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Although of a most energetic character and a veteran of +various campaigns--Japan, Tonkin, Senegal, China (1900)--M. Viaud was so +timid as a young midshipman that his comrades named him "Loti," a small +Indian flower which seems ever discreetly to hide itself. This is, +perhaps, a pleasantry, as elsewhere there is a much more romantic +explanation of the word. Suffice it to say that Pierre Loti has been +always the nom de plume of M. Viaud. + +Lod has no immediate literary ancestor and no pupil worthy of the name. +He indulges in a dainty pessimism and is most of all an impressionist, +not of the vogue of Zola--although he can be, on occasion, as brutally +plain as he--but more in the manner of Victor Hugo, his predecessor, or +Alphonse Daudet, his lifelong friend. In Loti's works, however, +pessimism is softened to a musical melancholy; the style is direct; the +vocabulary exquisite; the moral situations familiar; the characters not +complex. In short, his place is unique, apart from the normal lines of +novelistic development. + +The vein of Loti is not absolutely new, but is certainly novel. In him +it first revealed itself in a receptive sympathy for the rare flood of +experiences that his naval life brought on him, experiences which had not +fallen to the lot of Bernardin de St. Pierre or Chateaubriand, both of +whom he resembles. But neither of those writers possessed Loti's +delicate sensitiveness to exotic nature as it is reflected in the foreign +mind and heart. Strange but real worlds he has conjured up for us in +most of his works and with means that are, as with all great artists, +extremely simple. He may be compared to Kipling and to Stevenson: to +Kipling, because he has done for the French seaman something that the +Englishman has done for "Tommy Atkins," although their methods are often +more opposed than similar; like Stevenson, he has gone searching for +romance in the ends of the earth; like Stevenson, too, he has put into +all of his works a style that is never less than dominant and often +irresistible. Charm, indeed, is the one fine quality that all his +critics, whether friendly or not, acknowledge, and it is one well able to +cover, if need be, a multitude of literary sins. + +Pierre Loti was elected a member of the French Academy in 1891, +succeeding to the chair of Octave Feuillet. Some of his writings are: +'Aziyade,' written in 1879; the scene is laid in Constantinople. This +was followed by 'Rarahu,' a Polynesian idyl (1880; again published under +the title Le Mariage de Loti, 1882). 'Roman d'un Spahi (1881) deals with +Algiers. Taton-gaye is a true 'bete-humaine', sunk in moral slumber or +quivering with ferocious joys. It is in this book that Loti has eclipsed +Zola. One of his masterpieces is 'Mon Freye Yves' (ocean and Brittany), +together with 'Pecheur d'Islande' (1886); both translated into German by +Elizabeth, Queen of Roumania (Carmen Sylva). In 1884 was published 'Les +trois Dames de la Kasbah,' relating also to Algiers, and then came +'Madame Chrysantheme' (1887), crowned by the Academy. 'Japoneries +d'automne' (1889), Japanese scenes; then 'Au Maroc' (Morocco; 1890). +Partly autobiographical are 'Le Roman d'un Enfant' (1890) and 'Le Livre +de la Pitie et de la Mort' (1891). Then followed 'Fantomes d'Orient +(1892), L'Exilee (1893), Le Desert (Syria; 1895), Jerusalem, La Galilee +(Palestine; 1895), Pages choisies (1896), Ramuntcho (1897), Reflets sur +la Sombre Route' (1898), and finally 'Derniers Jours de Pekin' (1903). +Many exquisite pages are to be found in Loti's work. His composition is +now and then somewhat disconnected; the impressions are vague, almost +illusory, and the mirage is a little obscure, but the intense and abiding +charm of Nature remains. Loti has not again reached the level of Madame +Chrysantheme, and English critics at least will have to suspend their +judgment for a while. In any event, he has given to the world many great +books, and is shrined with the Forty "Immortals." + + ALBERT SOREL + de l'Academie Francaise. + + + + +DEDICATION + +To Madame la Duchesse de Richelieu + +MADAME LA DUCHESSE, + +Permit me to beg your acceptance of this work, as a respectful tribute of +my friendship. + +I feel some hesitation in offering it, for its theme can not be deemed +altogether correct; but I have endeavored to make its expression, at +least, in harmony with good taste, and I trust that my endeavors have +been successful. + +This record is the journal of a summer of my life, in which I have +changed nothing, not even the dates, thinking that in our efforts to +arrange matters we succeed often only in disarranging them. Although the +most important role may appear to devolve on Madame Chrysantheme, it is +very certain that the three principal points of interest are myself, +Japan, and the effect produced on me by that country. + +Do you recollect a certain photograph--rather absurd, I must admit-- +representing that great fellow Yves, a Japanese girl, and myself, grouped +as we were posed by a Nagasaki artist? You smiled when I assured you +that the carefully attired little damsel placed between us had been one +of our neighbors. Kindly receive my book with the same indulgent smile, +without seeking therein a meaning either good or bad, in the same spirit +in which you would receive some quaint bit of pottery, some grotesquely +carved ivory idol, or some fantastic trifle brought to you from this +singular fatherland of all fantasy. + + Believe me, with the deepest respect, + Madame la Duchesse, + Your affectionate + PIERRE LOTI. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +We were at sea, about two o'clock in the morning, on a fine night, under +a starry sky. + +Yves stood beside me on the bridge, and we talked of the country, unknown +to both, to which destiny was now carrying us. As we were to cast anchor +the next day, we enjoyed our anticipations, and made a thousand plans. + +"For myself," I said, "I shall marry at once." + +"Ah!" said Yves, with the indifferent air of one whom nothing can +surprise. + +"Yes--I shall choose a little, creamy-skinned woman with black hair and +cat's eyes. She must be pretty and not much bigger than a doll. You +shall have a room in our house. It will be a little paper house, in a +green garden, deeply shaded. We shall live among flowers, everything +around us shall blossom, and each morning our dwelling shall be filled +with nosegays--nosegays such as you have never dreamed of." + +Yves now began to take an interest in these plans for my future +household; indeed, he would have listened with as much confidence if I +had expressed the intention of taking temporary vows in some monastery of +this new country, or of marrying some island queen and shutting myself up +with her in a house built of jade, in the middle of an enchanted lake. + +I had quite made up my mind to carry out the scheme I had unfolded to +him. Yes, led on by ennui and solitude, I had gradually arrived at +dreaming of and looking forward to such a marriage. And then, above all, +to live for awhile on land, in some shady nook, amid trees and flowers! +How tempting it sounded after the long months we had been wasting at the +Pescadores (hot and arid islands, devoid of freshness, woods, or +streamlets, full of faint odors of China and of death). + +We had made great way in latitude since our vessel had quitted that +Chinese furnace, and the constellations in the sky had undergone a series +of rapid changes; the Southern Cross had disappeared at the same time as +the other austral stars; and the Great Bear, rising on the horizon, was +almost on as high a level as it is in the sky above France. The evening +breeze soothed and revived us, bringing back to us the memory of our +summer-night watches on the coast of Brittany. + +What a distance we were, however, from those familiar coasts! What a +tremendous distance! + + + + +MME. CHRYSANTHEME + +CHAPTER I + +THE MYSTERIOUS LAND + +At dawn we beheld Japan. + +Precisely at the foretold moment the mysterious land arose before us, +afar off, like a black dot in the vast sea, which for so many days had +been but a blank space. + +At first we saw nothing by the rays of the rising sun but a series of +tiny pink-tipped heights (the Fukai Islands). Soon, however, appeared +all along the horizon, like a misty veil over the waters, Japan itself; +and little by little, out of the dense shadow, arose the sharp, opaque +outlines of the Nagasaki mountains. + +The wind was dead against us, and the strong breeze, which steadily +increased, seemed as if the country were blowing with all its might, +in a vain effort to drive us away from its shores. The sea, the rigging, +the vessel itself, all vibrated and quivered as if with emotion. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +STRANGE SCENES + +By three o'clock in the afternoon all these far-off objects were close to +us, so close that they overshadowed us with their rocky masses and deep +green thickets. + +We entered a shady channel between two high ranges of mountains, oddly +symmetrical--like stage scenery, very pretty, though unlike nature. It +seemed as if Japan were opened to our view through an enchanted fissure, +allowing us to penetrate into her very heart. + +Nagasaki, as yet unseen, must be at the extremity of this long and +peculiar bay. All around us was exquisitely green. The strong sea- +breeze had suddenly fallen, and was succeeded by a calm; the atmosphere, +now very warm, was laden with the perfume of flowers. In the valley +resounded the ceaseless whirr of the cicalas, answering one another from +shore to shore; the mountains reechoed with innumerable sounds; the whole +country seemed to vibrate like crystal. We passed among myriads of +Japanese junks, gliding softly, wafted by imperceptible breezes on the +smooth water; their motion could hardly be heard, and their white sails, +stretched out on yards, fell languidly in a thousand horizontal folds +like window-blinds, their strangely contorted poops, rising up castle- +like in the air, reminding one of the towering ships of the Middle Ages. +In the midst of the verdure of this wall of mountains, they stood out +with a snowy whiteness. + +What a country of verdure and shade is Japan; what an unlooked-for Eden! + +Beyond us, at sea, it must have been full daylight; but here, in the +depths of the valley, we already felt the impression of evening; beneath +the summits in full sunlight, the base of the mountains and all the +thickly wooded parts near the water's edge were steeped in twilight. + +The passing junks, gleaming white against the background of dark foliage, +were silently and dexterously manoeuvred by small, yellow, naked men, +with long hair piled up on their heads in feminine fashion. Gradually, +as we advanced farther up the green channel, the perfumes became more +penetrating, and the monotonous chirp of the cicalas swelled out like an +orchestral crescendo. Above us, against the luminous sky, sharply +delineated between the mountains, a kind of hawk hovered, screaming out, +with a deep, human voice, "Ha! Ha! Ha!" its melancholy call prolonged +by the echoes. + +All this fresh and luxuriant nature was of a peculiar Japanese type, +which seemed to impress itself even on the mountain-tops, and produced +the effect of a too artificial prettiness. The trees were grouped in +clusters, with the pretentious grace shown on lacquered trays. Large +rocks sprang up in exaggerated shapes, side by side with rounded, lawn- +like hillocks; all the incongruous elements of landscape were grouped +together as if artificially created. + +When we looked intently, here and there we saw, often built in +counterscarp on the very brink of an abyss, some old, tiny, mysterious +pagoda, half hidden in the foliage of the overhanging trees, bringing to +the minds of new arrivals, like ourselves, a sense of unfamiliarity and +strangeness, and the feeling that in this country the spirits, the sylvan +gods, the antique symbols, faithful guardians of the woods and forests, +were unknown and incomprehensible. + +When Nagasaki appeared, the view was rather disappointing. Situated at +the foot of green overhanging mountains, it looked like any other +ordinary town. In front of it lay a tangled mass of vessels, flying all +the flags of the world; steamboats, just as in any other port, with dark +funnels and black smoke, and behind them quays covered with warehouses +and factories; nothing was wanting in the way of ordinary, trivial, +every-day objects. + +Some time, when man shall have made all things alike, the earth will be a +dull, tedious dwelling-place, and we shall have even to give up +travelling and seeking for a change which can no longer be found. + +About six o'clock we dropped anchor noisily amid the mass of vessels +already in the harbor, and were immediately invaded. + +We were visited by a mercantile, bustling, comical Japan, which rushed +upon us in full boat-loads, in waves, like a rising sea. Little men and +little women came in a continuous, uninterrupted stream, but without +cries, without squabbles, noiselessly, each one making so smiling a bow +that it was impossible to be angry with them, so that by reflex action we +smiled and bowed also. They carried on their backs little baskets, tiny +boxes, receptacles of every shape, fitting into one another in the most +ingenious manner, each containing several others, and multiplying till +they filled up everything, in endless number. From these they drew forth +all manner of curious and unexpected things: folding screens, slippers, +soap, lanterns, sleeve-links, live cicalas chirping in little cages, +jewelry, tame white mice turning little cardboard mills, quaint +photographs, hot soups and stews in bowls, ready to be served out in +rations to the crew;--china, a legion of vases, teapots, cups, little +pots and plates. In one moment, all this was unpacked, spread out with +astounding rapidity and a certain talent for arrangement; each seller +squatting monkey-like, hands touching feet, behind his fancy ware--always +smiling, bending low with the most engaging bows. Under the mass of +these many-colored things, the deck presented the appearance of an +immense bazaar; the sailors, very much amused and full of fun, walked +among the heaped-up piles, taking the little women by the chin, buying +anything and everything; throwing broadcast their white dollars. But how +ugly, mean, and grotesque all those folk were! I began to feel +singularly uneasy and disenchanted regarding my possible marriage. + +Yves and I were on duty till the next morning, and after the first +bustle, which always takes place on board when settling down in harbor-- +boats to lower, booms to swing out, running rigging to make taut--we had +nothing more to do but look on. We said to each other: "Where are we in +reality?--In the United States?--In some English colony in Australia, or +in New Zealand?" + +Consular residences, custom-house offices, manufactories; a dry dock in +which a Russian frigate was lying; on the heights the large European +concession, sprinkled with villas, and on the quays, American bars for +the sailors. Farther off, it is true, far away behind these commonplace +objects, in the very depths of the vast green valley, peered thousands +upon thousands of tiny black houses, a tangled mass of curious +appearance, from which here and there emerged some higher, dark red, +painted roofs, probably the true old Japanese Nagasaki, which still +exists. And in those quarters--who knows?--there may be, lurking behind +a paper screen, some affected, cat's-eyed little woman, whom perhaps in +two or three days (having no time to lose) I shall marry! But no, the +picture painted by my fancy has faded. I can no longer see this little +creature in my mind's eye; the sellers of the white mice have blurred her +image; I fear now, lest she should be like them. + +At nightfall the decks were suddenly cleared as by enchantment; in a +second they had shut up their boxes, folded their sliding screens and +their trick fans, and, humbly bowing to each of us, the little men and +little women disappeared. + +Slowly, as the shades of night closed around us, mingling all things in +the bluish darkness, Japan became once more, little by little, a fairy- +like and enchanted country. The great mountains, now black, were +mirrored and doubled in the still water at their feet, reflecting therein +their sharply reversed outlines, and presenting the mirage of fearful +precipices, over which we seemed to hang. The stars also were reversed +in their order, making, in the depths of the imaginary abyss, a +sprinkling of tiny phosphorescent lights. + +Then all Nagasaki became profusely illuminated, sparkling with multitudes +of lanterns: the smallest suburb, the smallest village was lighted up; +the tiniest but perched up among the trees, which in the daytime was +invisible, threw out its little glowworm glimmer. Soon there were +innumerable lights all over the country on all the shores of the bay, +from top to bottom of the mountains; myriads of glowing fires shone out +in the darkness, conveying the impression of a vast capital rising around +us in one bewildering amphitheatre. Beneath, in the silent waters, +another town, also illuminated, seemed to descend into the depths of the +abyss. The night was balmy, pure, delicious; the atmosphere laden with +the perfume of flowers came wafted to us from the mountains. From the +tea-houses and other nocturnal resorts, the sound of guitars reached our +ears, seeming in the distance the sweetest of music. And the whirr of +the cicalas--which, in Japan, is one of the continuous noises of life, +and which in a few days we shall no longer even be aware of, so +completely is it the background and foundation of all other terrestrial +sounds--was sonorous, incessant, softly monotonous, like the murmur of a +waterfall. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE GARDEN OF FLOWERS + +The next day the rain fell in torrents, merciless and unceasing, blinding +and drenching everything--a rain so dense that it was impossible to see +through it from one end of the vessel to the other. It seemed as if the +clouds of the whole world had amassed themselves in Nagasaki Bay, and +chosen this great green funnel to stream down. And so thickly did the +rain fall that it became almost as dark as night. Through a veil of +restless water, we still perceived the base of the mountains, but the +summits were lost to sight among the great dark masses overshadowing us. +Above us shreds of clouds, seemingly torn from the dark vault, draggled +across the trees, like gray rags-continually melting away in torrents of +water. The wind howled through the ravines with a deep tone. The whole +surface of the bay, bespattered by the rain, flogged by the gusts of wind +that blew from all quarters, splashed, moaned, and seethed in violent +agitation. + +What depressing weather for a first landing, and how was I to find a wife +through such a deluge, in an unknown country? + +No matter! I dressed myself and said to Yves, who smiled at my obstinate +determination in spite of unfavorable circumstances: + +"Hail me a 'sampan,' brother, please." + +Yves then, by a motion of his arm through the wind and rain, summoned a +kind of little, white, wooden sarcophagus which was skipping near us on +the waves, sculled by two yellow boys stark naked in the rain. The craft +approached us, I jumped into it, then through a little trap-door shaped +like a rat-trap that one of the scullers threw open for me, I slipped in +and stretched myself at full length on a mat in what is called the +"cabin" of a sampan. + +There was just room enough for my body to lie in this floating coffin, +which was scrupulously clean, white with the whiteness of new deal +boards. I was well sheltered from the rain, that fell pattering on my +lid, and thus I started for the town, lying in this box, flat on my +stomach, rocked by one wave, roughly shaken by another, at moments almost +overturned; and through the half-opened door of my rattrap I saw, upside- +down, the two little creatures to whom I had entrusted my fate, children +of eight or ten years of age at the most, who, with little monkeyish +faces, had, however, fully developed muscles, like miniature men, and +were already as skilful as regular old salts. + +Suddenly they began to shout; no doubt we were approaching the landing- +place. And indeed, through my trap-door, which I had now thrown wide +open, I saw quite near to me the gray flagstones on the quays. I got out +of my sarcophagus and prepared to set foot on Japanese soil for the first +time in my life. + +All was streaming around us, and the tiresome rain dashed into my eyes. + +Hardly had I landed, when there bounded toward me a dozen strange beings, +of what description it was almost impossible to distinguish through the +blinding rain--a species of human hedgehog, each dragging some large +black object; they came screaming around me and stopped my progress. One +of them opened and held over my head an enormous, closely-ribbed +umbrella, decorated on its transparent surface with paintings of storks; +and they all smiled at me in an engaging manner, with an air of +expectation. + +I had been forewarned; these were only the djins who were touting for the +honor of my preference; nevertheless I was startled at this sudden +attack, this Japanese welcome on a first visit to land (the djins or +djin-richisans, are the runners who drag little carts, and are paid for +conveying people to and fro, being hired by the hour or the distance, as +cabs are hired in Europe). + +Their legs were naked; to-day they were very wet, and their heads were +hidden under large, shady, conical hats. By way of waterproofs they wore +nothing less than mats of straw, with all the ends of the straws turned +outward, bristling like porcupines; they seemed clothed in a thatched +roof. They continued to smile, awaiting my choice. + +Not having the honor of being acquainted with any of them in particular, +I chose at haphazard the djin with the umbrella and got into his little +cart, of which he carefully lowered the hood. He drew an oilcloth apron +over my knees, pulling it up to my face, and then advancing, asked me, in +Japanese, something which must have meant: "Where to, sir?" To which I +replied, in the same language, "To the Garden of Flowers, my friend." + +I said this in the three words I had, parrot-like, learned by heart, +astonished that such sounds could mean anything, astonished, too, at +their being understood. We started, he running at full speed, I dragged +along and jerked about in his light chariot, wrapped in oilcloth, shut up +as if in a box--both of us unceasingly drenched all the while, and +dashing all around us the water and mud of the sodden ground. + +"To the Garden of Flowers," I had said, like a habitual frequenter of the +place, and quite surprised at hearing myself speak. But I was less +ignorant about Japan than might have been supposed. Many of my friends, +on their return home from that country, had told me about it, and I knew +a great deal; the Garden of Flowers is a tea-house, an elegant +rendezvous. There I should inquire for a certain Kangourou-San, who is +at the same time interpreter, laundryman, and confidential agent for the +intercourse of races. Perhaps this very evening, if all went well, I +should be introduced to the bride destined for me by mysterious fate. +This thought kept my mind on the alert during the panting journey we +made, the djin and I, one dragging the other, under the merciless +downpour. + +Oh, what a curious Japan I saw that day, through the gaping of my +oilcloth coverings, from under the dripping hood of my little cart! A +sullen, muddy, half-drowned Japan. All these houses, men, and beasts, +hitherto known to me only in drawings; all these, that I had beheld +painted on blue or pink backgrounds of fans or vases, now appeared to me +in their hard reality, under a dark sky, with umbrellas and wooden shoes, +with tucked-up skirts and pitiful aspect. + +At times the rain fell so heavily that I closed up tightly every chink +and crevice, and the noise and shaking benumbed me, so that I completely +forgot in what country I was. In the hood of the cart were holes, +through which little streams ran down my back. Then, remembering that I +was going for the first time in my life through the very heart of +Nagasaki, I cast an inquiring look outside, at the risk of receiving a +drenching: we were trotting along through a mean, narrow, little back +street (there are thousands like it, a labyrinth of them), the rain +falling in cascades from the tops of the roofs on the gleaming flagstones +below, rendering everything indistinct and vague through the misty +atmosphere. At times we passed a woman struggling with her skirts, +unsteadily tripping along in her high wooden shoes, looking exactly like +the figures painted on screens, cowering under a gaudily daubed paper +umbrella. Again, we passed a pagoda, where an old granite monster, +squatting in the water, seemed to make a hideous, ferocious grimace at +me. + +How large this Nagasaki is! Here had we been running hard for the last +hour, and still it seemed never-ending. It is a flat plain, and one +never would suppose from the view in the offing that so vast a plain lies +in the depth of this valley. + +It would, however, have been impossible for me to say where I was, or in +what direction we had run; I abandoned my fate to my djin and to my good +luck. + +What a steam-engine of a man my djin was! I had been accustomed to the +Chinese runners, but they were nothing beside this fellow. When I part +my oilcloth to peep at anything, he is naturally always the first object +in my foreground; his two naked, brown, muscular legs, scampering along, +splashing all around, and his bristling hedgehog back bending low in the +rain. Do the passers-by, gazing at this little dripping cart, guess that +it contains a suitor in quest of a bride? + +At last my vehicle stops, and my djin, with many smiles and precautions +lest any fresh rivers should stream down my back, lowers the hood of the +cart; there is a break in the storm, and the rain has ceased. I had not +yet seen his face; as an exception to the general rule, he is good- +looking; a young man of about thirty years of age, of intelligent and +strong appearance, and a frank countenance. Who could have foreseen that +a few days later this very djin? But no, I will not anticipate, and run +the risk of throwing beforehand any discredit on Chrysantheme. + +We had therefore reached our destination, and found ourselves at the foot +of a high, overhanging mountain; probably beyond the limits of the town, +in some suburban district. It apparently became necessary to continue +our journey on foot, and to climb up an almost perpendicular narrow path. + +Around us, a number of small country-houses, garden-walls, and high +bamboo palisades shut off the view. The green hill crushed us with its +towering height; the heavy, dark clouds lowering over our heads seemed +like a leaden canopy confining us in this unknown spot; it really seemed +as if the complete absence of perspective inclined one all the better to +notice the details of this tiny corner, muddy and wet, of homely Japan, +now lying before our eyes. The earth was very red. The grasses and wild +flowers bordering the pathway were strange to me; nevertheless, the +palings were covered with convolvuli like our own, and I recognized china +asters, zinnias, and other familiar flowers in the gardens. The +atmosphere seemed laden with a curiously complicated odor, something +besides the perfume of the plants and soil, arising no doubt from the +human dwelling-places--a mingled odor, I fancied, of dried fish and +incense. Not a creature was to be seen; of the inhabitants, of their +homes and life, there was not a vestige, and I might have imagined myself +anywhere in the world. + +My djin had fastened his little cart under a tree, and together we +climbed the steep path on the slippery red soil. + +"We are going to the Garden of Flowers, are we not?" I inquired, +desirous to ascertain whether I had been understood. + +"Yes, yes," replied the djin, "it is up there, and quite near." + +The road turned, steep banks hemming it in and darkening it. On one side +it skirted the mountain, all covered with a tangle of wet ferns; on the +other appeared a large wooden house almost devoid of openings and of evil +aspect; it was there that my djin halted. + +What, was that sinister-looking house the Garden of Flowers? He assured +me that it was, and seemed very sure of the fact. We knocked at a large +door which opened immediately, slipping back in its groove. Then two +funny little women appeared, oldish-looking, but with evident pretensions +to youth: exact types of the figures painted on vases, with their tiny +hands and feet. + +On catching sight of me they threw themselves on all fours, their faces +touching the floor. Good gracious! What can be the matter? I asked +myself. Nothing at all, it was only the ceremonious salute, to which I +am as yet unaccustomed. They arose, and proceeded to take off my boots +(one never keeps on one's shoes in a Japanese house), wiping the bottoms +of my trousers, and feeling my shoulders to see whether I am wet. + +What always strikes one on first entering a Japanese dwelling is the +extreme cleanliness, the white and chilling bareness of the rooms. + +Over the most irreproachable mattings, without a crease, a line, or a +stain, I was led upstairs to the first story and ushered into a large, +empty room--absolutely empty! The paper walls were mounted on sliding +panels, which, fitting into each other, can be made to disappear--and all +one side of the apartment opened like a veranda, giving a view of the +green country and the gray sky beyond. By way of a chair, they gave me a +square cushion of black velvet; and behold me seated low, in the middle +of this large, empty room, which by its very vastness is almost chilly. +The two little women (who are the servants of the house and my very +humble servants, too), awaited my orders, in attitudes expressive of the +profoundest humility. + +It seemed extraordinary that the quaint words, the curious phrases I had +learned during our exile at the Pescadores Islands--by sheer dint of +dictionary and grammar, without attaching the least sense to them--should +mean anything. But so it seemed, however, for I was at once understood. + +I wished in the first place to speak to one M. Kangourou, who is +interpreter, laundryman, and matrimonial agent. Nothing could be easier: +they knew him and were willing to go at once in search of him; and the +elder of the waiting-maids made ready for the purpose her wooden clogs +and her paper umbrella. + +Next I demanded a well-served repast, composed of the greatest delicacies +of Japan. Better and better! they rushed to the kitchen to order it. + +Finally, I beg they will give tea and rice to my djin, who is waiting for +me below; I wish,--in short, I wish many things, my dear little dolls, +which I will mention by degrees and with due deliberation, when I shall +have had time to assemble the necessary words. But the more I look at +you the more uneasy I feel as to what my fiancee of to-morrow may be +like. Almost pretty, I grant you, you are--in virtue of quaintness, +delicate hands, miniature feet, but ugly, after all, and absurdly small. +You look like little monkeys, like little china ornaments, like I don't +know what. I begin to understand that I have arrived at this house at an +ill-chosen moment. Something is going on which does not concern me, and +I feel that I am in the way. + +From the beginning I might have guessed as much, notwithstanding the +excessive politeness of my welcome; for I remember now, that while they +were taking off my boots downstairs, I heard a murmuring chatter +overhead, then a noise of panels moved quickly along their grooves, +evidently to hide from me something not intended for me to see; they were +improvising for me the apartment in which I now am just as in menageries +they make a separate compartment for some beasts when the public is +admitted. + +Now I am left alone while my orders are being executed, and I listen +attentively, squatted like a Buddha on my black velvet cushion, in the +midst of the whiteness of the walls and mats. + +Behind the paper partitions, feeble voices, seemingly numerous, are +talking in low tones. Then rises the sound of a guitar, and the song of +a woman, plaintive and gentle in the echoing sonority of the bare house, +in the melancholy of the rainy weather. + +What one can see through the wide-open veranda is very pretty; I will +admit that it resembles the landscape of a fairytale. There are +admirably wooded mountains, climbing high into the dark and gloomy sky, +and hiding in it the peaks of their summits, and, perched up among the +clouds, is a temple. The atmosphere has that absolute transparency, that +distance and clearness which follows a great fall of rain; but a thick +pall, still heavy with moisture, remains suspended over all, and on the +foliage of the hanging woods still float great flakes of gray fluff, +which remain there, motionless. In the foreground, in front of and below +this almost fantastic landscape, is a miniature garden where two +beautiful white cats are taking the air, amusing themselves by pursuing +each other through the paths of a Lilliputian labyrinth, shaking the wet +sand from their paws. The garden is as conventional as possible: not a +flower, but little rocks, little lakes, dwarf trees cut in grotesque +fashion; all this is not natural, but it is most ingeniously arranged, so +green, so full of fresh mosses! + +In the rain-soaked country below me, to the very farthest end of the vast +scene, reigns a great silence, an absolute calm. But the woman's voice, +behind the paper wall, continues to sing in a key of gentle sadness, and +the accompanying guitar has sombre and even gloomy notes. + +Stay, though! Now the music is somewhat quicker--one might even suppose +they were dancing! + +So much the worse! I shall try to look between the fragile divisions, +through a crack which has revealed itself to my notice. + +What a singular spectacle it is; evidently the gilded youth of Nagasaki +holding a great clandestine orgy! In an apartment as bare as my own, +there are a dozen of them, seated in a circle on the ground, attired in +long blue cotton dresses with pagoda sleeves, long, sleek, and greasy +hair surmounted by European pot-hats; and beneath these, yellow, worn- +out, bloodless, foolish faces. On the floor are a number of little +spirit-lamps, little pipes, little lacquer trays, little teapots, little +cups-all the accessories and all the remains of a Japanese feast, +resembling nothing so much as a doll's tea-party. In the midst of this +circle of dandies are three overdressed women, one might say three weird +visions, robed in garments of pale and indefinable colors, embroidered +with golden monsters; their great coiffures are arranged with fantastic +art, stuck full of pins and flowers. Two are seated with their backs +turned to me: one is holding the guitar, the other singing with that +soft, pretty voice; thus seen furtively, from behind, their pose, their +hair, the nape of their necks, all is exquisite, and I tremble lest a +movement should reveal to me faces which might destroy the enchantment. +The third girl is on her feet, dancing before this areopagus of idiots, +with their lanky locks and pot-hats. What a shock when she turns round! +She wears over her face the horribly grinning, death-like mask of a +spectre or a vampire. The mask unfastened, falls. And behold! a +darling little fairy of about twelve or fifteen years of age, slim, and +already a coquette, already a woman--dressed in a long robe of shaded +dark-blue china crape, covered with embroidery representing bats-gray +bats, black bats, golden bats. + +Suddenly there are steps on the stairs, the light foot steps of +barefooted women pattering over the white mats. No doubt the first +course of my luncheon is just about to be served. I fall back quickly, +fixed and motionless, upon my black velvet cushion. There are three of +them now, three waiting-maids who arrive in single file, with smiles and +curtseys. One offers me the spirit-lamp and the teapot; another, +preserved fruits in delightful little plates; the third, absolutely +indefinable objects upon gems of little trays. And they grovel before me +on the floor, placing all this plaything of a meal at my feet. + +At this moment, my impressions of Japan are charming enough; I feel +myself fairly launched upon this tiny, artificial, fictitious world, +which I felt I knew already from the paintings on lacquer and porcelains. +It is so exact a representation! The three little squatting women, +graceful and dainty, with their narrow slits of eyes, their magnificent +coiffures in huge bows, smooth and shining as shoe-polish, and the little +tea-service on the floor, the landscape seen through the veranda, the +pagoda perched among the clouds; and over all the same affectation +everywhere, in every detail. Even the woman's melancholy voice, still to +be heard behind the paper partition, was evidently the proper way for +them to sing--these musicians I had so often seen painted in amazing +colors on rice-paper, half closing their dreamy eyes among impossibly +large flowers. Long before I arrived there, I had perfectly pictured +Japan to myself. Nevertheless, in the reality it almost seems to be +smaller, more finicking than I had imagined it, and also much more +mournful, no doubt by reason of that great pall of black clouds hanging +over us, and this incessant rain. + +While awaiting M. Kangourou (who is dressing himself, it appears, and +will be here shortly), it may be as well to begin luncheon. + +In the daintiest bowl imaginable, adorned with flights of storks, is the +most wildly impossible soup made of seaweed. After which there are +little fish dried in sugar, crabs in sugar, beans in sugar, and fruits in +vinegar and pepper. All this is atrocious, but above all unexpected and +unimaginable. The little women make me eat, laughing much, with that +perpetual, irritating laugh which is peculiar to Japan--they make me eat, +according to their fashion, with dainty chop-sticks, fingered with +affected grace. I am becoming accustomed to their faces. The whole +effect is refined--a refinement so entirely different from our own that +at first sight I understand nothing of it, although in the long run it +may end by pleasing me. + +Suddenly enters, like a night butterfly awakened in broad daylight, like +a rare and surprising moth, the dancing-girl from the other compartment, +the child who wore the horrible mask. No doubt she wishes to have a look +at me. She rolls her eyes like a timid kitten, and then all at once +tamed, nestles against me, with a coaxing air of childishness, which is a +delightfully transparent assumption. She is slim, elegant, delicate, and +smells sweet; she is drolly painted, white as plaster, with a little +circle of rouge marked very precisely in the middle of each cheek, the +mouth reddened, and a touch of gilding outlining the under lip. As they +could not whiten the back of her neck on account of all the delicate +little curls of hair growing there, they had, in their love of +exactitude, stopped the white plaster in a straight line, which might +have been cut with a knife, and in consequence at the nape appears a +square of natural skin of a deep yellow. + +An imperious note sounds on the guitar, evidently a summons! Crac! Away +she goes, the little fairy, to entertain the drivelling fools on the +other side of the screens. + +Suppose I marry this one, without seeking any further. I should respect +her as a child committed to my care; I should take her for what she is: +a fantastic and charming plaything. What an amusing little household I +should set up! Really, short of marrying a china ornament, I should find +it difficult to choose better. + +At this moment enters M. Kangourou, clad in a suit of gray tweed, which +might have come from La Belle Jardiniere or the Pont Neuf, with a pot-hat +and white thread gloves. His countenance is at once foolish and cunning; +he has hardly any nose or eyes. He makes a real Japanese salutation: an +abrupt dip, the hands placed flat on the knees, the body making a right +angle to the legs, as if the fellow were breaking in two; a little snake- +like hissing (produced by sucking the saliva between the teeth, which is +the highest expression of obsequious politeness in this country). + +"You speak French, Monsieur Kangourou?" + +"Yes, Monsieur" (renewed bows). + +He makes one for each word I utter, as if he were a mechanical toy pulled +by a string; when he is seated before me on the ground, he limits himself +to a duck of the head--always accompanied by the same hissing noise of +the saliva. + +"A cup of tea, Monsieur Kangourou?" + +Fresh salute and an extra affected gesticulation with the hands, as if to +say, "I should hardly dare. It is too great a condescension on your +part. However, anything to oblige you." + +He guesses at the first words what I require from him. + +"Of course," he replies, "we shall see about it at once. In a week's +time, as it happens, a family from Simonoseki, in which there are two +charming daughters, will be here!" + +"What! in a week! You don't know me, Monsieur Kangourou! No, no, +either now, to-morrow, or not at all." + +Again a hissing bow, and Kangourou-San, understanding my agitation, +begins to pass in feverish review all the young persons at his disposal +in Nagasaki. + +"Let us see--there was Mademoiselle Oeillet. What a pity that you did +not speak a few days sooner! So pretty! So clever at playing the +guitar! It is an irreparable misfortune; she was engaged only yesterday +by a Russian officer. + +"Ah! Mademoiselle Abricot!--Would she suit you, Mademoiselle Abricot? +She is the daughter of a wealthy China merchant in the Decima Bazaar, a +person of the highest merit; but she would be very dear: her parents, who +think a great deal of her, will not let her go under a hundred yen-- +[A yen is equal to four shillings.]--a month. She is very accomplished, +thoroughly understands commercial writing, and has at her fingers'-ends +more than two thousand characters of learned writing. In a poetical +competition she gained the first prize with a sonnet composed in praise +of 'the blossoms of the blackthorn hedges seen in the dew of early +morning.' Only, she is not very pretty: one of her eyes is smaller than +the other, and she has a hole in her cheek, resulting from an illness of +her childhood." + +"Oh, no! on no account that one! Let us seek among a less distinguished +class of young persons, but without scars. And how about those on the +other side of the screen, in those fine gold-embroidered dresses? For +instance, the dancer with the spectre mask, Monsieur Kangourou? or again +she who sings in so dulcet a strain and has such a charming nape to her +neck?" + +He does not, at first, understand my drift; then when he gathers my +meaning, he shakes his head almost in a joking way, and says: + +"No, Monsieur, no! Those are only geishas,--[Geishas are professional +dancers and singers trained at the Yeddo Conservatory.]--Monsieur-- +geishas!" + +"Well, but why not a geisha? What difference can it make to me whether +they are geishas or not?" Later, no doubt, when I understand Japanese +affairs better, I shall appreciate myself the enormity of my proposal: +one would really suppose I had talked of marrying the devil. + +At this point M. Kangourou suddenly calls to mind one Mademoiselle +Jasmin. Heavens! how was it he had not thought of her at once? She is +absolutely and exactly what I want; he will go to-morrow, or this very +evening, to make the necessary overtures to the parents of this young +person, who live a long way off, on the opposite hill, in the suburb of +Diou-djen-dji. She is a very pretty girl of about fifteen. She can +probably be engaged for about eighteen or twenty dollars a month, on +condition of presenting her with a few costumes of the best fashion, and +of lodging her in a pleasant and well-situated house--all of which a man +of gallantry like myself could not fail to do. + +Well, let us fix upon Mademoiselle Jasmin, then--and now we must part; +time presses. M. Kangourou will come on board to-morrow to communicate +to me the result of his first proceedings and to arrange with me for the +interview. For the present he refuses to accept any remuneration; but I +am to give him my washing, and to procure him the custom of my brother +officers of the 'Triomphante.' It is all settled. Profound bows--they +put on my boots again at the door. My djin, profiting by the interpreter +kind fortune has placed in his way, begs to be recommended to me for +future custom; his stand is on the quay; his number is 415, inscribed in +French characters on the lantern of his vehicle (we have a number 415 on +board, one Le Goelec, gunner, who serves the left of one of my guns; +happy thought! I shall remember this); his price is sixpence the +journey, or five-pence an hour, for his customers. Capital! he shall +have my custom, that is promised. And now, let us be off. The waiting- +maids, who have escorted me to the door, fall on all fours as a final +salute, and remain prostrate on the threshold as long as I am still in +sight down the dark pathway, where the rain trickles off the great +overarching bracken upon my head. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CHOOSING A BRIDE + +Three days have passed. Night is closing, in an apartment which has been +mine since yesterday. Yves and I, on the first floor, move restlessly +over the white mats, striding to and fro in the great bare room, of which +the thin, dry flooring cracks beneath our footsteps; we are both rather +irritated by prolonged expectation. Yves, whose impatience shows itself +more freely, from time to time looks out of the window. As for myself, a +chill suddenly seizes me, at the idea that I have chosen to inhabit this +lonely house, lost in the midst of the suburb of a totally strange town, +perched high on the mountain and almost opening upon the woods. + +What wild notion could have taken possession of me, to settle myself in +surroundings so foreign and unknown, breathing of isolation and sadness? +The waiting unnerves me, and I beguile the time by examining all the +little details of the building. The woodwork of the ceiling is +complicated and ingenious. On the partitions of white paper which form +the walls, are scattered tiny, microscopic, blue-feathered tortoises. + +"They are late," said Yves, who is still looking out into the street. + +As to being late, that they certainly are, by a good hour already, and +night is falling, and the boat which should take us back to dine on board +will be gone. Probably we shall have to sup Japanese fashion tonight, +heaven only knows where. The people of this country have no sense of +punctuality, or of the value of time. + +Therefore I continue to inspect the minute and comical details of my +dwelling. Here, instead of handles such as we should have made to pull +these movable partitions, they have made little oval-holes, just the +shape of a finger-end, into which one is evidently to put one's thumb. +These little holes have a bronze ornamentation, and, on looking closely, +one sees that the bronze is curiously chased: here is a lady fanning +herself; there, in the next hole, is represented a branch of cherry in +full blossom. What eccentricity there is in the taste of this people! +To bestow assiduous labor on such miniature work, and then to hide it at +the bottom of a hole to put one's finger in, looking like a mere spot in +the middle of a great white panel; to accumulate so much patient and +delicate workmanship on almost imperceptible accessories, and all to +produce an effect which is absolutely nil, an effect of the most complete +bareness and nudity. + +Yves still continues to gaze forth, like Sister Anne. From the side on +which he leans, my veranda overlooks a street, or rather a road bordered +with houses, which climbs higher and higher, and loses itself almost +immediately in the verdure of the mountain, in the fields of tea, the +underwood and the cemeteries. As for myself, this delay finally +irritates me thoroughly, and I turn my glances to the opposite side. +The other end of my house, also a veranda, opens first of all upon a +garden; then upon a marvellous panorama of woods and mountains, with all +the venerable Japanese quarters of Nagasaki lying confusedly like a black +ant-heap, six hundred feet below us. This evening, in a dull twilight, +notwithstanding that it is a twilight of July, these things are +melancholy. Great clouds heavy with rain and showers, ready to fall, are +travelling across the sky. No, I can not feel at home in this strange +dwelling I have chosen; I feel sensations of extreme solitude and +strangeness; the mere prospect of passing the night in it gives me a +shudder of horror. + +"Ah! at last, brother," said Yves, "I believe--yes, I really believe she +is coming at last." + +I look over his shoulder, and I see a back view of a little doll, the +finishing touches to whose toilette are being put in the solitary street; +a last maternal glance is given the enormous bows of the sash, the folds +at the waist. Her dress is of pearl-gray silk, her obi (sash) of mauve +satin; a sprig of silver flowers trembles in her black hair; a parting +ray of sunlight touches the little figure; five or six persons accompany +her. Yes! it is undoubtedly Mademoiselle Jasmin; they are bringing me my +fiancee! + +I rush to the ground floor, inhabited by old Madame Prune, my landlady, +and her aged husband; they are absorbed in prayer before the altar of +their ancestors. + +"Here they are, Madame Prune," I cry in Japanese; "here they are! Bring +at once the tea, the lamp, the embers, the little pipes for the ladies, +the little bamboo pots! Bring up, as quickly as possible, all the +accessories for my reception!" + +I hear the front door open, and hasten upstairs again. Wooden clogs are +deposited on the floor, the staircase creaks gently under little bare +feet. Yves and I look at each other, with a longing to laugh. + +An old lady enters--two old ladies--three old ladies, emerging from the +doorway one after another with jerking and mechanical salutations, which +we return as best we can, fully conscious of our inferiority in this +particular style. Then come persons of intermediate age--then quite +young ones, a dozen at least, friends, neighbors, the whole quarter, in +fact. And the entire company, on arriving, becomes confusedly engaged in +reciprocal salutations: I salute you--you salute me--I salute you again, +and you return it--and I re-salute you again, and I express that I shall +never, never be able to return it according to your high merit--and I +bang my forehead against the ground, and you stick your nose between the +planks of the flooring, and there they are, on all fours one before +another; it is a polite dispute, all eager to yield precedence as to +sitting down, or passing first, and compliments without end are murmured +in low tones, with faces against the floor. + +They seat themselves at last, smiling, in a ceremonious circle; we two +remaining standing, our eyes fixed on the staircase. And at length +emerges the little aigrette of silver flowers, the ebony coiffure, the +gray silk robe and mauve sash of Mademoiselle Jasmin, my fiancee! + +Heavens! why, I know her already! Long before setting foot in Japan, +I had met her, on every fan, on every teacup with her silly air, her +puffy little face, her tiny eyes, mere gimlet-holes above those expanses +of impossible pink and white cheeks. + +She is young, that is all I can say in her favor; she is even so young +that I should almost scruple to accept her. The wish to laugh leaves me +suddenly, and instead, a profound chill seizes my heart. What! share +even an hour of my life with that little doll? Never! + +The next question is, how to get rid of her. + +She advances smiling, with an air of repressed triumph, and behind her +looms M. Kangourou, in his suit of gray tweed. Fresh salutes, and behold +her on all fours, she too, before my landlady and before my neighbors. +Yves, the big Yves, who is not about to be married, stands behind me, +with a comical grimace, hardly repressing his laughter--while to give +myself time to collect my ideas, I offer tea in little cups, little +spittoons, and embers to the company. + +Nevertheless, my discomfited air does not escape my visitors. +M. Kangourou anxiously inquires: + +"How do you like her?" And I reply in a low voice, but with great +resolution: + +"Not at all! I won't have that one. Never!" + +I believe that this remark was almost understood in the circle around me. +Consternation was depicted on every face, jaws dropped, and pipes went +out. And now I address my reproaches to Kangourou: "Why have you brought +her to me in such pomp, before friends and neighbors of both sexes, +instead of showing her to me discreetly, as if by chance, as I had +wished? What an affront you will compel me now to put upon all these +polite persons!" + +The old ladies (the mamma, no doubt, and aunts), prick up their ears, and +M. Kangourou translates to them, softening as much as possible, my +heartrending decision. I feel really almost sorry for them; the fact is, +that for women who, not to put too fine a point upon it, have come to +sell a child, they have an air I was not prepared for: I can hardly say +an air of respectability (a word in use with us which is absolutely +without meaning in Japan), but an air of unconscious and good-natured +simplicity. They are only doing a thing that is perfectly admissible in +their world, and really it all resembles, more than I could have thought +possible, a bona fide marriage. + +"But what fault do you find with the little girl?" asks M. Kangourou, in +consternation. + +I endeavor to present the matter in the most flattering light: + +"She is very young," I say; "and then she is too white, too much like our +own women. I wished for one with an ivory skin, just as a change." + +"But that is only the paint they have put on her, Monsieur! Beneath it, +I assure you, she is of an ivory hue." + +Yves leans toward me and whispers: + +"Look over there, brother, in that corner by the last panel; have you +noticed the one who is sitting down?" + +Not I. In my annoyance I had not observed her; she had her back to the +light, was dressed in dark colors, and sat in the careless attitude of +one who keeps in the background. The fact is, this one pleased me much +better. Eyes with long lashes, rather narrow, but which would have been +called good in any country in the world; with almost an expression, +almost a thought. A coppery tint on her rounded cheeks; a straight nose; +slightly thick lips, but well modelled and with pretty corners. A little +older than Mademoiselle Jasmin, about eighteen years of age perhaps, +already more of a woman. She wore an expression of ennui, also of a +little contempt, as if she regretted her attendance at a spectacle which +dragged so much, and was so little amusing. + +"Monsieur Kangourou, who is that young lady over there, in dark blue?" + +"Over there, Monsieur? She is called Mademoiselle Chrysantheme. She +came with the others you see here; she is only here as a spectator. She +pleases you?" said he, with eager suddenness, espying a way out of his +difficulty. Then, forgetting all his politeness, all his +ceremoniousness, all his Japanesery, he takes her by the hand, forces her +to rise, to stand in the dying daylight, to let herself be seen. And +she, who has followed our eyes and begins to guess what is on foot, +lowers her head in confusion, with a more decided but more charming pout, +and tries to step back, half-sulky, half-smiling. + + +"It makes no difference," continues M. Kangourou, "it can be arranged +just as well with this one; she is not married either, Monsieur!" + +She is not married! Then why didn't the idiot propose her to me at once +instead of the other, for whom I have a feeling of the greatest pity, +poor little soul, with her pearl-gray dress, her sprig of flowers, her +now sad and mortified expression, and her eyes which twinkle like those +of a child about to cry. + +"It can be arranged, Monsieur!" repeats Kangourou again, who at this +moment appears to me a go-between of the lowest type, a rascal of the +meanest kind. + +Only, he adds, we, Yves and I, are in the way during the negotiations. +And, while Mademoiselle Chrysantheme remains with her eyelids lowered, +as befits the occasion, while the various families, on whose countenances +may be read every degree of astonishment, every phase of expectation, +remain seated in a circle on my white mats, he sends us two into the +veranda, and we gaze down into the depths below us, upon a misty and +vague Nagasaki, a Nagasaki melting into a blue haze of darkness. + +Then ensue long discourses in Japanese, arguments without end. +M. Kangourou, who is laundryman and low scamp in French only, has +returned for these discussions to the long formulas of his country. +From time to time I express impatience, I ask this worthy creature, +whom I am less and less able to consider in a serious light: + +"Come now, tell us frankly, Kangourou, are we any nearer coming to some +arrangement? Is all this ever going to end?" + +"In a moment, Monsieur, in a moment;" and he resumes his air of political +economist seriously debating social problems. + +Well, one must submit to the slowness of this people. And, while the +darkness falls like a veil over the Japanese town, I have leisure to +reflect, with as much melancholy as I please, upon the bargain that is +being concluded behind me. + +Night has closed in; it has been necessary to light the lamps. + +It is ten o'clock when all is finally settled, and M. Kangourou comes to +tell me: + +"All is arranged, Monsieur: her parents will give her up for twenty +dollars a month--the same price as Mademoiselle Jasmin." + +On hearing this, I am possessed suddenly with extreme vexation that I +should have made up my mind so quickly to link myself in ever so fleeting +and transient a manner with this little creature, and dwell with her in +this isolated house. + +We return to the room; she is the centre of the circle and seated; and +they have placed the aigrette of flowers in her hair. There is actually +some expression in her glance, and I am almost persuaded that she--this +one--thinks. + +Yves is astonished at her modest attitude, at her little timid airs of a +young girl on the verge of matrimony; he had imagined nothing like it in +such a connection as this, nor I either, I must confess. + +"She is really very pretty, brother," said he; "very pretty, take my word +for it!" + +These good folks, their customs, this scene, strike him dumb with +astonishment; he can not get over it, and remains in a maze. "Oh! this +is too much," he says, and the idea of writing a long letter to his wife +at Toulven, describing it all, diverts him greatly. + +Chrysantheme and I join hands. Yves, too, advances and touches the +dainty little paw. After all, if I wed her, it is chiefly his fault; +I never should have remarked her without his observation that she was +pretty. Who can tell how this strange arrangement will turn out? Is it +a woman or a doll? Well, time will show. + +The families, having lighted their many-colored lanterns swinging at the +ends of slight sticks, prepare to retire with many compliments, bows, and +curtseys. When it is a question of descending the stairs, no one is +willing to go first, and at a given moment, the whole party are again on +all fours, motionless and murmuring polite phrases in undertones. + +"Haul back there!" said Yves, laughing, and employing a nautical term +used when there is a stoppage of any kind. + +At length they all melt away, descending the stairs with a last buzzing +accompaniment of civilities and polite phrases finished from one step to +another in voices which gradually die away. He and I remain alone in the +unfriendly, empty apartment, where the mats are still littered with the +little cups of tea, the absurd little pipes, and the miniature trays. + +"Let us watch them go away!" said Yves, leaning out. At the door of the +garden is a renewal of the same salutations and curtseys, and then the +two groups of women separate, their bedaubed paper lanterns fade away +trembling in the distance, balanced at the extremity of flexible canes +which they hold in their fingertips as one would hold a fishing-rod in +the dark to catch night-birds. The procession of the unfortunate +Mademoiselle Jasmin mounts upward toward the mountain, while that of +Mademoiselle Chrysantheme winds downward by a narrow old street, half- +stairway, half-goat-path, which leads to the town. + +Then we also depart. The night is fresh, silent, exquisite, the eternal +song of the cicalas fills the air. We can still see the red lanterns of +my new family, dwindling away in the distance, as they descend and +gradually become lost in that yawning abyss, at the bottom of which lies +Nagasaki. + +Our way, too, lies downward, but on an opposite slope by steep paths +leading to the sea. + +And when I find myself once more on board, when the scene enacted on the +hill above recurs to my mind, it seems to me that my betrothal is a joke, +and my new family a set of puppets. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A FANTASTIC MARRIAGE + +July 10, 1885. + +Three days have passed since my marriage was an accomplished fact. + +In the lower part of the town, in one of the new cosmopolitan districts, +in an ugly, pretentious building, which is a sort of registry office, the +deed was signed and countersigned, with marvellous hieroglyphics, in a +large book, in the presence of those absurd little creatures, formerly +silken-robed Samurai, but now called policemen, dressed up in tight +jackets and Russian caps. + +The ceremony took place in the full heat of midday; Chrysantheme and her +mother arrived together, and I alone. We seemed to have met for the +purpose of ratifying some discreditable contract, and the two women +trembled in the presence of these ugly little men, who, in their eyes, +were the personification of the law. + +In the middle of their official scrawl, they made me write in French my +name, Christian name, and profession. Then they gave me an extraordinary +document on a sheet of rice-paper, which set forth the permission granted +me by the civilian authorities of the island of Kiu-Siu, to inhabit a +house situated in the suburb of Diou-djen-dji, with a person called +Chrysantheme, the said permission being under the protection of the +police during the whole of my stay in Japan. + +In the evening, however, in our own quarter, our little marriage became a +very pretty affair--a procession carrying lanterns, a festive tea and +some music. All this seemed quite necessary. + +Now we are almost an old married couple, and we are gently settling down +into everyday habits. + +Chrysantheme tends the flowers in our bronze vases, dresses herself with +studied care, proud of her socks with the divided big toe, and strums all +day on a kind of long-necked guitar, producing sweet and plaintive +sounds. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MY NEW MENAGE + +In our home, everything looks like a Japanese picture: we have folding- +screens, little odd-shaped stools bearing vases full of flowers, and at +the farther end of the apartment, in a nook forming a kind of altar, a +large gilded Buddha sits enthroned in a lotus. + +The house is just as I had fancied it should be in the many dreams of +Japan I had had before my arrival, during the long night watches: perched +on high, in a peaceful suburb, in the midst of green gardens; made up of +paper panels, and taken to pieces according to one's fancy, like a +child's toy. Whole families of cicalas chirp day and night under our old +resounding roof. From our veranda we have a bewildering bird's-eye view +of Nagasaki, of its streets, its junks, and its great pagodas, which, at +certain hours, is illuminated at our feet like some scene in fairyland. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE LADIES OF THE FANS + +Regarded as a mere outline, little Chrysantheme has been seen everywhere +and by everybody. Whoever has looked at one of those paintings on china +or silk that are sold in our bazaars, knows perfectly the pretty, stiff +head-dress, the leaning figure, ever ready to try some new gracious +salutation, the sash fastened behind in an enormous bow, the large, +flowing sleeves, the drapery slightly clinging about the ankles with a +little crooked train like a lizard's tail. + +But her face--no, not every one has seen that; there is something special +about it. + +Moreover, the type of women the Japanese paint mostly on their vases is +an exceptional one in their country. It is almost exclusively among the +nobility that these personages are found, with their long, pale faces, +painted in tender rose-tints, and silly, long necks which give them the +appearance of storks. This distinguished type (which I am obliged to +admit was also Mademoiselle Jasmin's) is rare, particularly at Nagasaki. + +Among the middle classes and the common people, the ugliness is more +pleasant and sometimes becomes a kind of prettiness. The eyes are still +too small and hardly able to open, but the faces are rounder, browner, +more vivacious; and in the women remains a certain vagueness of feature, +something childlike which prevails to the very end of their lives. + +They are so laughing, and so merry, all these little Nipponese dolls! +Rather a forced mirth, it is true, studied, and at times with a false +ring; nevertheless one is attracted by it. + +Chrysantheme is an exception, for she is melancholy. What thoughts are +running through that little brain? My knowledge of her language is still +too limited to enable me to find out. Moreover, it is a hundred to one +that she has no thoughts whatever. And even if she had, what do I care? + +I have chosen her to amuse me, and I should really prefer that she should +have one of those insignificant little thoughtless faces like all the +others. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE NECESSARY VEIL + +When night comes on, we light two hanging lamps of religious symbolism, +which burn till daylight, before our gilded idol. + +We sleep on the floor, on a thin cotton mattress, which is unfolded and +laid out over our white matting. Chrysantheme's pillow is a little +wooden block, cut so as to fit exactly the nape of her neck, without +disturbing the elaborate head-dress, which must never be taken down; the +pretty black hair I shall probably never see undone. My pillow, a +Chinese model, is a kind of little square drum covered over with serpent- +skin. + +We sleep under a gauze mosquito-net of sombre greenish-blue, dark as the +shades of night, stretched out on an orange-colored ribbon. (These are +the traditional colors, and all respectable families of Nagasaki possess +a similar net.) It envelops us like a tent; the mosquitoes and the night- +moths whirl around it. + +This sounds very pretty, and written down looks very well. In reality, +however, it is not so; something, I know not what, is lacking, and +everything is very paltry. In other lands, in the delightful isles of +Oceania, in the old, lifeless quarters of Stamboul, it seemed as if mere +words could never express all I felt, and I struggled vainly against my +own inability to render, in human language, the penetrating charm +surrounding me. + +Here, on the contrary, words exact and truthful in themselves seem always +too thrilling, too great for the subject; seem to embellish it unduly. +I feel as if I were acting, for my own benefit, some wretchedly trivial +and third-rate comedy; and whenever I try to consider my home in a +serious spirit, the scoffing figure of M. Kangourou rises before me-- +the matrimonial agent, to whom I am indebted for my happiness. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MY PLAYTHING + +July 12th + +Yves visits us whenever he is free, in the evening at five o'clock, after +his duties on board are fulfilled. + +He is our only European visitor, and, with the exception of a few +civilities and cups of tea, exchanged with our neighbors, we lead a very +retired life. Only in the evenings, winding our way through the steep, +narrow streets and carrying our lanterns at the end of short sticks, we +go down to Nagasaki in search of amusement at the theatres, at the tea- +houses, or in the bazaars. + +Yves treats my wife as if she were a plaything, and continually assures +me that she is charming. + +I find her as exasperating as the cicalas on my roof; and when I am alone +at home, side by side with this little creature twanging the strings of +her long-necked guitar, facing this marvellous panorama of pagodas and +mountains, I am overcome by sadness almost to tears. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +NOCTURNAL TERRORS + +July 13th. + +Last night, as we reposed under the Japanese roof of Diou-djen-dji--the +thin old wooden roof scorched by a hundred years of sunshine, vibrating +at the least sound, like the stretched-out parchment of a tomtom--in the +silence which prevails at two o'clock in the morning, we heard overhead a +sound like a regular wild huntsman's chase passing at full gallop. + +"Nidzoumi!" ("The mice!") said Chrysantheme. + +Suddenly the word brings back to my mind yet another phrase, spoken in a +very different language, in a country far away from here: "Setchan!" a +word heard elsewhere, a word that has likewise been whispered in my ear +by a woman's voice, under similar circumstances, in a moment of nocturnal +terror--"Setchan!" It was during one of our first nights at Stamboul +spent under the mysterious roof of Eyoub, when danger surrounded us on +all sides; a noise on the steps of the black staircase had made us +tremble, and she also, my dear little Turkish companion, had said to +me in her beloved language, "Setchan!" ("the mice!"). + +At that fond recollection, a thrill of sweet memories coursed through my +veins; it was as if I had been startled out of a long ten years' sleep; +I looked down upon the doll beside me with a sort of hatred, wondering +why I was there, and I arose, with almost a feeling of remorse, to escape +from that blue gauze net. + +I stepped out upon the veranda, and there I paused, gazing into the +depths of the starlit night. Beneath me Nagasaki lay asleep, wrapped in +a soft, light slumber, hushed by the murmuring sound of a thousand +insects in the moonlight, and fairy-like with its roseate hues. Then, +turning my head, I saw behind me the gilded idol with our lamps burning +in front of it; the idol smiling the impassive smile of Buddha; and its +presence seemed to cast around it something, I know not what, strange and +incomprehensible. Never until now had I slept under the eye of such a +god. + +In the midst of the calm and silence of the night, I strove to recall my +poignant impressions of Stamboul; but, alas, I strove in vain, they would +not return to me in this strange, far-off world. Through the transparent +blue gauze appeared my little Japanese, as she lay in her sombre night- +robe with all the fantastic grace of her country, the nape of her neck +resting on its wooden block, and her hair arranged in large, shiny bows. +Her amber-tinted arms, pretty and delicate, emerged, bare up to the +shoulders, from her wide sleeves. + +"What can those mice on the roof have done to him?" thought +Chrysantheme. Of course she could not understand. In a coaxing manner, +like a playful kitten, she glanced at me with her half-closed eyes, +inquiring why I did not come back to sleep--and I returned to my place +by her side. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A GAME OF ARCHERY + +July 14th. + +This is the National Fete day of France. In Nagasaki Harbor, all the +ships are adorned with flags, and salutes are fired in our honor. + +Alas! All day long, I can not help thinking of that last fourteenth of +July, spent in the deep calm and quiet of my old home, the door shut +against all intruders, while the gay crowd roared outside; there I had +remained till evening, seated on a bench, shaded by an arbor covered with +honeysuckle, where, in the bygone days of my childhood's summers, I used +to settle myself with my copybooks and pretend to learn my lessons. Oh, +those days when I was supposed to learn my lessons! How my thoughts used +to rove--what voyages, what distant lands, what tropical forests did I +not behold in my dreams! At that time, near the garden-bench, in some of +the crevices in the stone wall, dwelt many a big, ugly, black spider +always on the alert, peeping out of his nook ready to pounce upon any +giddy fly or wandering centipede. One of my amusements consisted in +tickling the spiders gently, very gently, with a blade of grass or a +cherry-stalk in their webs. Mystified, they would rush out, fancying +they had to deal with some sort of prey, while I would rapidly draw back +my hand in disgust. Well, last year, on that fourteenth of July, as I +recalled my days of Latin themes and translations, now forever flown, +and this game of boyish days, I actually recognized the very same spiders +(or at least their daughters), lying in wait in the very same places. +Gazing at them, and at the tufts of grass and moss around me, a thousand +memories of those summers of my early life welled up within me, memories +which for years past had lain slumbering under this old wall, sheltered +by the ivy boughs. While all that is ourselves perpetually changes and +passes away, the constancy with which Nature repeats, always in the same +manner, her most infinitesimal details, seems a wonderful mystery; the +same peculiar species of moss grows afresh for centuries on precisely the +same spot, and the same little insects each summer do the same thing in +the same place. + +I must admit that this episode of my childhood, and the spiders, have +little to do with the story of Chrysantheme. But an incongruous +interruption is quite in keeping with the taste of this country; +everywhere it is practised, in conversation, in music, even in painting; +a landscape painter, for instance, when he has finished a picture of +mountains and crags, will not hesitate to draw, in the very middle of the +sky, a circle, or a lozenge, or some kind of framework, within which he +will represent anything incoherent and inappropriate: a bonze fanning +himself, or a lady taking a cup of tea. Nothing is more thoroughly +Japanese than such digressions, made without the slightest apropos. + +Moreover, if I roused my past memories, it was the better to force myself +to notice the difference between that day of July last year, so +peacefully spent amid surroundings familiar to me from my earliest +infancy, and my present animated life passed in the midst of such a novel +world. + +To-day, therefore, under the scorching midday sun, at two o'clock, three +swift-footed djins dragged us at full speed--Yves, Chrysantheme, and +myself--in Indian file, each in a little jolting cart, to the farther end +of Nagasaki, and there deposited us at the foot of some gigantic steps +that run straight up the mountain. + +These are the granite steps leading to the great temple of Osueva, wide +enough to give access to a whole regiment; they are as grand and imposing +as any work of Babylon or Nineveh, and in complete contrast with all the +finical surroundings. + +We climb up and up--Chrysantheme listlessly, affecting fatigue, under her +paper parasol painted with pink butterflies on a black ground. As we +ascended, we passed under enormous monastic porticoes, also in granite of +rude and primitive style. In truth, these steps and these temple +porticoes are the only imposing works that this people has created, and +they astonish, for they do not seem Japanese. + +We climb still higher. At this sultry hour of the day, from top to +bottom of the enormous gray steps, only we three are to be seen; on all +that granite there are but the pink butterflies on Chrysantheme's parasol +to give a cheerful and brilliant touch. + +We passed through the first temple yard, in which are two white china +turrets, bronze lanterns, and the statue of a large horse in jade. Then, +without pausing at the sanctuary, we turned to the left, and entered a +shady garden, which formed a terrace halfway up the hill, at the +extremity of which was situated the Donko-Tchaya--in English, the +Teahouse of the Toads. + +This was the place where Chrysantheme had wished to take us. We sat down +at a table, under a black linen tent decorated with large white letters +(of funereal aspect), and two laughing 'mousmes' hastened to wait upon +us. + +The word 'mousme' means a young girl, or very young woman. It is one of +the prettiest words in the Nipponese language; it seems almost as if +there were a little pout in the very sound--a pretty, taking little pout, +such as they put on, and also as if a little pert physiognomy were +described by it. I shall often make use of it, knowing none other in our +own language that conveys the same meaning. + +Some Japanese Watteau must have mapped out this Donko-Tchaya, for it has +rather an affected air of rurality, though very pretty. It is well +shaded, under a shelter of large trees with dense foliage, and a +miniature lake close by, the chosen residence of a few toads, has given +it its attractive denomination. Lucky toads, who crawl and croak on the +finest of moss, in the midst of tiny artificial islets decked with +gardenias in full bloom. From time to time, one of them informs us of +his thoughts by a 'Couac', uttered in a deep bass croak, infinitely more +hollow than that of our own toads. + +Under the tent of this tea-house, we sit on a sort of balcony jutting out +from the mountain-side, overhanging from on high the grayish town and its +suburbs buried in greenery. Around, above, and beneath us cling and +hang, on every possible point, clumps of trees and fresh green woods, +with the delicate and varying foliage of the temperate zone. We can see, +at our feet, the deep roadstead, foreshortened and slanting, diminished +in appearance till it looks like a sombre rent in the mass of large green +mountains; and farther still, quite low on the black and stagnant waters, +are the men-of-war, the steamboats and the junks, with flags flying from +every mast. Against the dark green, which is the dominant shade +everywhere, stand out these thousand scraps of bunting, emblems of the +different nationalities, all displayed, all flying in honor of far- +distant France. The colors most prevailing in this motley assemblage are +the white flag with a red ball, emblem of the Empire of the Rising Sun, +where we now are. + +With the exception of three or four 'mousmes' at the farther end, who are +practising with bows and arrows, we are today the only people in the +garden, and the mountain round about is silent. + +Having finished her cigarette and her cup of tea, Chrysantheme also +wishes to exert her skill; for archery is still held in honor among the +young women. + +The old man who keeps the range picks out for her his best arrows tipped +with white and red feathers--and she takes aim with a serious air. The +mark is a circle, traced in the middle of a picture on which is painted, +in flat, gray tones, terrifying chimera flying through the clouds. + +Chrysantheme is certainly an adroit markswoman, and we admire her as much +as she expected. + +Then Yves, who is usually clever at all games of skill, wishes to try his +luck, and fails. It is amusing to see her, with her mincing ways and +smiles, arrange with the tips of her little fingers the sailor's broad +hands, placing them on the bow and the string in order to teach him the +proper manner. Never have they seemed to get on so well together, Yves +and my doll, and I might even feel anxious, were I less sure of my good +brother, and if, moreover, it was not a matter of perfect indifference to +me. + +In the stillness of the garden, amid the balmy peacefulness of these +mountains, a loud noise suddenly startles us; a unique, powerful, +terrible sound, which is prolonged in infinite metallic vibrations. It +begins again, sounding more appalling: 'Boum!' borne to us by the rising +wind. + +"Nippon Kane!" exclaims Chrysantheme--and she again takes up her +brightly feathered arrows. "Nippon Kane ("the Japanese brass"); it is +the Japanese brass that is sounding!" It is the monstrous gong of a +monastery, situated in a suburb beneath us. It is powerful indeed, "the +Japanese brass"! When the strokes are ended, when it is no longer heard, +a vibration seems to linger among the suspended foliage, and a prolonged +quiver runs through the air. + +I am obliged to admit that Chrysantheme looks very charming shooting her +arrows, her figure well bent back the better to bend her bow; her loose- +hanging sleeves caught up to her shoulders, showing the graceful bare +arms polished like amber and very much the same color. Each arrow +whistles by with the rustle of a bird's wing--then a short, sharp little +blow is heard, the target is hit, always. + +At nightfall, when Chrysantheme has gone up to Diou-djen-dji, we cross, +Yves and I, the European concession, on our way to the ship, to take up +our watch till the following day. The cosmopolitan quarter, exhaling an +odor of absinthe, is dressed up with flags, and squibs are being fired +off in honor of France. Long lines of djins pass by, dragging, as fast +as their naked legs can carry them, the crew of the 'Triomphante,' who +are shouting and fanning themselves. The Marseillaise is heard +everywhere; English sailors are singing it, gutturally, with a dull and +slow cadence like their own "God Save." In all the American bars, +grinding organs are hammering it with many an odious variation and +flourish, in order to attract our men. + +One amusing recollection comes back to me of that evening. On our +return, we had by mistake turned into a street inhabited by a multitude +of ladies of doubtful reputation. I can still see that big fellow Yves, +struggling with a whole band of tiny little 'mousmes' of twelve or +fifteen years of age, who barely reached up to his waist, and were +pulling him by the sleeves, eager to lead him astray. Astonished and +indignant, he repeated, as he extricated himself from their clutches, +"Oh, this is too much!" so shocked was he at seeing such mere babies, +so young, so tiny, already so brazen and shameless. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Efforts to arrange matters we succeed often only in disarranging +Irritating laugh which is peculiar to Japan +Ordinary, trivial, every-day objects +Seeking for a change which can no longer be found + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Madame Chrysantheme, v1 +by Pierre Loti + + + + + + +MADAME CHRYSANTHEME + +By PIERRE LOTI + + + +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! + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Ah! the natural perversity of inanimate things +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 +When the inattentive spirits are not listening + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Madame Chrysantheme, v2 +by Pierre Loti + + + + + + +MADAME CHRYSANTHEME + +By PIERRE LOTI + + + +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. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Dull hours spent in idle and diffuse conversation +Prayers swallowed like pills by invalids at a distance +Trees, dwarfed by a Japanese process +Which I should find amusing in any one else,--any one I loved + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Madame Chrysantheme, v3 +by Pierre Loti + + + + + + +MADAME CHRYSANTHEME + +By PIERRE LOTI + + +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 EDITORS BOOKMARKS: + +Japanese habit of expressing myself with excessive politeness +Contemptuous pity, both for my suspicions and the cause of them + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Madame Chrysantheme, v4 +by Pierre Loti + + + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE ENTIRE CHRYSANTHEME: + +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 this Project Gutenberg Etext of Madame Chrysantheme, entire +by Pierre Loti + |