Then it diminishes, and dies away into silence.
+
+The two little friends return to their seats on the mats, and once more
+take up their melancholy duet. An orchestra, discreetly subdued but
+innumerable, of crickets and cicalas, accompanies them in an unceasing
+tremolo--the immense, far-reaching tremolo, which, gentle and eternal,
+never ceases in Japan.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI. THE LAST DAY
+
+September 17th
+
+At the hour of siesta, a peremptory order arrives to start tomorrow for
+China, for Tche-fou (a terrible place, in the gulf of Pekin). Yves comes
+to wake me in my cabin to bring me the news.
+
+"I must positively get leave to go on shore this evening," he says,
+while I endeavor to shake myself awake, "if it is only to help you to
+dismantle and pack up."
+
+He gazes through my port-hole, raising his glance toward the green
+summits, in the direction of Diou-djen-dji and our echoing old cottage,
+hidden from us by a turn of the mountain.
+
+It is very nice of him to wish to help me in my packing; but I think
+he counts also upon saying farewell to his little Japanese friends up
+there, and I really can not find fault with that.
+
+He finishes his work, and does in fact obtain leave, without help from
+me, to go on shore at five o'clock, after drill and manoeuvres.
+
+As for myself I start at once, in a hired sampan. In the vast flood
+of midday sunshine, to the quivering noise of the cicalas, I mount to
+Diou-djen-dji.
+
+The paths are solitary, the plants are drooping in the heat.
+Here, however, is Madame Jonquille, taking the air in the bright,
+grasshoppers' sunshine, sheltering her dainty figure and her charming
+face under an enormous paper parasol, a huge circle, closely ribbed and
+fantastically striped.
+
+She recognizes me from afar, and, laughing as usual, runs to meet me.
+
+I announce our departure, and a tearful pout suddenly contracts her
+childish face. After all, does this news grieve her? Is she about to
+shed tears over it? No! it turns to a fit of laughter, a little nervous
+perhaps, but unexpected and disconcerting--dry and clear, pealing
+through the silence and warmth of the narrow paths, like a cascade of
+little mock pearls.
+
+Ah, there indeed is a marriage-tie which will be broken without much
+pain! But she fills me with impatience, poor empty-headed linnet, with
+her laughter, and I turn my back upon her to continue my journey.
+
+Above-stairs, Chrysantheme sleeps, stretched out on the floor; the house
+is wide open, and the soft mountain breeze rustles gently through it.
+
+That same evening we had intended to give a tea-party, and by my orders
+flowers had already been placed in every nook and corner of the house.
+There were lotus in our vases, beautifully colored lotus, the last of
+the season, I verily believe. They must have been ordered from a special
+gardener, out yonder near the Great Temple, and they will cost me dear.
+
+With a few gentle taps of a fan I awake my surprised mousme; and,
+curious to catch her first impressions, I announce my departure. She
+starts up, rubs her eyelids with the backs of her little hands, looks at
+me, and hangs her head: something like an expression of sadness passes
+in her eyes.
+
+This little sinking at the heart is for Yves, no doubt!
+
+The news spreads through the house.
+
+Mademoiselle Oyouki dashes upstairs, with half a tear in each of her
+babyish eyes; kisses me with her full red lips, which always leave a wet
+ring on my cheek; then quickly draws from her wide sleeve a square of
+tissue-paper, wipes away her stealthy tears, blows her little nose,
+rolls the bit of paper in a ball, and throws it into the street on the
+parasol of a passer-by.
+
+Then Madame Prune makes her appearance; in an agitated and discomposed
+manner she successively adopts every attitude expressive of dismay. What
+on earth is the matter with the old lady, and why does she keep getting
+closer and closer to me, till she is almost in my way?
+
+It is wonderful to think of all that I still have to do this last day,
+and the endless drives I have to make to the old curiosity-shops, to my
+tradespeople, and to the packers.
+
+Nevertheless, before my rooms are dismantled, I intend making a sketch
+of them, as I did formerly at Stamboul. It really seems to me as if all
+I do here is a bitter parody of all I did over there.
+
+This time, however, it is not that I care for this dwelling; it is only
+because it is pretty and uncommon, and the sketch will be an interesting
+souvenir.
+
+I fetch, therefore, a leaf out of my album, and begin at once, seated
+on the floor and leaning on my desk, ornamented with grasshoppers in
+relief, while behind me, very, very close to me, the three women follow
+the movements of my pencil with astonished attention. Japanese art being
+entirely conventional, they have never before seen any one draw from
+nature, and my style delights them. I may not perhaps possess the steady
+and nimble touch of M. Sucre, as he groups his charming storks, but I am
+master of a few notions of perspective which are wanting in him; and I
+have been taught to draw things as I see them, without giving them an
+ingeniously distorted and grimacing attitudes; and the three Japanese
+are amazed at the air of reality displayed in my sketch.
+
+With little shrieks of admiration, they point out to one another the
+different things, as little by little their shape and form are outlined
+in black on my paper. Chrysantheme gazes at me with a new kind of
+interest "Anata itchiban!" she says (literally "Thou first!" meaning:
+"You are really quite wonderful!")
+
+Mademoiselle Oyouki is carried away by her admiration, and exclaims, in
+a burst of enthusiasm:
+
+"Anata bakari!" ("Thou alone!" that is to say: "There is no one like you
+in the world, all the rest are mere rubbish!")
+
+Madame Prune says nothing, but I can see that she does not think the
+less; her languishing attitudes, her hand that at each moment gently
+touches mine, confirm the suspicions that her look of dismay a few
+moments ago awoke within me: evidently my physical charms speak to her
+imagination, which in spite of years has remained full of romance! I
+shall leave with the regret of having understood her too late!
+
+Although the ladies are satisfied with my sketch, I am far from being
+so. I have put everything in its place most exactly, but as a whole,
+it has an ordinary, indifferent, French look which does not suit. The
+sentiment is not given, and I almost wonder whether I should not have
+done better to falsify the perspective--Japanese style--exaggerating to
+the very utmost the already abnormal outlines of what I see before me.
+And then the pictured dwelling lacks the fragile look and its sonority,
+that reminds one of a dry violin. In the pencilled delineation of the
+woodwork, the minute delicacy with which it is wrought is wanting;
+neither have I been able to give an idea of the extreme antiquity, the
+perfect cleanliness, nor the vibrating song of the cicalas that seems
+to have been stored away within it, in its parched-up fibres, during
+hundreds of summers. It does not convey, either, the impression this
+place gives of being in a far-off suburb, perched aloft among trees,
+above the drollest of towns. No, all this can not be drawn, can not be
+expressed, but remains undemonstrable, indefinable.
+
+Having sent out our invitations, we shall, in spite of everything, give
+our tea-party this evening--a parting tea, therefore, in which we shall
+display as much pomp as possible. It is, moreover, rather my custom to
+wind up my exotic experiences with a fete; in other countries I have
+done the same.
+
+Besides our usual set, we shall have my mother-in-law, my relatives,
+and all the mousmes of the neighborhood. But, by an extra Japanese
+refinement, we shall not admit a single European friend--not even the
+"amazingly tall" one. Yves alone shall be admitted, and even he shall be
+hidden away in a corner behind some flowers and works of art.
+
+In the last glimmer of twilight, by the light of the first twinkling
+star, the ladies, with many charming curtseys, make their appearance.
+Our house is soon full of the little crouching women, with their tiny
+slit eyes vaguely smiling; their beautifully dressed hair shining like
+polished ebony; their fragile bodies lost in the many folds of the
+exaggerated, wide garments, that gape as if ready to drop from their
+little tapering backs and reveal the exquisite napes of their little
+necks.
+
+Chrysantheme, with somewhat a melancholy air, and my mother-in-law,
+Madame Renoncule, with many affected graces busy themselves in the midst
+of the different groups, where ere long the miniature pipes are lighted.
+Soon there arises a murmuring sound of discreet laughter, expressing
+nothing, but having a pretty exotic ring about it, and then begins a
+harmony of tap! tap! tap!--sharp, rapid taps against the edges of the
+finely lacquered smoking-boxes. Pickled and spiced fruits are handed
+round on trays of quaint and varied shapes. Then transparent china
+teacups, no larger than half an egg-shell, make their appearance, and
+the ladies are offered a few drops of sugarless tea, poured out of toy
+kettles, or a sip of 'saki'--(a spirit made from rice which it is the
+custom to serve hot, in elegantly shaped vases, long-necked like a
+heron's throat).
+
+Several mousmes execute, one after another, improvisations on
+the 'chamecen'. Others sing in sharp, high voices, hopping about
+continually, like cicalas in delirium.
+
+Madame Prune, no longer able to make a mystery of the long-pent
+up feelings that agitate her, pays me the most marked and tender
+attentions, and begs my acceptance of a quantity of little souvenirs: an
+image, a little vase, a little porcelain goddess of the moon in Satsuma
+ware, a marvellously grotesque ivory figure;--I tremblingly follow her
+into the dark corners whither she calls me to give me these presents in
+tete-a-tete.
+
+About nine o'clock, with a silken rustling, arrive the three geishas in
+vogue in Nagasaki: Mesdemoiselles Purete, Orange, and Printemps, whom I
+have hired at four dollars each--an enormous price in this country.
+
+These three geishas are indeed the very same little creatures I heard
+singing on the rainy day of my arrival, through the thin panelling of
+the Garden of Flowers. But as I have now become thoroughly Japanized,
+today they appear to me more diminutive, less outlandish, and in no way
+mysterious. I treat them rather as dancers that I have hired, and the
+idea that I ever had thought of marrying one of them now makes me shrug
+my shoulders--as it formerly made M. Kangourou.
+
+The excessive heat caused by the respiration of the mousmes and the
+burning lamps, brings out the perfume of the lotus, which fills the
+heavy-laden atmosphere; and the scent of camellia-oil, which the ladies
+use in profusion to make their hair glisten, is also strong in the room.
+
+Mademoiselle Orange, the youngest geisha, tiny and dainty, her lips
+outlined with gilt paint, executes some delightful steps, donning the
+most extraordinary wigs and masks of wood or cardboard. She has masks
+imitating old, noble ladies which are valuable works of art, signed by
+well-known artists. She has also magnificent long robes, fashioned in
+the old style, with trains trimmed at the bottom with thick pads,
+in order to give to the movements of the costume something rigid and
+unnatural which, however, is becoming.
+
+Now the soft balmy breezes blow through the room, from one veranda to
+the other, making the flames of the lamps flicker. They scatter the
+lotus flowers faded by the artificial heat, which, falling in pieces
+from every vase, sprinkle the guests with their pollen and large pink
+petals, looking like bits of broken, opal-colored glass.
+
+The sensational piece, reserved for the end, is a trio on the
+'chamecen', long and monotonous, that the geishas perform as a rapid
+pizzicato on the highest strings, very sharply struck. It sounds like
+the very quintessence, the paraphrase, the exasperation, if I may so
+call it, of the eternal buzz of insects, which issues from the trees,
+old roofs, old walls, from everything in fact, and which is the
+foundation of all Japanese sounds.
+
+Half-past ten! The programme has been carried out, and the reception is
+over. A last general tap! tap! tap! the little pipes are stowed away
+in their chased sheaths, tied up in the sashes, and the mousmes rise to
+depart.
+
+They light, at the end of short sticks, a quantity of red, gray, or blue
+lanterns, and after a series of endless bows and curtseys, the guests
+disperse in the darkness of the lanes and trees.
+
+We also go down to the town, Yves, Chrysantheme, Oyouki and I--in order
+to conduct my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, and my youthful aunt,
+Madame Nenufar, to their house.
+
+We wish to take one last stroll together in our old familiar
+pleasure-haunts, to drink one more iced sherbet at the house of the
+Indescribable Butterflies, buy one more lantern at Madame Tres-Propre's,
+and eat some parting waffles at Madame L'Heure's!
+
+I try to be affected, moved, by this leave-taking, but without success.
+In regard to Japan, as with the little men and women who inhabit it,
+there is something decidedly wanting; pleasant enough as a mere pastime,
+it begets no feeling of attachment.
+
+On our return, when I am once more with Yves and the two mousmes
+climbing up the road to Diou-djen-dji, which I shall probably never see
+again, a vague feeling of melancholy pervades my last stroll.
+
+It is, however, but the melancholy inseparable from all things that are
+about to end without possibility of return.
+
+Moreover, this calm and splendid summer is also drawing to a close for
+us-since to-morrow we shall go forth to meet the autumn, in Northern
+China. I am beginning, alas! to count the youthful summers I may still
+hope for; I feel more gloomy each time another fades away, and flies to
+rejoin the others already disappeared in the dark and bottomless abyss,
+where all past things lie buried.
+
+At midnight we return home, and my removal begins; while on board the
+"amazingly tall friend" kindly takes my watch.
+
+It is a nocturnal, rapid, stealthy removal--"doyobo (thieves) fashion,"
+remarks Yves, who in visiting the mousmes has picked up a smattering of
+the Nipponese language.
+
+Messieurs the packers have, at my request, sent in the evening several
+charming little boxes, with compartments and false bottoms, and several
+paper bags (in the untearable Japanese paper), which close of themselves
+and are fastened by strings, also in paper, arranged beforehand in the
+most ingenious manner--quite the cleverest and most handy thing of its
+kind; for little useful trifles these people are unrivalled.
+
+It is a real treat to pack them, and everybody lends a helping
+hand--Yves, Chrysantheme, Madame Prune, her daughter, and M. Sucre. By
+the glimmer of the reception-lamps, which are still burning, every one
+wraps, rolls, and ties up expeditiously, for it is already late.
+
+Although Oyouki has a heavy heart, she can not prevent herself from
+indulging in a few bursts of childish laughter while she works.
+
+Madame Prune, bathed in tears, no longer restrains her feelings; poor
+old lady, I really very much regret....
+
+Chrysantheme is absent-minded and silent.
+
+But what a fearful amount of luggage! Eighteen cases or parcels,
+containing Buddhas, chimeras, and vases, without mentioning the last
+lotus that I carry away tied up in a pink cluster.
+
+All this is piled up in the djins' carts, hired at sunset, which are
+waiting at the door, while their runners lie asleep on the grass.
+
+A starlit and exquisite night. We start off with lighted lanterns,
+followed by the three sorrowful ladies who accompany us, and by abrupt
+slopes, dangerous in the darkness, we descend toward the sea.
+
+The djins, stiffening their muscular legs, hold back with all their
+might the heavily loaded little cars which would run down by themselves
+if let alone, and that so rapidly that they would rush into empty space
+with my most valuable chattels. Chrysantheme walks by my side,
+and expresses, in a soft and winning manner, her regret that the
+"wonderfully tall friend" did not offer to replace me for the whole of
+my night-watch, as that would have allowed me to spend this last night,
+even till morning, under our roof.
+
+"Listen!" she says, "come back to-morrow in the daytime, before getting
+under way, to bid one good-by; I shall not return to my mother until
+evening; you will find me still up there."
+
+And I promise.
+
+They stop at a certain turn, whence we have a bird's-eye view of the
+whole harbor. The black, stagnant waters reflect innumerable distant
+fires, and the ships--tiny, immovable objects, which, seen from our
+point of view, take the shape of fish, seem also to slumber,--little
+objects which serve to bear us elsewhere, to go far away, and to forget.
+
+The three ladies are about to turn back home, for the night is already
+far advanced and, farther down, the cosmopolitan quarters near the quays
+are not safe at this unusual hour.
+
+The moment has therefore come for Yves--who will not land again--to make
+his last tragic farewells to his friends the little mousmes.
+
+I am very curious to see the parting between Yves and Chrysantheme; I
+listen with all my ears, I look with all my eyes, but it takes place in
+the simplest and quietest fashion: none of that heartbreaking which
+will be inevitable between Madame Prune and myself; I even notice in my
+mousme an indifference, an unconcern which puzzles me; I positively am
+at a loss to understand what it all means.
+
+And I muse as I continue to descend toward the sea. "Her appearance of
+sadness was not, therefore, on Yves's account. On whose, then?" and the
+phrase runs through my head:
+
+"Come back to-morrow before setting sail, to bid me goodby; I shall not
+return to my mother until evening; you will find me still up there."
+
+Japan is indeed most delightful this evening, so fresh and so sweet; and
+little Chrysantheme was very charming just now, as she silently walked
+beside me through the darkness of the lane.
+
+It is about two o'clock when we reach the 'Triomphante' in a hired
+sampan, where I have heaped up all my cases till there is danger of
+sinking. The "very tall friend" gives over to me the watch that I must
+keep till four o'clock; and the sailors on duty, but half awake, make a
+chain in the darkness, to haul on board all my fragile luggage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII. "FAREWELL!"
+
+September 18th.
+
+I intended to sleep late this morning, in order to make up for my lost
+sleep of last night.
+
+But at eight o'clock three persons of the most extraordinary appearance,
+led by M. Kangourou, present themselves with profound bows at the
+door of my cabin. They are arrayed in long robes bedizened with dark
+patterns; they have the flowing locks, high foreheads, and pallid
+countenances of persons too exclusively devoted to the fine arts; and,
+perched on the top of their coiffures, they wear sailor hats of English
+shape tipped jauntily on one side. Tucked under their arms, they
+carry portfolios filled with sketches; in their hands are boxes of
+water-colors, pencils, and, bound together like fasces, a bundle of fine
+stylets with the sharp and glittering points.
+
+At the first glance, even in the bewilderment of waking up, I gather
+from their appearance what their errand is, and guessing with what
+visitors I have to deal, I say: "Come in, Messieurs the tattooers!"
+
+These are the specialists most in renown in Nagasaki; I had engaged them
+two days ago, not knowing that we were about to leave, and since they
+are here I will not turn them away.
+
+My friendly and intimate relations with primitive man, in Oceania and
+elsewhere, have imbued me with a deplorable taste for tattoo-work; and I
+had wished to carry away on my own person, as a curiosity, an ornament,
+a specimen of the work of the Japanese tattooers, who have a delicacy of
+finish which is unequalled.
+
+From their albums spread out upon my table I make my choice. There are
+some remarkably odd designs among them, appropriate to the different
+parts of the human body: emblems for the arms and legs, sprays of roses
+for the shoulders, great grinning faces for the middle of the back.
+There are even, to suit the taste of their clients who belong to foreign
+navies, trophies of arms, American and French flags entwined, a "God
+Save the Queen" amid encircling stars, and figures of women taken from
+Grevin's sketches in the Journal Amusant.
+
+My choice rests upon a singular blue and pink dragon two inches long,
+which will have a fine effect upon my chest on the side opposite the
+heart.
+
+Then follows an hour and a half of irritation and positive pain.
+Stretched out on my bunk and delivered over to the tender mercies
+of these personages, I stiffen myself and submit to the million
+imperceptible pricks they inflict. When by chance a little blood flows,
+confusing the outline by a stream of red, one of the artists hastens to
+stanch it with his lips, and I make no objections, knowing that this is
+the Japanese manner, the method used by their doctors for the wounds of
+both man and beast.
+
+A piece of work, as minute and fine as that of an engraver upon stone,
+is slowly executed on my person; and their lean hands harrow and worry
+me with automatic precision.
+
+Finally it is finished, and the tattooers, falling back with an air of
+satisfaction to contemplate their work, declare it to be lovely.
+
+I dress myself quickly to go on shore, to take advantage of my last
+hours in Japan.
+
+The heat is fearful to-day: the powerful September sun falls with a
+certain melancholy upon the yellowing leaves; it is a day of clear
+burning heat after an almost chilly morning.
+
+As I did yesterday, I ascend to my lofty suburb, during the drowsy
+noontime, by deserted pathways filled only with light and silence.
+
+I noiselessly open the door of my dwelling, and enter cautiously on
+tiptoe, for fear of Madame Prune.
+
+At the foot of the staircase, upon the white mats, beside the little
+sabots and tiny sandals which are always lying about in the vestibule,
+a great array of luggage is ready for departure, which I recognize at
+a glance-pretty, dark robes, familiar to my sight, carefully folded and
+wrapped in blue towels tied at the four corners. I even fancy I feel a
+little sad when I catch sight of a corner of the famous box of letters
+and souvenirs peeping out of one of these bundles, in which my portrait
+by Ureno now reposes among divers photographs of mousmes. A sort of
+long-necked mandolin, also ready for departure, lies on the top of the
+pile in its case of figured silk. It resembles the flitting of some
+gipsy, or rather it reminds me of an engraving in a book of fables
+I owned in my childhood: the whole thing is exactly like the slender
+wardrobe and the long guitar which the cicala who had sung all the
+summer, carried upon her back when she knocked at the door of her
+neighbor the ant.
+
+Poor little gipsy!
+
+I mount the steps on tiptoe, and stop at the sound of singing that I
+hear in my room.
+
+It is undoubtedly Chrysantheme's voice, and the song is quite cheerful!
+This chills me and changes the current of my thoughts. I am almost sorry
+I have taken the trouble to come.
+
+Mingled with the song is a noise I can not understand: Chink! chink! a
+clear metallic ring as of coins flung vigorously on the floor. I am
+well aware that this vibrating house exaggerates every sound during the
+silence of night; but all the same, I am puzzled to know what my mousme
+can be doing. Chink! chink! is she amusing herself with quoits, or the
+'jeu du crapaud', or pitch-and-toss?
+
+Nothing of the kind! I fancy I have guessed, and I continue my upward
+progress still more gently, on all fours, with the precautions of a red
+Indian, to give myself for the last time the pleasure of surprising her.
+
+She has not heard me come in. In our great white room, emptied and
+swept out, where the clear sunshine pours in, and the soft wind, and the
+yellowed leaves of the garden, she is sitting all alone, her back turned
+to the door; she is dressed for walking, ready to go to her mother's,
+her rose-colored parasol beside her.
+
+On the floor are spread out all the fine silver dollars which, according
+to our agreement, I had given her the evening before. With the competent
+dexterity of an old money-changer she fingers them, turns them over,
+throws them on the floor, and, armed with a little mallet ad hoc, rings
+them vigorously against her ear, singing the while I know not what
+little pensive bird-like song which I daresay she improvises as she goes
+along.
+
+Well, after all, it is even more completely Japanese than I could
+possibly have imagined it--this last scene of my married life! I feel
+inclined to laugh. How simple I have been, to allow myself to be taken
+in by the few clever words she whispered yesterday, as she walked beside
+me, by a tolerably pretty little phrase embellished as it was by
+the silence of two o'clock in the morning, and all the wonderful
+enchantments of night.
+
+Ah! not more for Yves than for me, not more for me than for Yves, has
+any feeling passed through that little brain, that little heart.
+
+When I have looked at her long enough, I call:
+
+"Hi! Chrysantheme!"
+
+She turns confused, and reddening even to her ears at having been caught
+at this work.
+
+She is quite wrong, however, to be so much troubled, for I am, on
+the contrary, delighted. The fear that I might be leaving her in some
+sadness had almost given me a pang, and I infinitely prefer that this
+marriage should end as it had begun, in a joke.
+
+"That is a good idea of yours," I say; "a precaution which should always
+be taken in this country of yours, where so many evil-minded people are
+clever in forging money. Make haste and get through it before I start,
+and if any false pieces have found their way into the number, I will
+willingly replace them."
+
+However, she refuses to continue before me, and I expected as much;
+to do so would have been contrary to all her notions of politeness,
+hereditary and acquired, all her conventionality, all her Japanesery.
+With a disdainful little foot, clothed as usual in exquisite socks, with
+a special hood for the great toe, she pushes away the piles of white
+dollars and scatters them on the mats.
+
+"We have hired a large, covered sampan," she says to change the
+conversation, "and we are all going together--Campanule, Jonquille,
+Touki, all your mousmes--to watch your vessel set sail. Pray sit down
+and stay a few minutes."
+
+"No, I really can not stay. I have several things to do in the town,
+you see, and the order was given for every one to be on board by three
+o'clock in time for muster before starting. Moreover, I would prefer
+to escape, as you can imagine, while Madame Prune is still enjoying
+her siesta; I should be afraid of being drawn into some corner, or of
+provoking some heartrending parting scene."
+
+Chrysantheme bows her head and says no more, but seeing that I am really
+going, rises to escort me.
+
+Without speaking, without the slightest noise, she follows me as we
+descend the staircase and cross the garden full of sunshine, where
+the dwarf shrubs and the deformed flowers seem, like the rest of the
+household, plunged in warm somnolence.
+
+At the outer gate I stop for the last adieu: the little sad pout has
+reappeared, more accentuated than ever, on Chrysantheme's face; it is
+the right thing, it is correct, and I should feel offended now were it
+absent.
+
+Well, little mousme, let us part good friends; one last kiss even, if
+you like. I took you to amuse me; you have not perhaps succeeded very
+well, but after all you have done what you could: given me your little
+face, your little curtseys, your little music; in short, you have been
+pleasant enough in your Japanese way. And who knows, perchance I may yet
+think of you sometimes when I recall this glorious summer, these pretty,
+quaint gardens, and the ceaseless concert of the cicalas.
+
+She prostrates herself on the threshold of the door, her forehead
+against the ground, and remains in this attitude of superlatively polite
+salute as long as I am in sight, while I go down the pathway by which I
+am to disappear for ever.
+
+As the distance between us increases, I turn once or twice to look at
+her again; but it is a mere civility, and meant to return as it deserves
+her grand final salutation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII. OFF FOR CHINA
+
+When I entered the town, at the turn of the principal street, I had
+the good luck to meet Number 415, my poor relative. I was just at that
+moment in want of a speedy djin, and I at once got into his vehicle;
+besides, it was an alleviation to my feelings, in this hour of
+departure, to take my last drive in company with a member of my family.
+
+Unaccustomed as I was to be out of doors during the hours of siesta,
+I had never yet seen the streets of the town thus overwhelmed by the
+sunshine, thus deserted in the silence and solitary brilliancy peculiar
+to all hot countries.
+
+In front of all the shops hang white shades, adorned here and there with
+slight designs in black, in the quaintness of which lurks I know not
+what--something mysterious: dragons, emblems, symbolical figures. The
+sky is too glaring; the light crude, implacable; never has this old
+town of Nagasaki appeared to me so old, so worm-eaten, so bald,
+notwithstanding all its veneer of new papers and gaudy paintings. These
+little wooden houses, of such marvellous cleanly whiteness inside,
+are black outside, timeworn, disjointed and grimacing. When one looks
+closely, this grimace is to be found everywhere: in the hideous masks
+laughing in the shop-fronts of the innumerable curio-shops; in the
+grotesque figures, the playthings, the idols, cruel, suspicious, mad;
+it is even found in the buildings: in the friezes of the religious
+porticoes, in the roofs of the thousand pagodas, of which the angles and
+cable-ends writhe and twist like the yet dangerous remains of ancient
+and malignant beasts.
+
+And the disturbing intensity of expression reigning over inanimate
+nature, contrasts with the almost absolute blank of the human
+countenance, with the smiling foolishness of the simple little folk who
+meet one's gaze, as they patiently carry on their minute trades in
+the gloom of their tiny open-fronted houses. Workmen squatted on their
+heels, carving with their imperceptible tools the droll or odiously
+obscene ivory ornaments, marvellous cabinet curiosities which have
+made Japan so famous with the European amateurs who have never seen it.
+Unconscious artists tracing with steady hand on a background of lacquer
+or of porcelain traditional designs learned by heart, or transmitted
+to their brains by a process of heredity through thousands of years;
+automatic painters, whose storks are similar to those of M. Sucre, with
+the inevitable little rocks, or little butterflies eternally the same.
+The least of these illuminators, with his insignificant, eyeless face,
+possesses at his fingers' ends the maximum of dexterity in this art of
+decoration, light and wittily incongruous, which threatens to invade us
+in France, in this epoch of imitative decadence, and which has become
+the great resource of our manufacturers of cheap "objects of art."
+
+Is it because I am about to leave this country, because I have no longer
+any link to bind me to it, any resting-place on its soil, that my spirit
+is ready on the wing? I know not, but it seems to me I have never as
+clearly seen and comprehended it as to-day. And more even than ever do
+I find it little, aged, with wornout blood and worn-out sap; I feel more
+fully its antediluvian antiquity, its centuries of mummification, which
+will soon degenerate into hopeless and grotesque buffoonery, as it comes
+into contact with Western novelties.
+
+It is getting late; little by little, the siestas are everywhere coming
+to an end; the queer little streets brighten up and begin to swarm in
+the sunshine with manycolored parasols. Now begins the procession of
+ugliness of the most impossible description--a procession of long-robed,
+grotesque figures capped with pot-hats or sailors' headgear. Business
+transactions begin again, and the struggle for existence, close and
+bitter here as in one of our own artisan quarters, but meaner and
+smaller.
+
+At the moment of my departure, I find within myself only a smile of
+careless mockery for the swarming crowd of this Lilliputian curtseying
+people--laborious, industrious, greedy of gain, tainted with a
+constitutional affectation, hereditary insignificance, and incurable
+monkeyishness.
+
+Poor cousin Number 415! how right I was to have held him in good esteem!
+He was by far the best and most disinterested of my Japanese family.
+When all my commissions are finished, he puts up his little vehicle
+under a tree, and, much touched by my departure, insists upon escorting
+me on board the 'Triomphante', to watch over my final purchases in the
+sampan which conveys me to the ship, and to see them himself safely into
+my cabin.
+
+His, indeed, is the only hand I clasp with a really friendly feeling,
+without a suppressed smile, on quitting Japan.
+
+No doubt in this country, as in many others, there is more honest
+friendship and less ugliness among the simple beings devoted to purely
+physical work.
+
+At five o'clock in the afternoon we set sail.
+
+Along the line of the shore are two or three sampans; in them the
+mousmes, shut up in the narrow cabins, peep at us through the tiny
+windows, half hiding their faces on account of the sailors; these are
+our wives, who have wished, out of politeness, to look upon us once
+more.
+
+There are other sampans as well, in which other Japanese women are
+also watching our departure. These stand upright, under great parasols
+decorated with big black letters and daubed over with clouds of varied
+and startling colors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV. A FADING PICTURE
+
+We move slowly out of the wide green bay. The groups of women grow
+smaller in the distance. The country of round umbrellas with a thousand
+ribs fades gradually from our sight.
+
+Now the vast ocean opens before us, immense, colorless, solitary; a
+solemn repose after so much that is too ingenious and too small.
+
+The wooded mountains, the flowery capes disappear. And Japan remains
+faithful to itself, with its picturesque rocks, its quaint islands
+on which the trees tastefully arrange themselves in groups--studied,
+perhaps, but charmingly pretty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV. A WITHERED LOTUS-FLOWER
+
+One evening, in my cabin, in the midst of the Yellow Sea, my eyes fall
+upon the lotus-blossoms brought from Diou-djen-dji; they had
+lasted several days; but now they are withered, and strew my carpet
+pathetically with their pale pink petals.
+
+I, who have carefully kept so many faded flowers, fallen, alas! into
+dust, stolen here and there, at moments of parting in different parts
+of the world; I, who have kept so many that the collection is now an
+absurd, an indistinguishable herbarium--I try hard, but without success,
+to awaken some sentiment for these lotus--and yet they are the last
+living souvenirs of my summer at Nagasaki.
+
+I pick them up, however, with a certain amount of consideration, and I
+open my port-hole.
+
+From the gray misty sky a strange light falls upon the waters; a dim and
+gloomy twilight descends, yellowish upon this Yellow Sea. We feel that
+we are moving northward, that autumn is approaching.
+
+I throw the poor lotus into the boundless waste of waters, making them
+my best excuses for consigning them, natives of Japan, to a grave so
+solemn and so vast.
+
+             An Appeal to the Gods
+
+         Oama-Terace-Omi-Kami, wash me clean
+          from this little marriage of mine,
+         in the waters of the river of Kamo!
+
+
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Ah! the natural perversity of inanimate things
+     Contemptuous pity, both for my suspicions and the cause of them
+     Dull hours spent in idle and diffuse conversation
+     Efforts to arrange matters we succeed often only in disarranging
+     Found nothing that answered to my indefinable expectations
+     Habit turns into a makeshift of attachment
+     I know not what lost home that I have failed to find
+     Irritating laugh which is peculiar to Japan
+     Japanese habit of expressing myself with excessive politeness
+     Ordinary, trivial, every-day objects
+     Prayers swallowed like pills by invalids at a distance
+     Seeking for a change which can no longer be found
+     Trees, dwarfed by a Japanese process
+     When the inattentive spirits are not listening
+     Which I should find amusing in any one else,--any one I loved
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Madame Chrysantheme Complete, by Pierre Loti
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