diff options
46 files changed, 17 insertions, 10555 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a9d04b --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #55473 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55473) diff --git a/old/55473-0.txt b/old/55473-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d06b990..0000000 --- a/old/55473-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4995 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kott?, by Lafcadio Hearn - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Kott? - Being Japanese Curio's with Sundry Cobwebs - -Author: Lafcadio Hearn - -Illustrator: Genjiro Yeto - -Release Date: September 1, 2017 [EBook #55473] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KOTT? *** - - - - -Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at Free Literature (online soon -in an extended version,also linking to free sources for -education worldwide ... MOOC's, educational materials,...) -Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) - - - - - -KOTTŌ - -BEING JAPANESE CURIOS, WITH - -SUNDRY COBWEBS - -COLLECTED BY - -LAFCADIO HEARN - -Lecturer on Literature in the Imperial University of Tōkyō, Japan - -WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY - -GENJIRO YETO - -New York - -THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - -LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO. LTD. - -1903 - - -[Illustration] - -TO - -SIR EDWIN ARNOLD - -IN - -GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE - -OF - -KIND WORDS - - -[Illustration] - -Contents - - Old Stories: - - I. The Legend of Yurei-Daki - II. In a Cup of Tea - III. Common Sense - IV. Ikiryō - V. Shiryō - VI. The Story of O-Kamé - VII. Story of a Fly - VIII. Story of a Pheasant - IX. The Story of Chūgorō - - A Woman's Diary - Heiké-gani - Fireflies - A Drop of Dew - Gaki - A Matter of Custom - Revery - Pathological - In the Dead of the Night - Kusa-Hibari - The Eater of Dreams - - - - -Old Stories - -_The following nine tales have been selected from the -"Shin-Chomon-Shū" "Hyaku Monogatari," "Uji-Jūi-Monogatari-Shō," and -other old Japanese books, to illustrate some strange beliefs. They are -only Curios._ - -[Illustration] - - - - -The Legend of Yurei-Daki - - -Near the village of Kurosaka, in the province of Hōki, there is -a waterfall called Yurei-Daki, or The Cascade of Ghosts. Why it -is so called I do not know. Near the foot of the fall there is a -small Shintō shrine of the god of the locality, whom the people -name Taki-Daimyōjin; and in front of the shrine is a little wooden -money-box--_saisen-bako_--to receive the offerings of believers. And -there is a story about that money-box. - -* - -One icy winter's evening, thirty-five years ago, the women and girls -employed at a certain _asa-toriba_, or hemp-factory, in Kurosaka, -gathered around the big brazier in the spinning-room after their -day's work had been done. Then they amused themselves by telling -ghost-stories. By the time that a dozen stories had been told, most -of the gathering felt uncomfortable; and a girl cried out, just to -heighten the pleasure of fear, "Only think of going this night, all -by one's self, to the Yurei-Daki!" The suggestion provoked a general -scream, followed by nervous bursts of laughter.... "I'll give all the -hemp I spun to-day," mockingly said one of the party, "to the person -who goes!" "So will I," exclaimed another. "And I," said a third. "All -of us," affirmed a fourth.... Then from among the spinners stood up -one Yasumoto O-Katsu, the wife of a carpenter;--she had her only son, -a boy of two years old, snugly wrapped up and asleep upon her back. -"Listen," said O-Katsu; "if you will all really agree to make over to -me all the hemp spun to-day, I will go to the Yurei-Daki." Her proposal -was received with cries of astonishment and of defiance. But after -having been several times repeated, it was seriously taken. Each of -the spinners in turn agreed to give up her share of the day's work to -O-Katsu, providing that O-Katsu should go to the Yurei-Daki. "But how -are we to know if she really goes there?" a sharp voice asked. "Why, -let her bring back the money-box of the god," answered an old woman -whom the spinners called Obaa-San, the Grandmother; "that will be proof -enough." "I'll bring it," cried O-Katsu. And out she darted into the -street, with her sleeping boy upon her back. - -* - -The night, was frosty, but clear. Down the empty street O-Katsu -hurried; and she saw that all the house fronts were tightly closed, -because of the piercing cold. Out of the village, and along the -high road she ran--_pichà-pichà_--with the great silence of frozen -rice-fields on either hand, and only the stars to light her. Half -an hour she followed the open road; then she turned down a narrower -way, winding under cliffs. Darker and rougher the path became as she -proceeded; but she knew it well, and she soon heard the dull roar of -the water. A few minutes more, and the way widened into a glen,--and -the dull roar suddenly became a loud clamor,--and before her she -saw, looming against a mass of blackness, the long glimmering of the -fall. Dimly she perceived the shrine,--the money-box. She rushed -forward,--put out her hand.... - -"_Oi!_ O-Katsu-San!"[1] suddenly called a warning voice above the crash -of the water. - -O-Katsu stood motionless,--stupefied by terror. - -"_Oi!_ O-Katsu-San!" again pealed the voice,--this time with more of -menace in its tone. - -But O-Katsu was really a bold woman. At once recovering from her -stupefaction, she snatched up the money-box and ran. She neither -heard nor saw anything more to alarm her until she reached the -highroad, where she stopped a moment to take breath. Then she ran on -steadily,--_pichà-pichà_,--till she got to Kurosaka, and thumped at the -door of the _asa-toriba_. - -* - -How the women and the girls cried out as she entered, panting, with the -money-box of the god in her hand! Breathlessly they heard her story; -sympathetically they screeched when she told them of the Voice that -had called her name, twice, out of the haunted water.... What a woman! -Brave O-Katsu!--well had she earned the hemp!... "But your boy must be -cold, O-Katsu!" cried the Obaa-San, "let us have him here by the fire!" - -"He ought to be hungry," exclaimed the mother; "I must give him his -milk presently."... "Poor O-Katsu!" said the Obaa-San, helping to -remove the wraps in which the boy had been carried,--"why, you are all -wet behind!" Then, with a husky scream, the helper vociferated, "_Arà! -it is blood!_" - -And out of the wrappings unfastened there fell to the floor a -blood-soaked bundle of baby clothes that left exposed two very small -brown feet, and two very small brown hands--nothing more. The child's -head had been torn off!... - -[Illustration] - -[Footnote 1: The exclamation _Oi!_ is used to call the attention of a -person: it is the Japanese equivalent for such English exclamations as -"Halloa!" "Ho, there!" etc.] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -In a Cup of Tea - - -Have you ever attempted to mount some old tower stairway, spiring up -through darkness, and in the heart of that darkness found yourself -at the cobwebbed edge of nothing? Or have you followed some coast -path, cut along the face of a cliff, only to discover yourself, at -a turn, on the jagged verge of a break? The emotional worth of such -experience--from a literary point of view--is proved by the force -of the sensations aroused, and by the vividness with which they are -remembered. - -Now there have been curiously preserved, in old Japanese story-books, -certain fragments of fiction that produce an almost similar emotional -experience.... Perhaps the writer was lazy; perhaps he had a quarrel -with the publisher; perhaps he was suddenly called away from his little -table, and never came back; perhaps death stopped the writing-brush -in the very middle of a sentence. But no mortal man can ever tell us -exactly why these things were left unfinished.... I select a typical -example. - -* - -On the fourth day of the first month of the third Tenwa,--that is to -say, about two hundred and twenty years ago,--the lord Nakagawa Sado, -while on his way to make a New Year's visit, halted with his train -at a tea-house in Hakusan, in the Hongō district of Yedo. While the -party were resting there, one of the lord's attendants,--a _wakatō_[1] -named Sekinai,--feeling very thirsty, filled for himself a large -water-cup with tea. He was raising the cup to his lips when he suddenly -perceived, in the transparent yellow infusion, the image or reflection -of a face that was not his own. Startled, he looked around, but could -see no one near him. The face in the tea appeared, from the coiffure, -to be the face of a young samurai: it was strangely distinct, and -very handsome,--delicate as the face of a girl. And it seemed the -reflection of a living face; for the eyes and the lips were moving. -Bewildered by this mysterious apparition, Sekinai threw away the tea, -and carefully examined the cup. It proved to be a very cheap water-cup, -with no artistic devices of any sort. He found and filled another cup; -and again the face appeared in the tea. He then ordered fresh tea, -and refilled the cup; and once more the strange face appeared,--this -time with a mocking smile. But Sekinai did not allow himself to be -frightened. "Whoever you are," he muttered, "you shall delude me no -further!"--then he swallowed the tea, face and all, and went his way, -wondering whether he had swallowed a ghost. - -* - -Late in the evening of the same day, while on watch in the palace of -the lord Nakagawa, Sekinai was surprised by the soundless coming of -a stranger into the apartment. This stranger, a richly dressed young -samurai, seated himself directly in front of Sekinai, and, saluting the -_wakatō_ with a slight bow, observed:-- - -"I am Shikibu Heinai--met you to-day for the first time.... You do not -seem to recognize me." - -He spoke in a very low, but penetrating voice. And Sekinai was -astonished to find before him the same sinister, handsome face of -which he had seen, and swallowed, the apparition in a cup of tea. It -was smiling now, as the phantom had smiled; but the steady gaze of the -eyes, above the smiling lips, was at once a challenge and an insult. - -"No, I do not recognize you," returned Sekinai, angry but cool;--"and -perhaps you will now be good enough to inform me how you obtained -admission to this house?" - -[In feudal times the residence of a lord was strictly guarded at -all hours; and no one could enter unannounced, except through some -unpardonable negligence on the part of the armed watch.] - -"Ah, you do not recognize me!" exclaimed the visitor, in a tone of -irony, drawing a little nearer as he spoke. "No, you do not recognize -me! Yet you took upon yourself this morning to do me a deadly -injury!..." - -Sekinai instantly seized the _tantō_[2] at his girdle, and made a -fierce thrust at the throat of the man. But the blade seemed to touch -no substance. Simultaneously and soundlessly the intruder leaped -sideward to the chamber-wall, _and through it!_... The wall showed no -trace of his exit. He had traversed it only as the light of a candle -passes through lantern-paper. - -* - -When Sekinai made report of the incident, his recital astonished and -puzzled the retainers. No stranger had been seen either to enter or -to leave the palace at the hour of the occurrence; and no one in the -service of the lord Nakagawa had ever heard of the name "Shikibu -Heinai." - -* - -On the following night Sekinai was off duty, and remained at home with -his parents. At a rather late hour he was informed that some strangers -had called at the house, and desired to speak with him for a moment. -Taking his sword, he went to the entrance, and there found three armed -men,--apparently retainers,--waiting in front of the doorstep. The -three bowed respectfully to Sekinai; and one of them said:-- - -"Our names are Matsuoka Bungō, Tsuchibashi Bungō, and Okamura Heiroku. -We are retainers of the noble Shikibu Heinai. When our master last -night deigned to pay you a visit, you struck him with a sword. He was -much will hurt, and has been obliged to go to the hot springs, where -his wound is now being treated. But on the sixteenth day of the coming -month he will return; and he will then fitly repay you for the injury -done him...." - -Without waiting to hear more, Sekinai leaped out, sword in hand, and -slashed right and left, at the strangers. But the three men sprang -to the wall of the adjoining building, and flitted up the wall like -shadows, and.... - -[Illustration] - -Here the old narrative breaks off; the rest of the story existed only -in some brain that has been dust for a century. - -I am able to imagine several possible endings; but none of them would -satisfy an Occidental imagination. I prefer to let the reader attempt -to decide for himself the probable consequence of swallowing a Soul. - -[Footnote 1: The armed attendant of a _samurai_ was thus called. The -relation of the _wakatō_ to the _samurai_ was that of squire to knight.] - -[Footnote 2: The shorter of the two swords carried by samurai. The -longer sword was called _katana_.] - - - - -Common Sense - - -[Illustration] - - -Once there lived upon the mountain called Atagoyama, near Kyoto, a -certain learned priest who devoted all his time to meditation and the -study of the sacred books. The little temple in which he dwelt was far -from any village; and he could not, in such a solitude, have obtained -without help the common necessaries of life. But several devout country -people regularly contributed to his maintenance, bringing him each -month supplies of vegetables and of rice. - -Among these good folk there was a certain hunter, who sometimes visited -the mountain in search of game. One day, when this hunter had brought a -bag of rice to the temple, the priest said to him:-- - -"Friend, I must tell you that wonderful things have happened here since -the last time I saw you. I do not certainly know why such things should -have happened in my unworthy presence. But you are aware that I have -been meditating, and reciting the sûtras daily, for many years; and -it is possible that what has been vouchsafed me is due to the merit -obtained through these religious exercises. I am not sure of this. But -I am sure that Fugen Bosatsu[1] comes nightly to this temple, riding -upon his elephant.... Stay here with me this night, friend; then you -will be able to see and to worship the Buddha." - -"To witness so holy a vision," the hunter replied, "were a privilege -indeed! Most gladly I shall stay, and worship with you." - -So the hunter remained at the temple. But while the priest was engaged -in his religious exercises, the hunter began to think about the -promised miracle, and to doubt whether such a thing could be. And the -more he thought, the more he doubted. There was a little boy in the -temple,--an acolyte,--and the hunter found an opportunity to question -the boy. - -"The priest told me," said the hunter, "that Fugen Bosatsu comes to -this temple every night. Have you also seen Fugen Bosatsu?" - -"Six times, already," the acolyte replied, "I have seen and reverently -worshipped Fugen Bosatsu." This declaration only served to increase -the hunter's suspicions, though he did not in the least doubt the -truthfulness of the boy. He reflected, however, that he would probably -be able to see whatever the boy had seen; and he waited with eagerness -for the hour of the promised vision. - -* - -Shortly before midnight the priest announced that it was time to -prepare for the coming of Fugen Bosatsu. The doors of the little temple -were thrown open; and the priest knelt down at the threshold, with his -face to the east. The acolyte knelt at his left hand, and the hunter -respectfully placed himself behind the priest. - -It was the night of the twentieth of the ninth month,--a dreary, -dark, and very windy night; and the three waited a long time for the -coming of Fugen Bosatsu. But at last a point of white light appeared, -like a star, in the direction of the east; and this light approached -quickly,--growing larger and larger as it came, and illuminating all -the slope of the mountain. Presently the light took shape--the shape -of a being divine, riding upon a snow-white elephant with six tusks. -And, in another moment, the elephant with its shining rider arrived -before the temple, and there stood towering, like a mountain of -moonlight,--wonderful and weird. - -Then the priest and the boy, prostrating themselves, began with -exceeding fervour to repeat the holy invocation to Fugen Bosatsu. But -suddenly the hunter rose up behind them, bow in hand; and, bending his -bow to the full, he sent a long arrow whizzing straight at the luminous -Buddha, into whose breast it sank up to the very feathers. Immediately, -with a sound like a thunder-clap, the white light vanished, and the -vision disappeared. Before the temple there was nothing but windy -darkness. - -"O miserable man!" cried out the priest, with tears of shame and -despair, "O most wretched and wicked man! what have you done?--what -have you done?" - -But the hunter received the reproaches of the priest without any sign -of compunction or of anger. Then he said, very gently:-- - -"Reverend sir, please try to calm yourself, and listen to me. You -thought that you were able to see Fugen Bosatsu because of some merit -obtained through your constant meditations and your recitation of the -sûtras. But if that had been the case, the Buddha would have appeared -to you only--not to me, nor even to the boy. I am an ignorant hunter, -and my occupation is to kill;--and the taking of life is hateful to the -Buddhas. How then should I be able to see Fugen Bosatsu? I have been -taught that the Buddhas are everywhere about us, and that we remain -unable to see them because of our ignorance and our imperfections. -You--being a learned priest of pure life--might indeed acquire such -enlightenment as would enable you to see the Buddhas; but how should -a man who kills animals for his livelihood find the power to see the -divine? Both I and this little boy could see all that you saw. And -let me now assure you, reverend sir, that what you saw was not Fugen -Bosatsu, but a goblinry intended to deceive you--perhaps even to -destroy you. I beg that you will try to control your feelings until -daybreak. Then I will prove to you the truth of what I have said." - -At sunrise the hunter and the priest examined the spot where the vision -had been standing, and they discovered a thin trail of blood. And after -having followed this trail to a hollow some hundred paces away, they -came upon the body of a great badger, transfixed by the hunter's arrow. - -* - -The priest, although a learned and pious person, had easily been -deceived by a badger. But the hunter, an ignorant and irreligious man, -was gifted with strong common sense: and by mother-wit alone he was -able at once to detect and to destroy a dangerous illusion. - -[Illustration] - -[Footnote 1: Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.] - - - - -Ikiryō[1] - - -[Illustration] - -Formerly, in the quarter of Reiganjima, in Yedo, there was a great -porcelain shop called the Setomonodana, kept by a rich man named Kihei. -Kihei had in his employ, for many years, a head clerk named Rokubei. -Under Rokubei's care the business prospered;--and at last it grew so -large that Rokubei found himself unable to manage it without help. -He therefore asked and obtained permission to hire an experienced -assistant; and he then engaged one of his own nephews,--a young man -about twenty-two years old, who had learned the porcelain trade in -Osaka. - -The nephew proved a very capable assistant,--shrewder in business -than his experienced uncle. His enterprise extended the trade of the -house, and Kihei was greatly pleased. But about seven months after his -engagement, the young man became very ill, and seemed likely to die. -The best physicians in Yedo were summoned to attend him; but none of -them could understand the nature of his sickness. They prescribed no -medicine, and expressed the opinion that such a sickness could only -have been caused by some secret grief. - -Rokubei imagined that it might be a case of lovesickness. He therefore -said to his nephew:-- - -"I have been thinking that, as you are still very young, you might have -formed some secret attachment which is making you unhappy,--perhaps -even making you ill. If this be the truth, you certainly ought to -tell me all about your troubles. Here I stand to you in the place of -a father, as you are far away from your parents; and if you have any -anxiety or sorrow, I am ready to do for you whatever a father should -do. If money can help you, do not be ashamed to tell me, even though -the amount be large. I think that I could assist you; and I am sure -that Kihei would be glad to do anything to make you happy and well." - -The sick youth appeared to be embarrassed by these kindly assurances; -and for some little time he remained silent. At last he answered:-- - -"Never in this world can I forget those generous words. But I have no -secret attachment--no longing for any woman. This sickness of mine is -not a sickness that doctors can cure; and money could not help me in -the least. The truth is, that I have been so persecuted in this house -that I scarcely care to live. Everywhere--by day and by night, whether -in the shop or in my room, whether alone or in company--I have been -unceasingly followed and tormented by the Shadow of a woman. And it is -long, long since I have been able to get even one night's rest. For so -soon as I close my eyes, the Shadow of the woman takes me by the throat -and strives to strangle me. So I cannot sleep...." - -"And why did you not tell me this before?" asked Rokubei. - -"Because I thought," the nephew answered, "that it would be of no use -to tell you. The Shadow is not the ghost of a dead person. It is made -by the hatred of a living person--a person whom you very well know." - -"What person?" questioned Rokubei, in great astonishment.[2] - -"The mistress of this house," whispered the youth,--"the wife of Kihei -Sama.... She wishes to kill me." - -* - -Rokubei was bewildered by this confession. He doubted nothing of -what his nephew had said; but he could not imagine a reason for the -haunting. An _ikiryō_ might be caused by disappointed love, or by -violent hate,--without the knowledge of the person from whom it had -emanated. To suppose any love in this case was impossible;--the wife -of Kihei was considerably more than fifty years of age. But, on the -other hand, what could the young clerk have done to provoke hatred,--a -hatred capable of producing an ikiryō? He had been irreproachably well -conducted, unfailingly courteous, and earnestly devoted to his duties. -The mystery troubled Rokubei; but, after careful reflection, he decided -to tell everything to Kihei, and to request an investigation. - -Kihei was astounded; but in the time of forty years he had never had -the least reason to doubt the word of Rokubei. He therefore summoned -his wife at once, and carefully questioned her, telling her, at the -same time, what the sick clerk had said. At first she turned pale, and -wept; but, after some hesitation, she answered frankly:-- - -"I suppose that what the new clerk has said about the _ikiryō_ is -true,--though I really tried never to betray, by word or look, the -dislike which I could not help feeling for him. You know that he is -very skilful in commerce,--very shrewd in everything that he does. -And you have given him much authority in this house--power over the -apprentices and the servants. But our only son, who should inherit this -business, is very simple-hearted and easily deceived; and I have long -been thinking that your clever new clerk might so delude our boy as to -get possession of all this property. Indeed, I am certain that your -clerk could at any time, without the least difficulty, and without the -least risk to himself, ruin our business and ruin our son. And with -this certainty in my mind, I cannot help fearing and hating the man. I -have often and often wished that he were dead; I have even wished that -it were in my own power to kill him. ... Yes, I know that it is wrong -to hate any one in such a way; but I could not check the feeling. Night -and day I have been wishing evil to that clerk. So I cannot doubt that -he has really seen the thing of which he spoke to Rokubei." - -"How absurd of you," exclaimed Kihei, "to torment yourself thus! Up -to the present time that clerk has done no single thing for which he -could be blamed; and you have caused him to suffer cruelly.... Now if I -should send him away, with his uncle, to another town, to establish a -branch business, could you not endeavour to think more kindly of him?" - -"If I do not see his face or hear his voice," the wife answered,--"if -you will only send him away from this house,--then I think that I shall -be able to conquer my hatred of him." - -"Try to do so," said Kihei;--"for, if you continue to hate him as you -have been hating him, he will certainly die, and you will then be -guilty of having caused the death of a man who has done us nothing but -good. He has been, in every way, a most excellent servant." - -Then Kihei quickly made arrangements for the establishment of a branch -house in another city; and he sent Rokubei there with the clerk, to -take charge. And thereafter the _ikiryō_ ceased to torment the young -man, who soon recovered his health. - -[Illustration] - - -[Footnote 1: Literally, "living spirit,"--that is to say, the ghost of -a person still alive. An _ikiryō_ may detach itself from the body under -the influence of anger, and proceed to haunt and torment the individual -by whom the anger was caused.] - -[Footnote 2: An _ikiryō_ is seen only by the person haunted.--For -another illustration of this curious belief, see the paper entitled -"The Stone Buddha" in my _Out of the East_, p. 171.] - - - - -Shiryō[1] - - -[Illustration] - -On the death of Nomoto Yajiyémon, a daikwan[2] in the province of -Echizen, his clerks entered into a conspiracy to defraud the family of -their late master. Under pretext of paying some of the daikwan's debts, -they took possession of all the money, valuables, and furniture in his -house; and they furthermore prepared a false report to make it appear -that he had unlawfully contracted obligations exceeding the worth of -his estate. This false report they sent to the Saishō,[3] and the -Saishō thereupon issued a decree banishing the widow and the children -of Nomoto from the province of Echizen. For in those times the family -of a daikwan were held in part responsible, even after his death, for -any malfeasance proved against him. - -But at the moment when the order of banishment was officially announced -to the widow of Nomoto, a strange thing happened to a maid-servant in -the house. She was seized with convulsions and shudderings, like a -person possessed; and when the convulsions passed, she rose up, and -cried out to the officers of the Saishō, and to the clerks of her late -master:-- - -"Now listen to me! It is not a girl who is speaking to you; it is -I,--Yajiyémon, Nomoto Yajiyémon,--returned to you from the dead. In -grief and great anger do I return--grief and anger caused me by those -in whom I vainly put my trust!... O you infamous and ungrateful clerks! -how could you so forget the favours bestowed upon you, as thus to ruin -my property, and to disgrace my name?... Here, now, in my presence, let -the accounts of my office and of my house be made; and let a servant -be sent for the books of the Metsuké,[4] so that the estimates may be -compared!" - -As the maid uttered these words, all present were filled with -astonishment; for her voice and her manner were the voice and the -manner of Nomoto Yajiyémon. The guilty clerks turned pale. But the -representatives of the Saishō at once commanded that the desire -expressed by the girl should be fully granted. All the account-books -of the office were promptly placed before her,--and the books of the -Metsuké were brought in; and she began the reckoning. Without making -a single error, she went through all the accounts, writing down the -totals and correcting every false entry. And her writing, as she wrote, -was seen to be the very writing of Nomoto Yajiyémon. - -Now this reëxamination of the accounts not only proved that there had -been no indebtedness, but also showed that there had been a surplus -in the office treasury at the time of the daikwan's death. Thus the -villany of the clerks became manifest. - -And when all the accounts had been made up, the girl said, speaking in -the very voice of Nomoto Yajiyémon:-- - -"Now everything is finished; and I can do nothing further in the -matter. So I shall go back to the place from which I came." - -Then she lay down, and instantly fell asleep; and she slept like a -dead person during two days and two nights. [For great weariness and -deep sleep fall upon the possessed, when the possessing spirit passes -from them.] When she again awoke, her voice and her manner were the -voice and the manner of a young girl; and neither at that time, nor -at any time after, could she remember what had happened while she was -possessed by the ghost or Nomoto Yajiyémon. - -[Illustration] - -A report of this event was promptly sent to the Saishō; and the Saishō, -in consequence, not only revoked the order of banishment, but made -large gifts to the family of the daikwan. Later on, various posthumous -honours were conferred upon Nomoto Yajiyémon; and for many subsequent -years his house was favoured by the Government, so that it prospered -greatly. But the clerks received the punishment which they deserved. - - -[Footnote 1: The term _shiryō_, "dead ghost,"--that is to say, the -ghost of a dead person,--is used in contradistinction to the term -_ikiryō_, signifying the apparition of a living person. _Yūrei_ is a -more generic name for ghosts of any sort.] - -[Footnote 2: A _daikwan_ was a district governor under the direct -control of the Shōgunate. His functions were both civil and judicial.] - -[Footnote 3: The _Saishō_ was a high official of the Shōgunate, with -duties corresponding to those of a prime minister.] - -[Footnote 4: The _Metsuké_ was a government official, charged with the -duty of keeping watch over the conduct of local governors or district -judges, and of inspecting their accounts.] - - - - -The Story of O-Kamé - - -[Illustration] - -O-Kamé, daughter of the rich Gonyémon of Nagoshi, in the province of -Tosa, was very fond of her husband, Hachiyémon. She was twenty-two, and -Hachiyémon twenty-five. She was so fond of him that people imagined her -to be jealous. But he never gave her the least cause for jealousy; and -it is certain that no single unkind word was ever spoken between them. - -Unfortunately the health of O-Kamé was feeble. Within less than two -years after her marriage she was attacked by a disease, then prevalent -in Tosa, and the best doctors were not able to cure her. Persons seized -by this malady could not eat or drink; they remained constantly drowsy -and languid, and troubled by strange fancies. And, in spite of constant -care, O-Kamé grew weaker and weaker, day by day, until it became -evident, even to herself, that she was going to die. Then she called -her husband, and said to him:-- - -"I cannot tell you how good you have been to me during this miserable -sickness of mine. Surely no one could have been more kind. But that -only makes it all the harder for me to leave you now.... Think! I am -not yet even twenty-five,--and I have the best husband in all this -world,--and yet I must die!... Oh, no, no! it is useless to talk to me -about hope; the best Chinese doctors could do nothing for me. I did -think to live a few months longer; but when I saw my face this morning -in the mirror, I knew that I must die to-day,--yes, this very day. And -there is something that I want to beg you to do for me--if you wish me -to die quite happy." - -"Only tell me what it is," Hachiyémon answered; "and if it be in my -power to do, I shall be more than glad to do it." - -"No, no--you will not be glad to do it," she returned: "you are still -so young! It is difficult--very, very difficult--even to ask you to do -such a thing; yet the wish for it is like a fire burning in my breast. -I must speak it before I die.... My dear, you know that sooner or -later, after I am dead, they will want you to take another wife. Will -you promise me--can you promise me--not to marry again?..." - -"Only that!" Hachiyémon exclaimed. "Why, if that be all that you wanted -to ask for, your wish is very easily granted. With all my heart I -promise you that no one shall ever take your place." - -"_Aa! uréshiya!_" cried O-Kamé, half-rising from her couch;--"oh, how -happy you have made me!" - -And she fell back dead. - -* - -Now the health of Hachiyémon appeared to fail after the death of -O-Kamé. At first the change in his aspect was attributed to natural -grief, and the villagers only said, "How fond of her he must have -been!" But, as the months went by, he grew paler and weaker, until -at last he became so thin and wan that he looked more like a ghost -than a man. Then people began to suspect that sorrow alone could not -explain this sudden decline of a man so young. The doctors said that -Hachiyémon was not suffering from any known form of disease: they -could not account for his condition; but they suggested that it might -have been caused by some very unusual trouble of mind. Hachiyémon's -parents questioned him in vain;--he had no cause for sorrow, he said, -other than what they already knew. They counselled him to remarry; but -he protested that nothing could ever induce him to break his promise to -the dead. - -* - -Thereafter Hachiyémon continued to grow visibly weaker, day by day; -and his family despaired of his life. But one day his mother, who -felt sure that he had been concealing something from her, adjured him -so earnestly to tell her the real cause of his decline, and wept so -bitterly before him, that he was not able to resist her entreaties. - -"Mother," he said, "it is very difficult to speak about this matter, -either to you or to any one; and, perhaps, when I have told you -everything, you will not be able to believe me. But the truth is that -O-Kamé can find no rest in the other world, and that the Buddhist -services repeated for her have been said in vain. Perhaps she will -never be able to rest unless I go with her on the long black journey. -For every night she returns, and lies down by my side. Every night, -since the day of her funeral, she has come back. And sometimes I -doubt if she be really dead; for she looks and acts just as when she -lived,--except that she talks to me only in whispers. And she always -bids me tell no one that she comes. It may be that she wants me to die; -and I should not care to live for my own sake only. But it is true, -as you have said, that my body really belongs to my parents, and that -I owe to them the first duty. So now, mother, I tell you the whole -truth.... Yes: every night she comes, just as I am about to sleep; and -she remains until dawn. As soon as she hears the temple-bell, she goes -away." - -* - -When the mother of Hachiyémon had heard these things, she was greatly -alarmed; and, hastening at once to the parish-temple, she told the -priest all that her son had confessed, and begged for ghostly help. The -priest, who was a man of great age and experience, listened without -surprise to the recital, and then said to her:-- - -"It is not the first time that I have known such a thing to happen; -and I think that I shall be able to save your son. But he is really -in great danger. I have seen the shadow of death upon his face; and, -if O-Kamé return but once again, he will never behold another sunrise. -Whatever can be done for him must be done quickly. Say nothing of the -matter to your son; but assemble the members of both families as soon -as possible, and tell them to come to the temple without delay. For -your son's sake it will be necessary to open the grave of O-Kamé." - -* - -So the relatives assembled at the temple; and when the priest had -obtained their consent to the opening of the sepulchre, he led the way -to the cemetery. Then, under his direction, the tombstone of O-Kamé -was shifted, the grave opened, and the coffin raised. And when the -coffin-lid had been removed, all present were startled; for O-Kamé sat -before them with a smile upon her face, seeming as comely as before the -time of her sickness; and there was not any sign of death upon her. But -when the priest told his assistants to lift the dead woman out of the -coffin, the astonishment changed to fear; for the corpse was blood-warm -to the touch, and still flexible as in life, notwithstanding the -squatting posture in which it had remained so long.[1] - -It was borne to the mortuary chapel; and there the priest, with a -writing-brush, traced upon the brow and breast and limbs of the body -the Sanscrit characters (_Bonji_) of certain holy talismanic words. -And he performed a Ségaki-service for the spirit of O-Kamé, before -suffering her corpse to be restored to the ground. - -[Illustration] - -She never again visited her husband; and Hachiyémon gradually recovered -his health and strength. But whether he always kept his promise, the -Japanese story-teller does not say. - -[Footnote 1: The Japanese dead are placed in a sitting posture in the -coffin,--which is almost square in form.] - - - - -Story of a Fly - - -[Illustration] - -About two hundred years ago, there lived in Kyoto a merchant named -Kazariya Kyūbei. His shop was in the street called Teramachidōri, a -little south of the Shimabara thoroughfare. He had a maid-servant named -Tama,--a native of the province of Wakasa. - -Tama was kindly treated by Kyūbei and his wife, and appeared to be -sincerely attached to them. But she never cared to dress nicely, like -other girls; and whenever she had a holiday she would go out in her -working-dress, notwithstanding that she had been given several pretty -robes. After she had been in the service of Kyūbei for about five -years, he one day asked her why she never took any pains to look neat. - -Tama blushed at the reproach implied by this question, and answered -respectfully:-- - -"When my parents died, I was a very little girl; and, as they had no -other child, it became my duty to have the Buddhist services performed -on their behalf. At that time I could not obtain the means to do so; -but I resolved to have their _ihai_ [mortuary tablets] placed in the -temple called Jōrakuji, and to have the rites performed, so soon as I -could earn the money required. And in order to fulfil this resolve I -have tried to be saving of my money and my clothes;--perhaps I have -been too saving, as you have found me negligent of my person. But I -have already been able to put by about one hundred _mommé_ of silver -for the purpose which I have mentioned; and hereafter I will try to -appear before you looking neat. So I beg that you will kindly excuse my -past negligence and rudeness." - -Kyūbei was touched by this simple confession; and he spoke to the -girl kindly,--assuring her that she might consider herself at liberty -thenceforth to dress as she pleased, and commending her filial piety. - -* - -Soon after this conversation, the maid Tama was able to have the -tablets of her parents placed in the temple Jōrakuji, and to have the -appropriate services performed. Of the money which she had saved she -thus expended seventy _mommé_; and the remaining thirty _mommé_ she -asked her mistress to keep for her. - -But early in the following winter Tama was suddenly taken ill; and -after a brief sickness she died, on the eleventh day of the first month -of the fifteenth year of Genroku [1702]. Kyūbei and his wife were much -grieved by her death. - -* - -Now, about ten days later, a very large fly came into the house, and -began to fly round and round the head of Kyūbei. This surprised Kyūbei, -because no flies of any kind appear, as a rule, during the Period of -Greatest Cold, and the larger kinds of flies are seldom seen except in -the warm season. The fly annoyed Kyūbei so persistently that he took -the trouble to catch it, and put it out of the house,--being careful -the while to injure it in no way; for he was a devout Buddhist. It soon -came back again, and was again caught and thrown out; but it entered -a third time. Kyūbei's wife thought this a strange thing. "I wonder," -she said, "if it is Tama." [For the dead--particularly those who pass -to the state of Gaki--sometimes return in the form of insects.] Kyūbei -laughed, and made answer, "Perhaps we can find out by marking it." He -caught the fly, and slightly nicked the tips of its wings with a pair -of scissors,--after which he carried it to a considerable distance from -the house and let it go. - -Next day it returned. Kyūbei still doubted whether its return had any -ghostly significance. He caught it again, painted its wings and body -with beni (rouge), carried it away from the house to a much greater -distance than before, and set it free. But, two days later, it came -back, all red; and Kyūbei ceased to doubt. - -"I think it is Tama," he said. "She wants something;--but what does she -want?" - -The wife responded:-- - -"I have still thirty _mommé_ of her savings. Perhaps she wants us to -pay that money to the temple, for a Buddhist service on behalf of her -spirit. Tama was always very anxious about her next birth." - -As she spoke, the fly fell from the paper window on which it had been -resting. Kyūbei picked it up, and found that it was dead. - -* - -Thereupon the husband and wife resolved to go to the temple at once, -and to pay the girl's money to the priests. They put the body of the -fly into a little box, and took it along with them. - -Jiku Shōnin, the chief priest of the temple, on hearing the story of -the fly, decided that Kyūbei and his wife had acted rightly in the -matter. Then Jiku Shōnin performed a _Ségaki_ service on behalf of the -spirit of Tama; and over the body of the fly were recited the eight -rolls of the sûtra _Myōten_. And the box containing the body of the fly -was buried in the grounds of the temple; and above the place a _sotoba_ -was set up, appropriately inscribed. - - - - -Story of a Pheasant - - -[Illustration] - -In the Toyama district of the province of Bishū, there formerly lived a -young farmer and his wife. Their farm was situated in a lonely place, -among the hills. - -One night the wife dreamed that her father-in-law, who had died some -years before, came to her and said, "_To-morrow I shall be in great -danger: try to save me if you can!_" In the morning she told this to -her husband; and they talked about the dream. Both imagined that the -dead man wanted something; but neither could imagine what the words of -the vision signified. - -After breakfast, the husband went to the fields; but the wife remained -at her loom. Presently she was startled by a great shouting outside. -She went to the door, and saw the Jitō[1] of the district, with a -hunting party, approaching the farm. While she stood watching them, a -pheasant ran by her into the house; and she suddenly remembered her -dream. "Perhaps it is my father-in-law," she thought to herself;--"I -must try to save it!" Then, hurrying in after the bird,--a fine male -pheasant,--she caught it without any difficulty, put it into the empty -rice-pot, and covered the pot with the lid. - -A moment later some of the Jitō's followers entered, and asked her -whether she had seen a pheasant. She answered boldly that she had not; -but one of the hunters declared that he had seen the bird run into -the house. So the party searched for it, peeping into every nook and -corner; but nobody thought of looking into the rice-pot. After looking -everywhere else to no purpose, the men decided that the bird must have -escaped through some hole; and they went away. - -* - -When the farmer came home his wife told him about the pheasant, which -she had left in the rice-pot, so that he might see it. "When I caught -it," she said, "it did not struggle in the least; and it remained very -quiet in the pot. I really think that it is father-in-law." The farmer -went to the pot, lifted the lid, and took out the bird. It remained -still in his hands, as if tame, and looked at him as if accustomed to -his presence. One of its eyes was blind. "Father was blind of one eye," -the farmer said,--"the right eye; and the right eye of this bird is -blind. Really, I think it is father. See! it looks at us just as father -used to do!... Poor father must have thought to himself, '_Now that I -am a bird, better to give my body to my children for food than to let -the hunters have it._'... And that explains your dream of last night," -he added,--turning to his wife with an evil smile as he wrung the -pheasant's neck. - -At the sight of that brutal act, the woman screamed, and cried out:-- - -"Oh, you wicked man! Oh, you devil! Only a man with the heart of a -devil could do what you have done!... And I would rather die than -continue to be the wife of such a man!" - -And she sprang to the door, without waiting even to put on her sandals. -He caught her sleeve as she leaped; but she broke away from him, and -ran out, sobbing as she ran. And she ceased not to run, barefooted, -till she reached the town, when she hastened directly to the residence -of the Jitō. Then, with many tears, she told the Jitō everything: her -dream of the night before the hunting, and how she had hidden the -pheasant in order to save it, and how her husband had mocked her, and -had killed it. - -The Jitō spoke to her kindly, and gave orders that she should be well -cared for; but he commanded his officers to seize her husband. - -[Illustration] - -Next day the farmer was brought up for judgment; and, after he had -been made to confess the truth concerning the killing of the pheasant, -sentence was pronounced. The Jitō said to him:-- - -"Only a person of evil heart could have acted as you have acted; and -the presence of so perverse a being is a misfortune to the community -in which he happens to reside. The people under Our jurisdiction are -people who respect the sentiment of filial piety; and among them you -cannot be suffered to live." - -So the farmer was banished from the district, and forbidden ever -to return to it on pain of death. But to the woman the Jitō made a -donation of land; and at a later time he caused her to be provided with -a good husband. - -[Footnote 1: The lord of the district, who acted both as governor and -magistrate.] - - - - -The Story of Chūgorō - - -[Illustration] - -Along time ago there lived, in the Koishi-kawa quarter of Yedo, a -_hatamoto_ named Suzuki, whose yashiki was situated on the bank of the -Yedogawa, not far from the bridge called Naka-no-hashi. And among the -retainers of this Suzuki there was an _ashigaru_[1] named Chūgorō. -Chūgorō was a handsome lad, very amiable and clever, and much liked by -his comrades. - -For several years Chūgorō remained in the service of Suzuki, conducting -himself so well that no fault was found with him. But at last the -other _ashigaru_ discovered that Chūgorō was in the habit of leaving -the yashiki every night, by way of the garden, and staying out until -a little before dawn. At first they said nothing to him about this -strange behaviour; for his absences did not interfere with any regular -duty, and were supposed to be caused by some love-affair. But after a -time he began to look pale and weak; and his comrades, suspecting some -serious folly, decided to interfere. Therefore, one evening, just as he -was about to steal away from the house, an elderly retainer called him -aside, and said:-- - -"Chūgorō, my lad, we know that you go out every night and stay away -until early morning; and we have observed that you are looking unwell. -We fear that you are keeping bad company, and injuring your health. And -unless you can give a good reason for your conduct, we shall think that -it is our duty to report this matter to the Chief Officer. In any case, -since we are your comrades and friends, it is but right that we should -know why you go out at night, contrary to the custom of this house." - -Chūgorō appeared to be very much embarrassed and alarmed by these -words. But after a short silence he passed into the garden, followed by -his comrade. When the two found themselves well out of hearing of the -rest, Chūgorō stopped, and said:-- - -"I will now tell you everything; but I must entreat you to keep my -secret. If you repeat what I tell you, some great misfortune may -befall me. - -"It was in the early part of last spring--about five months ago--that -I first began to go out at night, on account of a love-affair. One -evening, when I was returning to the yashiki after a visit to my -parents, I saw a woman standing by the riverside, not far from the main -gateway. She was dressed like a person of high rank; and I thought -it strange that a woman so finely dressed should be standing there -alone at such an hour. But I did not think that I had any right to -question her; and I was about to pass her by, without speaking, when -she stepped forward and pulled me by the sleeve. Then I saw that she -was very young and handsome. 'Will you not walk with me as far as the -bridge?' she said; 'I have something to tell you.' Her voice was very -soft and pleasant; and she smiled as she spoke; and her smile was hard -to resist. So I walked with her toward the bridge; and on the way she -told me that she had often seen me going in and out of the yashiki, -and had taken a fancy to me. 'I wish to have you for my husband,' -she said;--'if you can like me, we shall be able to make each other -very happy.' I did not know how to answer her; but I thought her very -charming. As we neared the bridge, she pulled my sleeve again, and led -me down the bank to the very edge of the river. 'Come in with me,' she -whispered, and pulled me toward the water. It is deep there, as you -know; and I became all at once afraid of her, and tried to turn back. -She smiled, and caught me by the wrist, and said, 'Oh, you must never -be afraid with me!' And, somehow, at the touch of her hand, I became -more helpless than a child. I felt like a person in a dream who tries -to run, and cannot move hand or foot. Into the deep water she stepped, -and drew me with her; and I neither saw nor heard nor felt anything -more until I found myself walking beside her through what seemed to be -a great palace, full of light. I was neither wet nor cold: everything -around me was dry and warm and beautiful. I could not understand where -I was, nor how I had come there. The woman led me by the hand: we -passed through room after room,--through ever so many rooms, all empty, -but very fine,--until we entered into a guest-room of a thousand mats. -Before a great alcove, at the farther end, lights were burning, and -cushions laid as for a feast; but I saw no guests. She led me to the -place of honour, by the alcove, and seated herself in front of me, and -said: 'This is my home: do you think that you could be happy with me -here?' As she asked the question she smiled; and I thought that her -smile was more beautiful than anything else in the world; and out of -my heart I answered, 'Yes....' In the same moment I remembered the -story of Urashima; and I imagined that she might be the daughter of a -god; but I feared to ask her any questions.... Presently maid-servants -came in, bearing rice-wine and many dishes, which they set before -us. Then she who sat before me said: 'To-night shall be our bridal -night, because you like me; and this is our wedding-feast.' We pledged -ourselves to each other for the time of seven existences; and after the -banquet we were conducted to a bridal chamber, which had been prepared -for us. - -"It was yet early in the morning when she awoke me, and said: 'My dear -one, you are now indeed my husband. But for reasons which I cannot tell -you, and which you must not ask, it is necessary that our marriage -remain secret. To keep you here until daybreak would cost both of us -our lives. Therefore do not, I beg of you, feel displeased because I -must now send you back to the house of your lord. You can come to me -to-night again, and every night hereafter, at the same hour that we -first met. Wait always for me by the bridge; and you will not have to -wait long. But remember, above all things, that our marriage must be a -secret, and that, if you talk about it, we shall probably be separated -forever.' - -"I promised to obey her in all things,--remembering the fate of -Urashima,--and she conducted me through many rooms, all empty and -beautiful, to the entrance. There she again took me by the wrist, and -everything suddenly became dark, and I knew nothing more until I found -myself standing alone on the river bank, close to the Naka-no-hashi. -When I got back to the yashiki, the temple bells had not yet begun to -ring. - -"In the evening I went again to the bridge, at the hour she had named, -and I found her waiting for me. She took me with her, as before, into -the deep water, and into the wonderful place where we had passed our -bridal night. And every night, since then, I have met and parted from -her in the same way. To-night she will certainly be waiting for me, and -I would rather die than disappoint her: therefore I must go.... But let -me again entreat you, my friend, never to speak to any one about what I -have told you." - -* - -The elder _ashigaru_ was surprised and alarmed by this story. He felt -that Chūgorō had told him the truth; and the truth suggested unpleasant -possibilities. Probably the whole experience was an illusion, and -an illusion produced by some evil power for a malevolent end. -Nevertheless, if really bewitched, the lad was rather to be pitied than -blamed; and any forcible interference would be likely to result in -mischief. So the _ashigaru_ answered kindly:-- - -"I shall never speak of what you have told me--never, at least, while -you remain alive and well. Go and meet the woman; but--beware of her! I -fear that you are being deceived by some wicked spirit." - -Chūgorō only smiled at the old man's warning, and hastened away. -Several hours later he reentered the yashiki, with a strangely dejected -look. "Did you meet her?" whispered his comrade. "No," replied Chūgorō; -"she was not there. For the first time, she was not there. I think that -she will never meet me again. I did wrong to tell you;--I was very -foolish to break my promise...." The other vainly tried to console -him. Chūgorō lay down, and spoke no word more. He was trembling from -head to foot, as if he had caught a chill. - -* - -When the temple bells announced the hour of dawn, Chūgorō tried to get -up, and fell back senseless. He was evidently sick,--deathly sick. A -Chinese physician was summoned. - -"Why, the man has no blood!" exclaimed the doctor, after a careful -examination;--"there is nothing but water in his veins! It will be very -difficult to save him.... What maleficence is this?" - -* - -Everything was done that could be done to save Chūgorō's life--but in -vain. He died as the sun went down. Then his comrade related the whole -story. - -"Ah! I might have suspected as much!" exclaimed the doctor.... "No -power could have saved him. He was not the first whom she destroyed." - -"Who is she?--or what is she?" the _ashigaru_ asked,--"a Fox-Woman?" - -[Illustration] - -"No; she has been haunting this river from ancient time. She loves the -blood of the young...." - -"A Serpent-Woman?--A Dragon-Woman?" - -"No, no! If you were to see her under that bridge by daylight, she -would appear to you a very loathsome creature." - -"But what kind of a creature?" - -"Simply a Frog,--a great and ugly Frog!" - -[Illustration] - -[Footnote 1: The _ashigaru_ were the lowest class of retainers in -military service.] - - - -A Woman's Diary - - -[Illustration] - -Recently there was put into my hands a somewhat remarkable -manuscript,--seventeen long narrow sheets of soft paper, pierced with a -silken string, and covered with fine Japanese characters. It was a kind -of diary, containing the history of a woman's married life, recorded by -herself. The writer was dead; and the diary had been found in a small -work-box (_haribako_) which had belonged to her. - -The friend who lent me the manuscript gave me leave to translate as -much of it as I might think worth publishing. I have gladly availed -myself of this unique opportunity to present in English the thoughts -and feelings, joys and sorrows, of a simple woman of the people--just -as she herself recorded them in the frankest possible way, never -dreaming that any foreign eye would read her humble and touching memoir. - -But out of respect to her gentle ghost, I have tried to use the -manuscript in such a way only as could not cause her the least pain -if she were yet in the body, and able to read me. Some parts I have -omitted, because I thought them sacred. Also I have left out a few -details relating to customs or to local beliefs that the Western -reader could scarcely understand, even with the aid of notes. And the -names, of course, have been changed. Otherwise I have followed the -text as closely as I could,--making no changes of phrase except when -the Japanese original could not be adequately interpreted by a literal -rendering. - -In addition to the facts stated or suggested in the diary itself, I -could learn but very little of the writer's personal history. She was -a woman of the poorest class; and from her own narrative it appears -that she remained unmarried until she was nearly thirty. A younger -sister had been married several years previously; and the diary does -not explain this departure from custom. A small photograph found with -the manuscript shows that its author never could have been called -good-looking; but the face has a certain pleasing expression of shy -gentleness. Her husband was a _kozukai_,[1] employed in one of the -great public offices, chiefly for night duty, at a salary of ten yen -per month. In order to help him to meet the expenses of housekeeping, -she made cigarettes for a tobacco dealer. - -The manuscript shows that she must have been at school for some years: -she could write the _kana_ very nicely, but she had not learned -many Chinese characters,--so that her work resembles the work of a -schoolgirl. But it is written without mistakes, and skilfully. The -dialect is of Tōkyō,--the common speech of the city people,--full of -idiomatic expressions, but entirely free from coarseness. - -Some one might naturally ask why this poor woman, so much occupied with -the constant struggle for mere existence, should have taken the pains -to write down what she probably never intended to be read. I would -remind such a questioner of the old Japanese teaching that literary -composition is the best medicine for sorrow; and I would remind him -also of the fact that, even among the poorest classes, poems are still -composed upon all occasions of joy or pain. The latter part of the -diary was written in lonely hours of illness; and I suppose that she -then wrote chiefly in order to keep her thoughts composed at a time -when solitude had become dangerous for her. A little before her death, -her mind gave way; and these final pages probably represent the last -brave struggle of the spirit against the hopeless weakness of the flesh. - -I found that the manuscript was inscribed, on the outside sheet, with -the title, _Mukashi-hanashi_: "A Story of Old Times." According to -circumstances, the word _mukashi_ may signify either "long ago," in -reference to past centuries, or "old times," in reference to one's own -past life. The latter is the obvious meaning in the present case. - -_Mukashi-Banashi_ - -On the evening of the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month of the -twenty-eighth year of Meiji [1895]? man of the opposite house came and -asked:-- - -"As for the eldest daughter of this family, is it agreeable that she be -disposed of in marriage?" - -Then the answer was given:-- - -"Even though the matter were agreeable [_to our wishes_], no -preparation for such an event has yet been made."[2] - -The man of the opposite house said:-- - -"But as no preparation is needed in this case, will you not honourably -give her to the person for whom I speak? He is said to be a very steady -man; and he is thirty-eight years of age. As I thought your eldest girl -to be about twenty-six, I proposed her to him...." - -"No,--she is twenty-nine years old," was answered. - -"Ah!... That being the case, I must again speak to the other party; and -I shall honourably consult with you after I have seen him." - -So saying, the man went away. - -Next evening the man came again,--this time with the wife of -Okada-Shi[3] [_a friend of the family_],--and said:-- - -"The other party is satisfied;--so, if you are willing, the match can -be made." - -Father replied:-- - -"As the two are, both of them, _shichi-séki-kin_ ["seven-red-metal"],[4] -they should have the same nature;--so I think that no harm can come -of it." - -The match-maker asked:-- - -"Then how would it be to arrange for the _miai_[5] ["see-meeting"] -to-morrow?" - -Father said:-- - -"I suppose that everything really depends upon the _En_ -[_karma-relation formed in previous states of existence_].... -Well, then, I beg that you will honourably meet us to-morrow evening at -the house of Okada." - -Thus the betrothal promise was given on both sides. - -* - -The person of the opposite house wanted me to go with him next evening -to Okada's; but I said that I wished to go with my mother only, as from -the time of taking such a first step one could not either retreat or -advance. When I went with mother to the house, we were welcomed in with -the words, "_Kochira ē_!" Then [my future husband and I] greeted each -other for the first time. But somehow I felt so much ashamed that I -could not look at him. - -Then Okada-Shi said to Namiki-Shi [_the proposed husband_]: "Now that -you have nobody to consult with at home, would it not be well for you -to snatch your luck where you find it, as the proverb says,--_'Zen wa -isogé'_?" - -The answer was made:-- - -"As for me, I am well satisfied; but I do not know what the feeling may -be on the other side." - -"If it be honourably deigned to take me as it is honourably known that -I am ..."[6] I said. - -The match-maker said:-- - -"The matter being so, what would be a good day for the wedding?" - -[Namaki-Shi answered:--] - -"Though I can be at home to-morrow, perhaps the first day of the tenth -month would be a better day." - -But Okada-Shi at once said:-- - -"As there is cause for anxiety about the house being unoccupied while -Namiki-Shi is absent [_on night-duty_], to-morrow would perhaps be the -better day--would it not?" - -Though at first that seemed to me much too soon, I presently remembered -that the next day was a _Taian-nichi_[7] [perfectly fortunate day]: so -I gave my consent; and we went home. - -When I told father, he was not pleased. He said that it was too soon, -and that a delay of at least three or four days ought to have been -allowed. Also he said that the direction [_hōgaku_][8] was not lucky, -and that other conditions were not favourable. - -I said:-- - -"But I have already promised; and I cannot now ask to have the day -changed. Indeed it would be a great pity if a thief were to enter -the house in [his] absence. As for the matter of the direction being -unlucky, even though I should have to die on that account, I would -not complain; for I should die in my own husband's house.. .. And -to-morrow," I added, "I shall be too busy to call on Goto [_her -brother-in-law_]: so I must go there now." I went to Goto's; but, when -I saw him, I felt afraid to say exactly what I had come to say. I -suggested it only by telling him:-- - -"To-morrow I have to go to a strange house." - -Goto immediately asked:-- - -"As an honourable daughter-in-law [_bride_]?" - -After hesitating, I answered at last:-- - -"Yes." - -"What kind of a person?" Goto asked. - -I answered:-- - -"If I had felt myself able to look at him long enough to form any -opinion, I would not have put mother to the trouble of going with me." - -"_Ané-San_ [Elder Sister]!" he exclaimed,--"then what was the use of -going to see him at all?... But," he added, in a more pleasant tone, -"let me wish you luck." - -"Anyhow," I said, "to-morrow it will be." - -And I returned home. - -* - -Now the appointed day having come--the twenty-eighth day of the ninth -month--I had so much to do that I did not know how I should ever be -able to get ready. And as it had been raining for several days, the -roadway was very bad, which made matters worse for me--though, luckily, -no rain fell on that day. I had to buy some little things; and I could -not well ask mother to do anything for me,--much as I wished for her -help,--because her feet had become very weak by reason of her great -age. So I got up very early and went out alone, and did the best I -could: nevertheless, it was two o'clock in the afternoon before I got -everything ready. - -Then I had to go to the hair-dresser's to have my hair dressed, and to -go to the bath-house--all of which took time. And when I came back to -dress, I found that no message had yet been received from Namiki-Shi; -and I began to feel a little anxious. Just after we had finished -supper, the message came. I had scarcely time to say good-by to all: -then I went out,--leaving my home behind forever,--and walked with -mother to the house of Okada-Shi. - -There I had to part even from mother; and the wife of Okada-Shi taking -charge of me, I accompanied her to the house of Namaki-Shi in Funamachi. - -The wedding ceremony of the _sansan-kudo-no-sakazuki_[9] having been -performed without any difficulty, and the time of the _o-hiraki_ -["honourable-blossoming"][10] having come more quickly than I had -expected, the guests all returned home. - -So we two were left, for the first time, each alone with the -other--sitting face to face: my heart beat wildly;[11] and I felt -abashed in such a way as could not be expressed by means of ink and -paper. - -Indeed, what I felt can be imagined only by one who remembers -leaving her parents' home for the first time, to become a bride,--a -daughter-in-law in a strange house. - -* - -Afterward, at the hour of meals, I felt very much distressed -[_embarrassed_].... - -* - -Two or three days later, the father of my husband's former wife [_who -was dead_] visited me, and said:-- - -"Namiki-Shi is really a good man,--a moral, steady man; but as he is -also very particular about small matters and inclined to find fault, -you had better always be careful to try to please him." - -Now as I had been carefully watching my husband's ways from the -beginning, I knew that he was really a very strict man, and I resolved -so to conduct myself in all matters as never to cross his will. - -* - -The fifth day of the tenth month was the day for our _satogaëri_,[12] -and for the first time we went out together, calling at Goto's on the -way. After we left Goto's, the weather suddenly became bad, and it -began to rain. Then we borrowed a paper umbrella, which we used as -an _aigasa_[13]; and though I was very uneasy lest any of my former -neighbours should see us walking thus together, we luckily reached my -parents' house, and made our visit of duty, without any trouble at all. -While we were in the house, the rain fortunately stopped. - -* - -On the ninth day of the same month I went with him to the theatre for -the first time. We visited the Engiza at Akasaka, and saw a performance -by the Yamaguchi company. - -* - -On the eighth day of the eleventh month, we made a visit to -Asakusa-temple,[14] and also went to the [Shinto temple of the] -O-Tori-Sama. - ---During this last month of the year I made new spring robes for my -husband and myself: then I learned for the first time how pleasant such -work was, and I felt very happy. - -* - -On the twenty-fifth day we visited the temple of Ten-jin-Sama,[15] and -walked about the grounds there. - -* - -On the eleventh day of the first month of the twenty-ninth year [1896], -called at Okada's. - -* - -On the twelfth day we paid a visit to Goto's, and had a pleasant time -there. - -On the ninth day of the second month we went to the Mizaki theatre to -see the play _Imosé-Yama_. On our way to the theatre we met Goto-Shi -unexpectedly; and he went with us. But unluckily it began to rain as we -were returning home, and we found the roads very muddy. - -On the twenty-second day of the same month [we had our] photograph -taken at Amano's. - -* - -On the twenty-fifth day of the third month we went to the Haruki -theatre, and saw the play _Uguisuzuka_.--During the month it was -agreed that all of us [_kindred, friends, and parents_] should make up -a party, and enjoy our _hanami_[16] together; but this could not be -managed. - -* - -On the tenth day of the fourth month, at nine o'clock in the morning, -we two went out for a walk. We first visited the Shōkonsha [_Shintō -shrine_] at Kudan: thence we walked to Uyéno [park]; and from there we -went to Asakusa, and visited the Kwannon temple; and we also prayed at -the Monzéki [_Higashi Hongwanji_]. Thence we had intended to go round -to Asakusa-Okuyama; but we thought that it would be better to have -dinner first--so we went to an eating-house. While we were dining, we -heard such a noise of shouting and screaming that we thought there was -a great quarrel outside. But the trouble was really caused by a fire -in one of the _misémono_ ["shows"]. The fire spread quickly, even while -we were looking at it; and nearly all the show-buildings in that street -were burnt up.... We left the eating-house soon after, and walked about -the Asakusa grounds, looking at things. - -[_Here follows, in the original Ms., the text of a little poem, -composed by the writer herself_:--] - - Imado no watashi nité, - Aimita koto mo naki hito ni, - Fushigi ni Miméguri-Inari, - Kaku mo fūfu ni naru nomika. - Hajimé no omoi ni hikikaëté, - Itsushika-kokoro mo Sumidagawa. - Tsugai hanarénu miyakodori, - Hito mo urayaméba wagami mo mata, - Sakimidarétaru doté no hana yori mo, - Hana ni mo mashita sono hito to - Shirahigé-Yashiro ni naru madé mo. - Soïtogétashi to inorinenji! - -[_Freely translated._][17] - -_Having been taken across the Imado-Ferry, I strangely met at [the -temple of] Miméguri-Inari with a person whom I had never seen before. -Because of this meeting our relation is now even more than the relation -of husband and wife. And my first anxious doubt, "For how long--?" -having passed away, my mind has become [clear] as the Sumida River. -Indeed we are now like a pair of Miyako-birds [always together]; and -I even think that I deserve to be envied. [To see the flowers we went -out; but] more than the pleasure of viewing a whole shore in blossom -is the pleasure that I now desire,--always to dwell with this person, -dearer to me than any flower, until we enter the Shirahigé-Yashiro. -That we may so remain together, I supplicate the Gods!_ - -... Then we crossed the Azuma bridge on our homeward way; and we -went by steamer to the kaichō [festival] of the temple of the -Soga-Kyōdai,[18] and prayed that love and concord should continue -always between ourselves and our brothers and sisters. It was after -seven o'clock that evening when we got home. - ---On the twenty-fifth day of the same month we went to the -Rokumono-no-Yosé.[19] - -*** - -On the second day of the fifth month we visited [the gardens at] Ōkubo -to see the azaleas in blossom. On the sixth day of the same month we -went to see a display of fireworks at the Shōkonsha. - ---So far we had never had any words between us nor any -disagreement;[20] and I had ceased to feel bashful when we went out -visiting or sight-seeing. Now each of us seemed to think only of how -to please the other; and I felt sure that nothing would ever separate -us.... May our relation always be thus happy! - -The eighteenth day of the sixth month, being the festival of the -Suga-jinja,[21] we were invited to my father's house. But as the -hair-dresser did not come to dress my hair at the proper time, I was -much annoyed. However, I went with O-Tori-San [_a younger sister_] to -father's. Presently O-Kō-San [_a married sister_] also came;--and we -had a pleasant time. In the evening Goto-Shi [_husband of O-Kō_] joined -us; and, last of all, came my husband, for whom I had been waiting with -anxious impatience. And there was one thing that made me very glad. -Often when he and I were to go out together, I had proposed that we -should put on the new spring robes which I had made; but he had as -often refused,--preferring to wear his old _kimono_. Now, however, he -wore the new one,--having felt obliged to put it on because of father's -invitation.... All of us being thus happily assembled, the party became -more and more enjoyable; and when we had at last to say good-by, we -only regretted the shortness of the summer night. - -These are the poems which we composed that evening:-- - - Futa-fūfu - Sorōté iwō, - Ujigami no - Matsuri mo kyō wa - Nigiwai ni kéri. - --_By Namiki (the husband)_. - -_Two wedded couples having gone together to worship at the temple, the -parish-festival to-day has been merrier than ever before._ - - Ujigami no - Matsuri médétashi - Futa-fūfu.--_Also by the husband_. - -_Fortunate indeed for two married couples has been the parish-temple -festival!_ - - Ikutosé mo - Nigiyaka narishi, - Ujigami no, - Matsuri ni sorō, - Kyō no uréshisa.--_By the wife._ - -_Though for ever so many years it has always been a joyous occasion, -the festival of our parish-temple to-day is more pleasant than ever -before, because of our being thus happily assembled together._ - - Matsuri toté, - Ikka atsumaru, - Tanoshimi wa! - Géni Ujigami no - Mégumi narikéri. - --_By the wife._ - -_To-day being a day of festival, and all of us meeting together,--what -a delight! Surely by the favour of the tutelar God [Ujigami] this has -come to pass._ - - Futa-fūfu - Sorōté kyō no - Shitashimi mo, - Kami no mégumi zo - Médéta kari-kéri.--By the wife. - -Two wedded pairs being to-day united in such friendship as -this,--certainly it has happened only through the favour of the Gods! - - Ujigami no - Mégumi mo fukaki - Fūfu-zuré.--_By the wife._ - -_Deep indeed is the favour of the tutelar God to the two married -couples._ - - Matsuri toté, - Tsui ni shitatéshi - Iyō-gasuri, - Kyō tanoshimi ni - Kiru to omoëba. - --_By the wife._ - -_This day being a day of festival, we decided to put on, for the joyful -meeting, the robes of Iyogasuri,[22] that had been made alike._ - - Omoïkya! - Hakarazu sōro - Futa-fūfu; - Nani ni tatōën - Kyō no kichi-jitsu. - --_By Goto (the brother-in-law)._ - -_How could we have thought it! Here unexpectedly the two married -couples meet together. What can compare with the good fortune of this -day?_ - - Matsuri toté - Hajimété sorō - Futa-fūfu, - Nochi no kaëri zo - Ima wa kanashiki. - --_By O-Kō, the married sister._ - -_This day being a day of festival, here for the first time two wedded -pairs have met. Already I find myself sorrowing at the thought that we -must separate again._ - - Furu-sato no - Matsuri ni sorō - Futa-fūfu: - Katarō ma saë - Natsu mo mijika yo! - --_By O-Kō._ - -_At the old parental home, two married couples have met together in -holiday celebration. Alas! that the time of our happy converse should -be only one short summer night!_ - -On the fifth day of the seventh month, went to the Kanazawa-tei,[23] -where Harimadayū was then reciting; and we heard him recite the jōruri -called Sanjūsangendō. - -On the first day of the eighth month we went to the [Buddhist] temple -of Asakusa [Kwannon] to pray,--that day being the first anniversary -[_isshūki_] of the death of my husband's former wife. Afterward we -went to an eel-house, near the Azuma bridge, for dinner; and while we -were there--just about the hour of noon--an earthquake took place. -Being close to the river, the house rocked very much; and I was greatly -frightened. - ---Remembering that when we went to Asakusa before, in the time of -cherry blossoms, we had seen a big fire, this earthquake made me feel -anxious;--I wondered whether lightning would come next.[24] - -About two o'clock we left the eating-house, and went to the Asakusa -park. From there we went by street-car to Kanda; and we stopped awhile -at a cool place in Kanda, to rest ourselves. On our way home we called -at father's, and it was after nine o'clock when we got back. - -* - -The fifteenth day of the same month was the festival of the -Hachiman-jinja[25]; and Goto, my sister, and the younger sister of -Goto came to the house. I had hoped that we could all go to the temple -together; but that morning my husband had taken a little too much -wine,--so we had to go without him. After worshipping at the temple, we -went to Goto's house; and I stopped there awhile before returning home. - -* - -In the ninth month, on the occasion of the Higan[26] festival, I went -alone to the [Buddhist] temple to pray. - -On the twenty-first day of the tenth month, O-Taka-San [_probably a -relative_] came from Shidzuoka. I wanted to take her to the theatre -the next day; but she was obliged to leave Tōkyō early in the morning. -However, my husband and I went to the Ryūsei theatre on the following -evening; and we saw the play called _Matsumaë Bidan Teichū-Kagami._[27] - -*** - -On the twenty-second day of the sixth month I began to sew a kimono -which father had asked me to make for him; but I felt ill, and could -not do much. However, I was able to finish the work on the first day of -the new year [1897]. - -... Now we were very happy because of the child that was to be born. -And I thought how proud and glad my parents would be at having a -grandchild for the first time. - -*** - -On the tenth day of the fifth month I went out with mother to worship -Shiogama-Sama,[28] and also to visit Sengakuji. There we saw the tombs -of the Shijin-shichi Shi [Forty-seven Rōnin], and many relics of their -history. We returned by railroad, taking the train from Shinagawa to -Shinjiku. At Shiochō-Sanchōmé I parted from mother, and I got home by -six o'clock. - -*** - -On the eighth day of the sixth month, at four o'clock in the afternoon, -a boy was born. Both mother and child appeared to be as well as could -be wished; and the child much resembled my husband; and its eyes were -large and black.... But I must say that it was a very small child; -for, though it ought to have been born in the eighth month, it was born -indeed in the sixth.... At seven o'clock in the evening of the same -day, when the time came to give the child some medicine, we saw, by the -light of the lamp, that he was looking all about, with his big eyes -wide open. During that night the child slept in my mother's bosom. As -we had been told that he must be kept very warm, because he was only a -seven-months' child, it was decided that he should be kept in the bosom -by day as well as by night. - -Next day--the ninth day of the sixth month--at half-past six o'clock in -the afternoon, he suddenly died.... - -* - ---"_Brief is the time of pleasure, and quickly turns to pain; and -whatsoever is born must necessarily die_"[29];--that, indeed, is a true -saying about this world. - -* - -Only for one day to be called a mother!--to have a child born only to -see it die!... Surely, I thought, if a child must die within two days -after birth, it were better that it should never be born. - -From the twelfth to the sixth month I had been so ill!--then at -last I had obtained some ease, and joy at the birth of a son; and I -had received so many congratulations about my good fortune;--and, -nevertheless, he was dead! ... Indeed, I suffered great grief. - -On the tenth day of the sixth month the funeral took place, at the -temple called Senpukuji, in Ōkubo, and a small tomb was erected. - -The poems composed at that time[30] were the following:-- - - Omoïkya! - Mi ni saë kaënu - Nadéshiko ni, - Wakaréshi sodé no - Tsuyu no tamoto wo! - -_If I could, only have known! Ah, this parting with the flower,[31] for -which I would so gladly have given my own life, has left my sleeves wet -with the dew!_ - - Samidaré ya! - Shimérigachi naru - Sodé no tamoto wo. - -_Oh! the month of rain![32] All things become damp;--the ends of my -sleeves are wet._ - -Some little time afterward, people told me that if I planted the -_sotoba_[33] upside down, another misfortune of this kind would not -come to pass. I had a great many sorrowful doubts about doing such a -thing; but at last, on the ninth day of the eighth month, I had the -_sotoba_ reversed. ... - -* - -On the eighth day of the ninth month we went to the Akasaka theatre. - -* - -On the eighteenth day of the tenth month I went by myself to the Haruki -theatre in Hongō, to see the play of _Ōkubo Hikozaëmon_.[34] There, -having carelessly lost my sandal-ticket [_gésoku-fuda_], I had to -remain until after everybody else had left. Then I was at last able to -get my sandals, and to go home; but the night was so black that I felt -very lonesome on the way. - -On the day of the _Sekku_,[35]in the first month [1898], I was talking -with Hori's aunt and the wife of our friend Uchimi, when I suddenly -felt a violent pain in my breast, and, being frightened, I tried to -reach a talisman (_o-mamori_) of Suitengū,[36] which was lying upon the -wardrobe. But in the same moment I fell senseless. Under kind treatment -I soon came to myself again; but I was ill for a long time after. - -*** - -The tenth day of the fourth month being the holiday -_Sanjiu-nen-Sai_,[37] we arranged to meet at father's. I was to go -there first with Jiunosuké [_perhaps a relative_], and there wait for -my husband, who had to go to the office that morning for a little -while. He met us at father's house about half-past eight: then the -three of us went out together to look at the streets. We passed through -Kōjimachi to Nakatamachi, and went by way of the Sakurada-Mon to the -Hibiya-Metsuké, and thence from Ginzadōri by way of the Mégané-Bashi -to Uyéno. After looking at things there, we again went to the -Mégané-Bashi; but then I felt so tired that I proposed to return, and -my husband agreed, as he also was very tired. But Jiunosuké said: "As -I do not want to miss this chance to see the Daimyō-procession,[38] I -must go on to Ginza." So there we said good-by to him, and we went to -a little eating-house [_tempura-ya_], where we were served with fried -fish; and, as luck would have it, we got a good chance to see the -Daimyō-procession from that very house. We did not get back home that -evening until half-past six o'clock. - -* - -From the middle of the fourth month I had much sorrow on account of a -matter relating to my sister Tori [_the matter is not mentioned_]. - -*** - -On the nineteenth day of the eighth month of the thirty-first year of -Meiji [1898] my second child was born, almost painlessly,--a girl; and -we named her Hatsu. We invited to the _shichiya_[39] all those who had -helped us at the time of the child's birth. - ---Mother afterwards remained with me for a couple of days; but she -was then obliged to leave me, because my sister Kō was suffering from -severe pains in the chest. Fortunately my husband had his regular -vacation about the same time; and he helped me all he could,--even in -regard to washing and other matters; but I was often greatly troubled -because I had no woman with me.... - -When my husband's vacation was over, mother came often, but only while -my husband was away. The twenty-one days [_the period of danger_] thus -passed; but mother and child continued well. - ---Up to the time of one hundred days after my daughter's birth, I -was constantly anxious about her, because she often seemed to have a -difficulty in breathing. But that passed off at last, and she appeared -to be getting strong. - -Still, we were unhappy about one matter,--a deformity: Hatsu had been -born with a double thumb on one hand. For a long time we could not make -up our minds to take her to a hospital, in order to have an operation -performed. But at last a woman living near our house told us of a very -skilful surgeon in [the quarter of] Shinjiku; and we decided to go to -him. My husband held the child on his lap during the operation. I could -not bear to see the operation; and I waited in the next room, my heart -full of pain and fear, wondering how the matter would end. But [when -all was over] the little one did not appear to suffer any pain; and she -took the breast as usual a few minutes after. So the matter ended more -fortunately than I had thought possible. - -At home she continued to take her milk as before, and seemed as if -nothing had been done to her little body. But as she was so very young -we were afraid that the operation might in some way cause her to be -sick. By way of precaution, I went with her to the hospital every day -for about three weeks; but she showed no sign of sickness. - -* - -On the third day of the third month of the thirty-second year [1899], -on the occasion of the _hatsu-sekku_,[40] we received presents of -_Dairi_ and of _hina_, both from father's house and from Goto's,--also -the customary gifts of congratulation: a _tansu_ [chest of drawers], -a _kyōdai_ [mirror-stand], and a _haribako_ [work-box: lit. -"needle-box"][41] We ourselves on the same occasion bought for her -a _chadai_ [teacup stand], a _zen_ [lacquered tray], and some other -little things. Both Goto and Jiunosuké came to see us on that day; and -we had a very happy gathering. - -* - -On the third day of the fourth month we visited the temple Ana-Hachiman -[_Shintō shrine in the district of Waséda_] to pray for the child's -health.... - -On the twenty-ninth day of the fourth month Hatsu appeared to be -unwell: so I wanted to have her examined by a doctor. - -A doctor promised to come the same morning, but he did not come, and -I waited for him in vain all that day. Next day again I waited, but -he did not come. Toward evening Hatsu became worse, and seemed to be -suffering great pain in her breast, and I resolved to take her to a -doctor early next morning. All through that night I was very uneasy -about her, but at daybreak she seemed to be better. So I went out -alone, taking her on my back, and walked to the office of a doctor in -Akasaka. But when I asked to have the child examined, I was told that I -must wait, as it was not yet the regular time for seeing patients. - -While I was waiting, the child began to cry worse than ever before; -she would not take the breast, and I could do nothing to soothe her, -either by walking or resting, so that I was greatly troubled. At last -the doctor came, and began to examine her; and in the same moment I -noticed that her crying grew feebler, and that her lips were becoming -paler and paler. Then, as I could not remain silent, seeing her thus, I -had to ask, "How is her condition?" "She cannot live until evening," he -answered. "But could you not give her medicine?" I asked. "If she could -drink it," he replied. - -I wanted to go back home at once, and send word to my husband and to -my father's house; but the shock had been too much for me--all my -strength suddenly left me. Fortunately a kind old woman came to my aid, -and carried my umbrella and other things, and helped me to get into a -jinrikisha, so that I was able to return home by jinrikisha. Then I -sent a man to tell my husband and my father. Mita's wife came to help -me; and with her assistance everything possible was done to help the -child. ... Still my husband did not come back. But all our pain and -trouble was in vain. - -So, on the second day of the fifth month of the thirty-second year, my -child set out on her journey to the Jūmanokudō[42]--never to return to -this world. - -* - -And we, her father and mother, were yet living--though we had caused -her death by neglecting to have her treated by a skilled doctor! This -thought made us both sorrow greatly; and we often reproached ourselves -in vain. But the day after her death the doctor said to us: "Even if -that disease had been treated from the beginning by the best possible -means, your child could not have lived more than about a week. If -she had been ten or eleven years old, she might possibly have been -saved by an operation; but in this case no operation could have been -attempted--the child was too young." Then he explained to us that the -child had died from a _jinzōen_.[43]... - -Thus all the hopes that we had, and all the pains that we took in -caring for her, and all the pleasure of watching her grow during those -nine months,--all were in vain! - -But we two were at last able to find some ease from our sorrow by -reflecting that our relation to this child, from the time of some -former life, must have been very slight and weak.[44] - -* - -In the loneliness of that weary time, I tried to express my heart by -writing some verses after the manner of the story of Miyagino and -Shinobu in the _gidayū-bon_[45]:-- - - Koré, kono uchi é enzukishi wa, - Omoi kaëséba itsutosé maë; - Kondo mōkéshi wa onago no ko, - Kawaii mono toté sodatsuru ka to;-- - - Waga mi no nari wa uchi-wasuré, - Sodatéshi koto mo, nasaké nai. - Kōshita koto to wa tsuyushirazu, - Kono Hatsu wa buji ni sodatsuru ka. - Shubi yō seijin shita naraba, - Yagaté muko wo tori - Tanoshimashō dōshité to. - Monomi yusan wo tashinandé, - Wagako daiji to, - Otto no koto mo, Hatsu no koto mo, - Koïshi natsukashi omō no wo; - --Tanoshimi-kurashita kai mo no. - Oyako ni narishi wa uréshii ga, - Sakidatsu koto wo miru haha no - Kokoro mo suishité tamoi no to! - - --Té wo tori-kawasu fūfu ga nagéki, - Nagéki wo tachi-giku mo, - Morai nakishité omotéguchi - Shōji mo nururu bakari nari. - -_Here in this house it was that I married him;--well I remember the -day--five years ago. Here was born the girl-baby,--the loved one whom -we hoped to rear. Caring then no longer for my person [,--heedless -of how I dressed when I went out],--thinking only of how to bring -her up,--I lived. How pitiless [this doom of mine]! Never had I even -dreamed that such a thing could befall me: my only thoughts were as -to how my Hatsu could best be reared. When she grows up, I thought, -soon we shall find her a good husband, to make her life happy. So, -never going out for pleasure-seeking, I studied only how to care for my -little one,--how to love and to cherish my husband and my Hatsu. Vain -now, alas! this hoped-for joy of living only for her sake.. .. Once -having known the delight of the relation of mother and child, deign to -think of the heart of the mother who sees her child die before her!_ -[46] - -* - -[_All of the foregoing is addressed to the spirit of the dead -child._--Translator.] - -* - -_Now, while husband and wife, each clasping the hands of the other, -make lament together, if any one pausing at the entrance should listen -to their sorrow, surely the paper window would be moistened by tears -from without._ - -* - -About the time of Hatsu's death, the law concerning funerals was -changed for the better; and permission was given for the burning of -corpses in Ōkubo. So I asked Namiki to have the body sent to the temple -of which his family had always been parishioners,--providing that -there should be no [legal] difficulty about the matter. Accordingly -the funeral took place at Monjōji,--a temple belonging to the Asakusa -branch of the Hongwanji Shin-shū; and the ashes were there interred. - ---My sister Kō was sick in bed with a rather bad cold at the time of -Hatsu's death; but she visited us very soon after the news had reached -her. And she called again a few days later to tell us that she had -become almost well, and that we had no more cause to feel anxious about -her. - ---As for myself, I felt a dread of going out anywhere; and I did not -leave the house for a whole month. But as custom does not allow one to -remain always indoors, I had to go out at last; and I made the required -visit to father's and to my sister's. - -*** - ---Having become quite ill, I hoped that mother would be able to help -me. But Kō was again sick, and Yoshi [_a younger sister here mentioned -for the first time_] and mother had both to attend her constantly: -so I could get no aid from father's house. There was no one to help -me except some of my female neighbours, who attended me out of pure -kindness, when they could spare the time. At last I got Hori-Shi to -engage a good old woman to assist me; and under her kind care I began -to get well. About the beginning of the eighth month I felt much -stronger.... - -On the fourth day of the ninth month my sister Kō died of consumption. - ---It had been agreed beforehand that if an unexpected matter[47] came -to pass, my younger sister Yoshi should be received in the place of -Kō. As Goto-Shi found it inconvenient to live altogether alone, the -marriage took place on the eleventh day of the same month; and the -usual congratulations were offered. - -On the last day of the same month Okada-Shi suddenly died. - -We found ourselves greatly troubled [_pecuniarily embarrassed_] by the -expenses that all these events caused us. - -* - ---When I first heard that Yoshi had been received so soon after the -death of Kō, I was greatly displeased. But I kept my feelings hidden, -and I spoke to the man as before. - -* - -In the eleventh month Goto went alone to Sapporo. On the second day of -the second month, thirty-third year of Meiji [1900], Goto-Shi returned -to Tōkyō; and on the fourteenth day of the same month he went away -again to the Hokkaidō [_Yezo_], taking Yoshi with him. - -*** - -On the twentieth day of the second month, at six o'clock in the -morning, my third child--a boy--was born. Both mother and child were -well. - -* - ---We had expected a girl, but it was a boy that was born; so, when my -husband came back from his work, he was greatly surprised and pleased -to find that he had a boy. - ---But the child was not well able to take the breast: so we had to -nourish him by means of a feeding-bottle. - -* - -On the seventh day after the boy's birth, we partly shaved his head. -And in the evening we had the _shichiya_ [seventh-day festival]--but, -this time, all by ourselves. - ---My husband had caught a bad cold some time before; and he could not -go to work next morning, as he was coughing badly. So he remained in -the house. Early in the morning the child had taken his milk as usual. -But, about ten o'clock in the forenoon, he seemed to be suffering great -pain in his breast; and he began to moan so strangely that we sent -a man for a doctor. Unfortunately the doctor that we asked to come -was out of town; and we were told that he would not come back before -night. Therefore, we thought that it would be better to send at once -for another doctor; and we sent for one. He said that he would come -in the evening. But, about two o'clock in the afternoon, the child's -sickness suddenly became worse; and a little before three o'clock--the -twenty-seventh day of the second month--_aënaku_![48]--my child was -dead, having lived for only eight days.... - -* - ---I thought to myself that, even if this new misfortune did not cause -my husband to feel an aversion for me, thus having to part with all my -children, one after another, must be the punishment of some wrong done -in the time of a former life. And, so thinking, I knew that my sleeves -would never again become dry,--that the rain [_of tears_] would never -cease,--that never again in this world would the sky grow clear for me. - -And more and more I wondered whether my husband's feelings would not -change for the worse, by reason of his having to meet such trouble, -over and over again, on my account. I felt anxious about his heart, -because of what already was in my own. - -Nevertheless, he only repeated the words, _Temméï itashikata koré -naku_: "From the decrees of Heaven there is no escape." - -* - ---I thought that I should be better able to visit the tomb of my child -if he were buried in some temple near us. So the funeral took place -at the temple called Sempu-kuji in Ōkubo; and the ashes were buried -there.... - - Tanoshimi mo - Samété hakanashi - Haru no yumé![49] - -[_Translation._] - ---_All the delight having perished, hopeless I remain: it was only a -dream of Spring!_[50] - -[No date.] - -... I wonder whether it was because of the sorrow that I suffered--my -face and limbs became slightly swollen during the fortnight[51] after -my boy's death.--It was nothing very serious, after all, and it soon -went away.... Now the period of twenty-one days [the period of danger] -is past.... - -Here the poor mother's diary ends. The closing statement regarding the -time of twenty-one days from the birth of her child leaves it probable -that these last lines were written on the thirteenth or fourteenth day -of the third month. She died on the twenty-eighth of the same month. - -* - -I doubt if any one not really familiar with the life of Japan can fully -understand this simple history. But to imagine the merely material -conditions of the existence here recorded should not be difficult:--the -couple occupying a tiny house of two rooms--one room of six mats and -one of three;--the husband earning barely per month;--the wife sewing, -washing, cooking (outside the house, of course);--no comfort of fire, -even during the period of greatest cold. I estimate that the pair -must have lived at an average cost of about seven pence a day, not -including house-rent. Their pleasures were indeed very cheap: a payment -of twopence admitted them to theatres or to _gidayū_-recitations; and -their sight-seeing was done on foot. Yet even these diversions were -luxuries for them. Expenses represented by the necessary purchase of -clothing, or by the obligation of making presents to kindred upon the -occasion of a marriage or a birth or a death, could only have been met -by heroic economy. Now it is true that thousands of poor folk in Tōkyō -live still more cheaply than this,--live upon a much smaller income -than £1 per month,--and nevertheless remain always clean, neat, and -cheerful. But only a very strong woman can easily bear and bring up -children under such conditions,--conditions much more hazardous than -those of the harder but healthier peasant-life of the interior. And, as -might be supposed, the weakly fail and perish in multitude. - -* - -Readers of the diary may have wondered at the eagerness shown by -so shy and gentle a woman to become thus suddenly the wife of a -total stranger, about whose character she knew absolutely nothing. -A majority of Japanese marriages, indeed, are arranged for in the -matter-of-fact way here described, and with the aid of a _nakōdo_; -but the circumstances, in this particular case, were exceptionally -discomforting. The explanation is pathetically simple. All good girls -are expected to marry; and to remain unmarried after a certain age is a -shame and a reproach. The dread of such reproach, doubtless, impelled -the writer of the diary to snatch at the first chance of fulfilling her -natural destiny. She was already twenty-nine years old;--another such -chance might never have offered itself. - -* - -To me the chief significance of this humble confession of struggle -and failure is not in the utterance of anything exceptional, but -in the expression of something as common to Japanese life as blue -air and sunshine. The brave resolve of the woman to win affection -by docility and by faultless performance of duty, her gratitude for -every small kindness, her childlike piety, her supreme unselfishness, -her Buddhist interpretation of suffering as the penalty for some -fault committed in a previous life, her attempts to write poetry -when her heart was breaking,--all this, indeed, I find touching, and -more than touching. But I do not find it exceptional. The traits -revealed are typical,--typical of the moral nature of the woman of -the people. Perhaps there are not many Japanese women of the same -humble class who could express their personal joy and pain in a -record at once so artless and pathetic; but there are millions of -such women inheriting--from ages and ages of unquestioning faith--a -like conception of life as duty, and an equal capacity of unselfish -attachment. - - -[Footnote 1: A _kozukai_ is a man-servant chiefly employed as -doorkeeper and messenger. The term is rendered better by the French -word _concierge_ than by our English word "porter"; but neither -expression exactly meets the Japanese meaning.] - -[Footnote 2: The reader must understand that "the man of the opposite -house" is acting as _nakōdo_, or match-maker, in the interest of a -widower who wishes to remarry. By the statement, "no preparation -has been made," the hither means that he is unable to provide for -his daughter's marriage, and cannot furnish her with a bridal -outfit,--clothing, household furniture, etc.,--as required by custom. -The reply that "no preparation is needed" signifies that the proposed -husband is willing to take the girl without any marriage gifts.] - -[Footnote 3: Throughout this Ms., except in one instance, the more -respectful form _Sama_ never occurs after a masculine name, the popular -form _Shi_ being used even after the names of kindred.] - -[Footnote 4: The father has evidently been consulting a fortune-telling -book, such as the _San-zé-sō_, or a professional diviner. The allusion -to the astrologically determined natures, or temperaments, of the pair -could scarcely be otherwise explained.] - -[Footnote 5: _Miai_ is a term used to signify a meeting arranged in -order to enable the parties affianced to see each other before the -wedding-day.] - -[Footnote 6: Meaning: "I am ready to become your wife, if you are -willing to take me as you have been informed that I am,--a poor girl -without money or clothes."] - -[Footnote 7: Lucky and unlucky days were named and symbolized as -follows, according to the old Japanese astrological system:-- - -Senkatsu:--forenoon good; afternoon bad. - -Tomobiki:--forenoon good; afternoon good at the beginning and the end, -but bad in the middle. - -Senpu;--forenoon bad; afternoon good. - -Butsumetsu:--wholly unlucky. - -Taian;--altogether good. - -Shakō:--all unlucky, except at noon.] - -[Footnote 8: This statement also implies that a professional diviner -has been consulted. The reference to the direction, or _bōgaku_, can -be fully understood only by those conversant with the old Chinese -nature-philosophy.] - -[Footnote 9: Lit. "thrice-three-nine-times-wine-cup."] - -[Footnote 10: At a Japanese wedding it is customary to avoid the use -of any words to which an unlucky signification attaches, or of any -words suggesting misfortune in even an indirect way. The word _sumu_, -"to finish," or "to end"; the word _kaēru_, "to return," (suggesting -divorce), as well as many others, are forbidden at weddings. -Accordingly, the term _o-hiraki_ has long been euphemistically -substituted for the term _oitoma_ ("honourable leave-taking," i.e. -"farewell"), in the popular etiquette of wedding assemblies.] - -[Footnote 11: "I felt a tumultuous beating within my breast," would -perhaps be a closer rendering of the real sense; but it would sound -oddly artificial by comparison with the simple Japanese utterance: -"_Ato ni wa futari sashi-mukai to nari, muné uchi-sawagi; sono -bazukashisa bisthi ni tsukushi-gatashi._"] - -[Footnote 12: From _sato_, "the parental home," and _kaëri_, "to -return." The first visit of a bride to her parents, after marriage, is -thus called.] - -[Footnote 13: _Aigasa_, a fantastic term compounded from the verb -_au_, "to accord," "to harmonize," and the noun _kasa_, "an umbrella." -It signifies one umbrella used by two persons--especially lovers: an -umbrella-of-loving-accord. To understand the wife's anxiety about being -seen walking with her husband under the borrowed umbrella, the reader -must know that it is not yet considered decorous for wife and husband -even to walk side by side in public. A newly wedded pair, using a -single umbrella in this way, would be particularly liable to have jests -made at their expense--jests that might prove trying to the nerves of a -timid bride.] - -[Footnote 14: She means the great Buddhist temple of Kwannon,--the most -popular, and perhaps the most famous, Buddhist temple in Tokyo.] - -[Footnote 15: In the Ōkubo quarter. The shrine is shadowed by a fine -grove of trees.] - -[Footnote 16: That is to say, "It was agreed that we should all go -together to see the flowers." The word _hanami_ ("flower-seeing") might -be given to any of the numerous flower-festivals of the year, according -to circumstances; but it here refers to the season of cherry blossoms. -Throughout this diary the dates are those of the old lunar calendar.] - -[Footnote 17: A literal rendering is almost impossible. There is -a ferry, called the Ferry of Imado, over the Sumidagawa; but the -reference here is really neither to the ferry nor to the ferryman, -but to the _nakōdo_, or match-maker, who arranged for the marriage. -_Miméguri-Inari_ is the popular name of a famous temple of the God of -Rice, in Mukojima; but there is an untranslatable play here upon the -name, suggesting a lovers' meeting. The reference to the Sumidagawa -also contains a play upon the syllables _sumi_,--the verb "sumi" -signifying "to be clear." _Shirahigé-Yashiro_ ("White-Hair Temple") -is the name of a real and very celebrated Shintō shrine in the city; -but the name is here used chiefly to express the hope that the union -may last into the period of hoary age. Besides these suggestions, we -may suppose that the poem contains allusions to the actual journey -made,--over the Sumidagawa by ferry, and thence to the various temples -named. From old time, poems of like meaning have been made about these -places; but the lines above given are certainly original, with the -obvious exception of a few phrases which have become current coin in -popular poetry.] - -[Footnote 18: The Soga Brothers were famous heroes of the twelfth -century. The word _kaichō_ signifies the religious festival during -which the principal image of a temple is exposed to view.] - -[Footnote 19: Name of a public hall at which various kinds of -entertainments are given, more especially recitations by professional -story-tellers.] - -[Footnote 20: Lit. "there never yet having been any waves nor even wind -between us." - -[Footnote 21: The Shinto parish-temple, or more correctly, -district-temple of the Yotsuya] quarter. Each quarter, or district, -of the city has its tutelar divinity, or Ujigami. Suga-jinja is the -Ujigami-temple of Yotsuya.] - -[Footnote 22: _Iyogasuri_ is the name given to a kind of dark-blue -cotton-cloth, with a sprinkling of white in small patterns, -manufactured at Iyo, in Shikoku.] - -[Footnote 23: The Kanazawa-tei is a public hall in the Yotsuya quarter. -Harimadayū is the professional name of a celebrated chanter of the -dramatic recitations called _jōruri_ and _gidayū_,--in which the -reciter, or chanter, mimes the voices and action of many different -characters.] - -[Footnote 24: She alludes to a popular saying of Buddhist -origin:--_Jishin, kwaji, kaminari, misoka, kikin, yamai no naki kuni é -yuku_ ("Let us go to the Land where there is neither earthquake, nor -fire, nor lightning, nor any last day of the month, nor famine, nor -sickness").] - -[Footnote 25: _Ujigami_ of the Ushigomé district.] - -[Footnote 26: Festival of the "Further Shore" (that is to say, -Paradise). There are two great Buddhist festivals thus called,--the -first representing a period of seven days during the spring equinox; -the second, a period of seven days during the autumnal equinox.] - -[Footnote 27: This drama is founded upon the history of a famous rice -merchant named Matsumaëya Gorōbei.] - -[Footnote 28: Shiogama-Daimyōjin, a Shinto deity, to whom women pray -for easy delivery in child-birth. Shrines of this divinity may be found -in almost every province of Japan.] - -[Footnote 29: Uréshiki ma wa wazuka nité, mata kanashimi to henzuru; -umaréru mono wa kanarazu shizu.--A Buddhist text that has become a -Japanese proverb.] - -[Footnote 30: Composed by the bereaved mother herself, as a discipline -against grief.] - -[Footnote 31: _Nadéshiko_ literally means a pink; but in poetry the -word is commonly used in the meaning of "baby."] - -[Footnote 32: _Samidaré_ is the name given to the old fifth month, or, -more strictly speaking, to a rainy period occurring in that month. -The verses are, of course, allusive, and their real meaning might be -rendered thus: "Oh! the season of grief! All things now seem sad: the -sleeves of my robe are moist with my tears!"] - -[Footnote 33: The _sotoba_ is a tall wooden lath, inscribed with -Buddhist texts, and planted above a grave. For a full account of the -_sotoba_, see the article entitled "The Literature of the Dead," in my -_Exotics and Retrospectives_, p. 102. I am not able to give any account -or explanation of the curious superstition here referred to; but it -is probably of the same class with the strange custom recorded in my -_Gleanings in Buddha-Fields_, p. 126.] - -[Footnote 34: It would be unfair to suppose that this visit to the -theatre was made only for pleasure; it was made rather in the hope of -forgetting pain, and probably by order of the husband. - -Ōkubo Hikozaëmon was the favourite minister and adviser of the Shōgun -Iyem-itsu. Numberless stories of his sagacity and kindness are recorded -in popular literature; and in many dramas the notable incidents of his -official career are still represented.] - -[Footnote 35: There are five holidays thus named in every year. These -_go-sekku_ are usually called, _Jinjitsu_ (the 7th of the 1st month), -_Joki_ (the 3d of the 3d month), _Tango_ (the 5th of the 5th month), -_Tanabata_ (the 7th of the 7th month), and _Chōyō_ (the 9th of the 9th -month).] - -[Footnote 36: A divinity half-Buddhist, half-Shintō, in origin, but now -popularly considered Shintō. This god is especially worshipped as a -healer, and a protector against sickness. His principal temple in Tōkyō -is in the Nihonbashi district.] - -[Footnote 37: A festival in commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary -of the establishment of Tōkyō as the Imperial capital, instead of -Kyōtō.] - -[Footnote 38: _Daimyō-no-g yōretsu_. On the festival mentioned there -was a pageant representing feudal princes travelling in state, -accompanied by their retainers and servants. The real armour, costumes, -and weapons of the period before Meiji were effectively displayed on -this occasion.] - -[Footnote 39: A congratulatory feast, held on the evening of the -seventh day after the birth of a child. Relatives and friends invited -usually make small presents to the baby.] - -[Footnote 40: The first annual Festival of Girls is thus called.] - -[Footnote 41: All the objects here mentioned are toys--toys appropriate -to the occasion. The _Dairi_ are old-fashioned toy-figures, -representing an emperor and empress in ancient costume. _Hina_ are -dolls.] - -[Footnote 42: Another name for the Buddhist Paradise of the West,--the -heaven of Amida (Amitābha).] - -[Footnote 43: Nephritis.] - -[Footnote 44: Or, "very thin and loose,"--the Karma-relation being -emblematically spoken of as a bond or tie. She means, of course, that -the loss of the child was the inevitable consequence of some fault -committed in a previous state of existence.] - -[Footnote 45: _Gidayū-bon_, "the book of the _gidayū_." There are many -_gidayū_ books. _Gidayū_ is the name given to a kind of musical drama. -In the dramatic composition here referred to, the characters Miyagino -and Shinobu are sisters, who relate their sorrows to each other.] - -[Footnote 46: I.e. before she herself (the mother) dies;--there is a -colloquial phrase in the Japanese text. _Ko ga oya ni sakidatsu_ is the -common expression: "the child goes before the parents,"--that is to -say, dies before the parents.] - -[Footnote 47: A euphemistic expression for death.] - -[Footnote 48: _Aënaku_ is an adjective signifying, according to -circumstances, "feeble," or "transitory," or "sad." Its use here might -best be rendered by some such phrase as "Piteous to say!"] - -[Footnote 49: Her poem bears no date.] - -[Footnote 50: A necessarily free translation;--the lines might also -be read thus: "Having awakened, all the joy fleets and fades;--it was -only a dream of Spring." The verb _saméru_, very effectively used here, -allows of this double rendering; for it means either "to awake" or "to -fade." The adjective _hakanashi_ also has a double meaning: according -to circumstances it may signify either "fleeting" (evanescent) or -"hopeless" (wretched).] - -[Footnote 51: Lit. "the first two _nanuka_": one _nanuka_ representing -a period of seven successive days from the date of death.] - - - - -Heiké-gani - - -[Illustration] - -In various countries of which the peoples appear strange to us, by -reason of beliefs, ideas, customs, and arts having nothing in common -with our own, there can be found something in the nature of the -land--something in its flora or fauna--characterized by a corresponding -strangeness. Probably the relative queerness of the exotic nature in -such regions helped more or less to develop the apparent oddity of the -exotic mind. National differences of thought or feeling should not be -less evolutionally interpretable than the forms of vegetables or of -insects; and, in the mental evolution of a people, the influence of -environment upon imagination must be counted as a factor.... - -* - -These reflections were induced by a box of crabs sent me from the -Province of Chōshū,--crabs possessing that very same quality of -grotesqueness which we are accustomed to think of as being peculiarly -Japanese. On the backs of these creatures there are bossings and -depressions that curiously simulate the shape of a human face,--a -distorted face,--a face modelled in relief as a Japanese craftsman -might have modelled it in some moment of artistic whim. - -[Illustration] - -Two varieties of such crabs--nicely dried and polished--are constantly -exposed for sale in the shops of Akamagaséki (better known to -foreigners by the name of Shimonoséki). They are caught along the -neighbouring stretch of coast called Dan-no-Ura, where the great -clan of the Heiké, or Taira, were exterminated in a naval battle, -seven centuries ago, by the rival clan of Genji, or Minamoto. Readers -of Japanese history will remember the story of the Imperial Nun, -Nii-no-Ama, who in the hour of that awful tragedy composed a poem, and -then leaped into the sea, with the child-emperor Antoku in her arms. - -[Illustration] - -Now the grotesque crabs of this coast are called Heiké-gani, or -"Heiké-crabs," because of a legend that the spirits of the drowned and -slaughtered warriors of the Heiké-clan assumed such shapes; and it is -said that the fury or the agony of the death-struggle can still be -discerned in the faces upon the backs of the crabs. But to feel the -romance of this legend you should be familiar with old pictures of the -fight of Dan-no-Ura,--old coloured prints of the armoured combatants, -with their grim battle-masks of iron and their great fierce eyes. - -The smaller variety of crab is known simply as a -"Heiké-crab,"--Heiké-gani. Each Heiké-gani is supposed to be animated -by the spirit of a common Heiké warrior only,--an ordinary samurai. But -the larger kind of crab is also termed Taishō-gani ("Chieftain-crab"), -or Tatsugashira ("Dragon-helmet"); and all Taishō-gani or Tatsugashira -are thought to be animated by ghosts of those great Heiké captains -who bore upon their helmets monsters unknown to Western heraldry, and -glittering horns, and dragons of gold. - -I got a Japanese friend to draw for me the two pictures of Heiké-gani -herewith reproduced; and I can vouch for their accuracy. But I told -him that I could not see anything resembling a helmet, either in his -drawing of the Tatsugashira, nor in the original figure upon the back -of the crab. - -[Illustration] - -"Can you see it?" I asked. "Why, yes,--somewhat like this," he -answered, making the following sketch:-- - -"Well, I can make out part of the head-gear," I said;--"but that -outline of yours is not according to facts,--and that face is vapid as -the face of the Moon. Look at the nightmare on the back of the real -crab!..." - -[Illustration] - - - - -Fireflies - - -[Illustration] - -I - -I want to talk about Japanese fireflies, but not entomologically. -If you are interested, as you ought to be, in the scientific side -of the subject, you should seek enlightenment from a Japanese -professor of biology, now lecturing at the Imperial University of -Tōkyō. He signs himself "Mr. S. Watasé" (the "S" standing for the -personal name Shozaburo); and he has been a teacher as well as a -student of science in America, where a number of his lectures have -been published,[1]--lectures upon animal phosphorescence, animal -electricity, the light-producing organs of insects and fishes, and -other wonderful topics of biology. He can tell you all that is -known concerning the morphology of fireflies, the physiology of -fireflies, the photometry of fireflies, the chemistry of their -luminous substance, the spectroscopic analysis of their light, and the -significance of that light in terms of ether-vibration. By experiment -he can show you that, under normal conditions of temperature and -environment, the number of light-pulsations produced by one species -of Japanese firefly averages twenty-six per minute; and that the -rate suddenly rises to sixty-three per minute, if the insect be -frightened by seizure. Also he can prove to you that another and -smaller kind of firefly, when taken in the hand, will increase the -number of its light-pulsings to upward of two hundred per minute. -He suggests that the light may be of some protective value to the -insect,--like the "warning colours" of sundry nauseous caterpillars -and butterflies,--because the firefly has a very bitter taste, and -birds appear to find it unpalatable. (Frogs, he has observed, do not -mind the bad taste: they fill their cold bellies with fireflies till -the light shines through them, much as the light of a candle-flame -will glow through a porcelain jar.) But whether of protective value or -not, the tiny dynamo would seem to be used in a variety of ways,--as -a phototelegraph, for example. As other insects converse by sound or -by touch, the firefly utters its emotion in luminous pulsings: its -speech is a language of light.... I am only giving you some hints about -the character of the professor's lectures, which are never merely -technical. And for the best part of this non-scientific essay of -mine,--especially that concerning the capture and the sale of fireflies -in Japan,--I am indebted to some delightful lectures which he delivered -last year to Japanese audiences in Tōkyō. - - -II - -As written to-day, the Japanese name of the firefly (_hotaru_) is -ideographically composed with the sign for fire, doubled, above the -sign for insect. The real origin of the word is nevertheless doubtful; -and various etymologies have been suggested. Some scholars think that -the appellation anciently signified "the First-born of Fire"; while -others believe that it was first composed with syllables meaning "star" -and "drop." The more poetical of the proposed derivations, I am sorry -to say, are considered the least probable. But whatever may have been -the primal meaning of the word _hotaru_, there can be no doubt as to -the romantic quality of certain folk-names still given to the insect. -Two species of firefly have a wide distribution in Japan; and these -have been popularly named _Genji-botaru_ and _Heiké-botaru_: that is -to say, "the Minamoto-Firefly" and "the Taira-Firefly." A legend avers -that these fireflies are the ghosts of the old Minamoto and Taira -warriors; that, even in their insect shapes, they remember the awful -clan-struggle of the twelfth century; and that once every year, on the -night of the twentieth day of the fourth month,[2] they fight a great -battle on the Uji River. Therefore, on that night all caged fireflies -should be set free, in order that they may be able to take part in the -contest. - -* - -The _Genji-botaru_ is the largest of Japanese fireflies,--the largest -species, at least, in Japan proper, not including the Loochoo Islands. -It is found in almost every part of the country from Kyūshū to Ōshū. -The _Heiké-botaru_ ranges further north, being especially common in -Yezo; but it is found also in the central and southern provinces. It -is smaller than the Genji, and emits a feebler light. The fireflies -commonly sold by insect-dealers in Tōkyō, Ōsaka, Kyoto, and other -cities, are of the larger species. Japanese observers have described -the light of both insects as "tea-coloured" (_cha-iro_),--the tint of -the ordinary Japanese infusion, when the leaf is of good quality, being -a clear greenish yellow. But the light of a fine Genji-firefly is so -brilliant that only a keen eye can detect the greenish colour: at first -sight the flash appears yellow as the flame of a wood-fire, and its -vivid brightness has not been overpraised in the following _hokku_:-- - - Kagaribi mo - Hotaru mo hikaru-- - Genji kana! - -"Whether it be a glimmering of festal-fires[3] [far away], or a -glimmering of fireflies, [one can hardly tell]--ah, it is the Genji!" - -* - -Although the appellations _Genji-botaru_ and _Heiké-botaru_ are still -in general use, both insects are known by other folk-names. In -different provinces the Genji is called _Ō-botaru_, or "Great Firefly"; -_Ushi-botaru_, or "Ox-Firefly"; _Kuma-botaru_, or "Bear-Firefly"; and -_Uji-botaru_, or "Firefly of Uji,"--not to mention such picturesque -appellations as _Komosō-botaru_ and _Yamabuki-botaru_, which could not -be appreciated by the average Western reader. The _Heiké-botaru_ is -also called _Himé-botaru_, or "Princess-Firefly"; _Nennéi-botaru_, or -"Baby-Firefly"; and _Yuréi-botaru_, or "Ghost-Firefly." But these are -only examples chosen at random: in almost every part of Japan there is -a special folk-name for the insect. - - -III - -There are many places in Japan which are famous for fireflies,--places -which people visit in summer merely to enjoy the sight of the -fireflies. Anciently the most celebrated of all such places was a -little valley near Ishiyama, by the lake of Ōmi. It is still called -Hotaru-Dani, or the Valley of Fireflies. Before the Period of Genroku -(1688-1703), the swarming of the fireflies in this valley, during the -sultry season, was accounted one of the natural marvels of the country. -The fireflies of the Hotaru-Dani are still celebrated for their size; -but that wonderful swarming of them, which old writers described, -is no longer to be seen there. At present the most famous place for -fireflies is in the neighbourhood of Uji, in Yamashirō. Uji, a pretty -little town in the centre of the celebrated tea-district, is situated -on the Ujigawa, and is scarcely less famed for its fireflies than for -its teas. Every summer special trains run from Kyōtō and Ōsaka to -Uji, bringing thousands of visitors to see the fireflies. But it is -on the river, at a point several miles from the town, that the great -spectacle is to be witnessed,--the _Hotaru-Kassen_, or Firefly Battle. -The stream there winds between hills covered with vegetation; and -myriads of fireflies dart from either bank, to meet and cling above the -water. At moments they so swarm together as to form what appears to the -eye like a luminous cloud, or like a great ball of sparks. The cloud -soon scatters, or the ball drops and breaks upon the surface of the -current, and the fallen fireflies drift glittering away; but another -swarm quickly collects in the same locality. People wait all night in -boats upon the river to watch the phenomenon. After the _Hotaru-Kassen_ -is done, the Ujikawa, covered with the still sparkling bodies of the -drifting insects, is said to appear like the Milky Way, or, as the -Japanese more poetically call it, the River of Heaven. Perhaps it was -after witnessing such a spectacle that the great female poet, Chiyo of -Kaga, composed these verses:-- - - Kawa bakari, - Yami wa nagarété--? - Hotaru kana! - ---Which may be thus freely rendered:-- - -"Is it the river only?--or is the darkness itself drifting?... Oh, the -fireflies!..."[4] - - -IV - -Many persons in Japan earn their living during the summer months by -catching and selling fireflies: indeed, the extent of this business -entitles it to be regarded as a special industry. The chief centre of -this industry is the region about Ishiyama, in Goshū, by the Lake of -Ōmi,--a number of houses there supplying fireflies to many parts of -the country, and especially to the great cities of Osaka and Kyōtō. -From sixty to seventy firefly-catchers are employed by each of the -principal houses during the busy season. Some training is required -for the occupation. A tyro might find it no easy matter to catch a -hundred fireflies in a single night; but an expert has been known to -catch three thousand. The methods of capture, although of the simplest -possible kind, are very interesting to see. - -Immediately after sunset, the firefly-hunter goes forth, with a long -bamboo pole upon his shoulder, and a long bag of brown mosquito-netting -wound, like a girdle, about his waist. When he reaches a wooded place -frequented by fireflies,--usually some spot where willows are planted, -on the bank of a river or lake,--he halts and watches the trees. As -soon as the trees begin to twinkle satisfactorily, he gets his net -ready, approaches the most luminous tree, and with his long pole -strikes the branches. The fireflies, dislodged by the shock, do not -immediately take flight, as more active insects would do under like -circumstances, but drop helplessly to the ground, beetle-wise, where -their light--always more brilliant in moments of fear or pain--renders -them conspicuous. If suffered to remain upon the ground for a few -moments, they will fly away. But the catcher, picking them up with -astonishing quickness, using both hands at once, deftly tosses them -_into his mouth_--because he cannot lose the time required to put them, -one by one, into the bag. Only when his mouth can hold no more, does he -drop the fireflies, unharmed, into the netting. - -Thus the firefly-catcher works until about two o'clock in the -morning,--the old Japanese hour of ghosts,--at which time the insects -begin to leave the trees and seek the dewy soil. There they are said to -bury their tails, so as to remain viewless. But now the hunter changes -his tactics. Taking a bamboo broom he brushes the surface of the -turf, lightly and quickly. Whenever touched or alarmed by the broom, -the fireflies display their lanterns, and are immediately nipped and -bagged. A little before dawn, the hunters return to town. - -At the firefly-shops the captured insects are sorted as soon as -possible, according to the brilliancy of their light,--the more -luminous being the higher-priced. Then they are put into gauze-covered -boxes or cages, with a certain quantity of moistened grass in each -cage. From one hundred to two hundred fireflies are placed in a -single cage, according to grade. To these cages are attached small -wooden tablets inscribed with the names of customers,--such as hotel -proprietors, restaurant-keepers, wholesale and retail insect-merchants, -and private persons who have ordered large quantities of fireflies -for some particular festivity. The boxes are despatched to their -destinations by nimble messengers,--for goods of this class cannot be -safely intrusted to express companies. - -Great numbers of fireflies are ordered for display at evening parties -in the summer season. A large Japanese guest-room usually overlooks -a garden; and during a banquet or other evening entertainment, given -in the sultry season, it is customary to set fireflies at liberty in -the garden after sunset, that the visitors may enjoy the sight of the -sparkling. Restaurant-keepers purchase largely. In the famous Dōtombori -of Ōsaka, there is a house where myriads of fireflies are kept in a -large space enclosed by mosquito-netting; and customers of this house -are permitted to enter the enclosure and capture a certain number of -fireflies to take home with them. - -* - -The wholesale price of living fireflies ranges from three sen per -hundred up to thirteen sen per hundred, according to season and -quality. Retail dealers sell them in cages; and in Tokyo the price of -a cage of fireflies ranges from three sen up to several dollars. The -cheapest kind of cage, containing only three or four fireflies, is -scarcely more than two inches square; but the costly cages--veritable -marvels of bamboo work, beautifully decorated--are as large as cages -for song-birds. Firefly cages of charming or fantastic shapes--model -houses, junks, temple-lanterns, etc.--can be bought at prices ranging -from thirty sen up to one dollar. - -Dead or alive, fireflies are worth money. They are delicate insects, -and they live but a short time in confinement. Great numbers die in -the insect-shops; and one celebrated insect-house is said to dispose -every season of no less than five _shō_--that is to say, about one -peck--of dead fireflies, which are sold to manufacturing establishments -in Osaka. Formerly fireflies were used much more than at present in -the manufacture of poultices and pills, and in the preparation of -drugs peculiar to the practice of Chinese medicine. Even to-day some -curious extracts are obtained from them; and one of these, called -_Hotaru-no-abura,_ or Firefly-grease, is still used by woodworkers for -the purpose of imparting rigidity to objects made of bent bamboo. - -A very curious chapter on firefly-medicine might be written by -somebody learned in the old-fashioned literature. The queerest part of -the subject is Chinese, and belongs much more to demonology than to -therapeutics. Firefly-ointments used to be made which had power, it was -alleged, to preserve a house from the attacks of robbers, to counteract -the effect of any poison, and to drive away "the hundred devils." And -pills were made with firefly-substance which were believed to confer -invulnerability;--one kind of such pills being called _Kanshōgan_, or -"Commander-in-Chief Pills"; and another, _Buigan_, or "Military-Power -Pills." - - -V - -Firefly-catching, as a business, is comparatively modern; but -firefly-hunting, as a diversion, is a very old custom. Anciently -it was an aristocratic amusement; and great nobles used to give -firefly-hunting parties,--_botaru-gari_. In this busy era of Meiji -the _botaru-gari_ is rather an amusement for children than for -grown-up folks; but the latter occasionally find time to join in the -sport. All over Japan, the children have their firefly-hunts every -summer;--moonless nights being usually chosen for such expeditions. -Girls follow the chase with paper fans; boys, with long light poles, -to the ends of which wisps of fresh bamboo-grass are tied. When struck -down by a fan or a wisp, the insects are easily secured, as they are -slow to take wing after having once been checked in actual flight. -While hunting, the children sing little songs, supposed to attract -the shining prey. These songs differ according to locality; and the -number of them is wonderful. But there are very few possessing that -sort of interest which justifies quotation. Two examples will probably -suffice:-- - - (_Province of Choshū._) - Hotaru, koi! koi! - Koi-tomosé! - Nippon ichi no - Jōsan ga, - Chōchin tomoshité, - Koi to ina! - -Come, firefly, come! Come with your light burning! The nicest girl in -Japan wants to know if you will not light your lantern and come! - - (_Dialect of Shimonoséki._) - - Hōchin, koi! - Hōchin, koi! - Séki no machi no bon-san ga, - Chōchin tomoshité, - Koi! - Koi! - -Firefly, come! firefly, come! All the boys of Séki [want you to come] -with your lantern lighted! Come! come! - -* - -Of course, in order to hunt fireflies successfully, it is necessary -to know something about their habits; and on this subject Japanese -children are probably better informed than a majority of my readers, -for whom the following notes may possess a novel interest:-- - -* - -Fireflies frequent the neighbourhood of water, and like to circle -above it; but some kinds are repelled by impure or stagnant water, -and are only to be found in the vicinity of clear streams or lakes. -The Genji-firefly shuns swamps, ditches, or foul canals; while the -Heiké-firefly seems to be satisfied with any water. All fireflies -seek by preference grassy banks shaded by trees; but they dislike -certain trees and are attracted by others. They avoid pine trees, for -instance; and they will not light upon rose-bushes. But upon willow -trees--especially weeping willows--they gather in great swarms. -Occasionally, on a summer night, you may see a drooping willow so -covered and illuminated with fireflies that all its branches appear "to -be budding fire." During a bright moonlight night fireflies keep as -much as possible in shadow; but when pursued they fly at once into the -moonshine, where their shimmering is less easily perceived. Lamplight, -or any strong artificial light, drives them away; but small bright -lights attract them. They can be lured, for example, by the sparkling -of a small piece of lighted charcoal, or by the glow of a little -Japanese pipe, kindled in the dark. But the lamping of a single lively -firefly, confined in a bottle, or cup, of clear glass, is the best of -all lures. - -* - -As a rule the children hunt only in parties, for obvious reasons. -In former years it would have been deemed foolhardy to go alone in -pursuit of fireflies, because there existed certain uncanny beliefs -concerning them. And in some of the country districts these beliefs -still prevail. What appear to be fireflies may be malevolent spirits, -or goblin-fires, or fox-lights, kindled to delude the wayfarer. Even -real fireflies are not always to be trusted;--the weirdness of their -kinships might be inferred from their love of willow trees. Other trees -have their particular spirits, good or evil, hamadryads or goblins; but -the willow is particularly the tree of the dead--the favourite of human -ghosts. Any firefly may be a ghost--who can tell? Besides, there is an -old belief that the soul of a person still alive may sometimes assume -the shape of a firefly. And here is a little story that was told me in -Izuno:-- - -* - -One cold winter's night a young shizoku of Matsuë, while on his way -home from a wedding-party, was surprised to perceive a firefly-light -hovering above the canal in front of his dwelling. Wondering that such -an insect should be flying abroad in the season of snow, he stopped -to look at it; and the light suddenly shot toward him. He struck at -it with a stick; but it darted away, and flew into the garden of a -residence adjoining his own. - -Next morning he made a visit to that house, intending to relate the -adventure to his neighbours and friends. But before he found a chance -to speak of it, the eldest daughter of the family, happening to enter -the guest-room without knowing of the young man's visit, uttered a cry -of surprise, and exclaimed, "Oh! how you startled me! No one told me -that you had called; and just as I came in I was thinking about you. -Last night I had so strange a dream! I was flying in my dream,--flying -above the canal in front of our house. It seemed very pleasant to fly -over the water; and while I was flying there I saw you coming along the -bank. Then I went to you to tell you that I had learned how to fly; but -you struck at me, and frightened me so that I still feel afraid when I -think of it.. .." After hearing this, the visitor thought it best not -to relate his own experience for the time being, lest the coincidence -should alarm the girl, to whom he was betrothed. - - -VI - -Fireflies have been celebrated in Japanese poetry from ancient time; -and frequent mention of them is made in early classical prose. One -of the fifty-four chapters of the famous novel, _Genji-Monogari_, -for example,--written either toward the close of the tenth century -or at the beginning of the eleventh,--is entitled, "Fireflies"; and -the author relates how a certain noble person was enabled to obtain -one glimpse of a lady's face in the dark by the device of catching -and suddenly liberating a number of fireflies. The first literary -interest in fireflies may have been stimulated, if not aroused, by -the study of Chinese poetry. Even to-day every Japanese child knows a -little song about the famous Chinese scholar who, in the time of his -struggles with poverty, studied by the light of a paper bag filled with -fireflies. But, whatever the original source of their inspiration, -Japanese poets have been making verses about fireflies during more than -a thousand years. Compositions on the subject can be found in every -form of Japanese poetry; but the greater number of firefly poems are in -_hokku_,--the briefest of all measures, consisting of only seventeen -syllables. Modern love-poems relating to the firefly are legion; but -the majority of these, written in the popular twenty-six-syllable form -called _dodoïtsu_, appear to consist of little more than variants of -one old classic fancy, comparing the silent burning of the insect's -light to the consuming passion that is never uttered. - -* - -Perhaps my readers will be interested by the following selection of -firefly poems. Some of the compositions are many centuries old:-- - - Catching Fireflies - - Mayoi-go no - Naku-naku tsukamu - Hotaru kana! - -Ah! the lost child! Though crying and crying, still he catches -fireflies! - - Kuraki yori - Kuraki hito yobu: - Hotaru kana! - -Out of the blackness black people call [to each other]: [they are -hunting] fireflies! - - Iu koto no - Kikoëté ya, takaku - Tobu hotaru! - -Ah! having heard the voices of people [crying "Catch it!"], the firefly -now flies higher! - - Owarété wa - Tsuki ni kakururu - Hotaru kana! - -Ah, [the cunning] fireflies! being chased, they hide themselves in the -moonlight! - - Ubayoté - Fumi-koroshitaru - Hotaru kana! - -[Two firefly-catchers] having tried to seize it [at the same time], the -poor firefly is trampled to death! - - The Light of Fireflies - - Hotarubi ya! - Mada kuréyaranu, - Hashi no uri. - -Fireflies already sparkling under the bridge,--and it is not yet dark! - - Mizu-gusa no - Kururu to miété - Tobu hotaru. - -When the water-grasses appear to grow dark, the fireflies begin to -fly.[5] - - Oku-no-ma yé - Hanashité mitaru - Hotaru kana! - -Pleasant, from the guest-room,[6] to watch the fireflies being set free -in the garden! - - Yo no fukuru - Hodo ōkinaru - Hotaru kana! - -Ever as the night grows [deeper, the light of] the firefly also grows -[brighter]! - - Kusakari no - Sodé yori idzuru, - Hotaru kana! - -See! a firefly flies out of the sleeve of the grass-cutter! - - Koko kashiko, - Hotaru ni aoshi - Yoru no kusa. - -Here and there the night-grass appears green, because of the light of -the fireflies. - - Chōchin no - Kiyété, tōtoki - Hotaru kana! - -How precious seems [the light of] the firefly, now that the -lantern-light has gone out! - - Mado kuraki, - Shōji wo noboru - Hotaru kana! - -The window itself is dark, but see!--a firefly is creeping up the paper -pane! - - Moë yasuku, - Mata kéyé yasuki, - Hotaru kana! - -How easily kindled, and how easily put out again, is the light of the -firefly! - - Hitotsu kité, - Niwa no tsuyukéki, - Hotaru kana! - -Oh! a single firefly having come, one can see the dew in the garden! - - Té no hira wo - Hau ashi miyuru - Hotaru kana! - -Oh, this firefly!--as it crawls on the palm of my hand, its legs are -visible [by its own light]! - - Osoroshi no - Té ni sukitōru, - Hotaru kana! - -It is enough to make one afraid! See! the light of this firefly shows -through my hand![7] - - Sabéshisaya! - Isshaku kiyété - Yuku hotaru! - -How uncanny! The firefly shoots to within a foot of me, and--out goes -the light! - - Yuku saki no - Sawaru mono naki - Hotaru kana! - -There goes a firefly! but there is nothing in front of it to take hold -of [nothing to touch: what can it be seeking--the ghostly creature?]. - - Hōki-gi ni - Ari to wa miyété, - Hotaru kana! - -In this hoki-bush it certainly appeared to be,--the firefly! [but where -is it?] - - Sodé é kité, - Yōhan no hotaru - Sabishi kana! - -This midnight firefly coming upon the sleeve of my robe--how -weird[8]!... - - Yanagi-ba no - Yami saki kaësu - Hotaru kana! - -For this willow tree the season of budding would seem to have returned -in the dark--look at the fireflies! - - Mizu soko no - Kagé wo kowagaru - Hotaru kana! - -Ah, he is afraid of the darkness under the water,--that firefly! -[Therefore he lights his tiny lantern!] - - Sugitaru wa! - Mé ni mono sugoshi - Tobu hotaru! - -Ah, I am going too far!... The flitting of the fireflies here is a -lonesome sight! - - Hotarubi ya! - Kusa ni osamaru - Yoäkégata. - -Ah, the firefly-lights! As the darkness begins to break, they bury -themselves in the grass. - - Love-Poems - - Muréyo, hotaru, - Mono iu kao no - Miyuru hodo! - -O fireflies, gather here long enough to make visible the face of the -person who says these things to me![9] - - Oto mo sédé, - Omoi ni moyuru, - Hotaru koso, - Naku mushi yori mo - Awaré nari-kéri! - -Not making even a sound [yet] burning with desire,--for this the -firefly indeed has become more worthy of pity than any insect that -cries![10] - - Yū sareba, - Hotaru yori ki ni - Moyurédomo, - Hikari minéba ya - Hito no tsurénaki! - -When evening falls, though the soul of me burn more than burns the -firefly, as the light [of that burning] is viewless, the person -[beloved] remains unmoved.[11] - - Miscellaneous - - Suito yuku, - Mizu-gi wa suzushi, - Tobu-hotaru! - -Here at the water's edge, how pleasantly cool!--and the fireflies go -shooting by--suito! - - Midzu é kité, - Hikuu naritaru - Hotaru kana! - -Having reached the water, he makes himself low,--the firefly![12] - - Kuzu no ha no - Ura, utsu amé ya, - Tobu-hotaru! - -The rain beats upon the _Kuzu_-plant;[13]--away starts the firefly from -the underside of the leaf! - - Amé no yo wa, - Shita bakari yuku - Hotaru kana! - -Ah! this rainy night they only go along the ground,--the fireflies! - - Yura-yura to - Ko-amé furu yo no - Hotaru kana! - -How they swing themselves, to and fro, the fireflies, on a night of -drizzling rain! - - Akinuréba, - Kusa nomi zo - Hotaru-kago. - -With the coming of dawn, indeed, there is nothing visible but grass in -the cage of the firefly! - - Yo ga akété, - Mushi ni naritaru - Hotaru kana! - -With the coming of the dawn, they change into insects again,--these -fireflies! - - Hiru miréba, - Kubi-suji akaki - Hotaru kana! - -Oh, this firefly!--seen by daylight, the nape of its neck is red! - - Hotaru kōté, - Shiba shi-go-mai ni - Fuzeï kana! - -Having bought fireflies, respectfully accord them the favour of four or -five tufts of lawn-grass![14] - -Song of the Firefly-seller - - Futatsu, mitsu, - Hanashité misénu - Hotaru-uri. - - Mitsu, yotsu wa, - Akari ni nokosé - Hotaru-uri. - - Onoga mi wa - Yami ni kaëru ya - Hotaru-uri. - -He will not give you the chance to see two or three fireflies set -free,--this firefly-seller. - -He leaves in the cage three or four, just to make a light,--this -firefly-seller. - -For now he must take his own body back into the dark night,--this -firefly-seller. - - -VII - -But the true romance of the firefly is to be found neither in the -strange fields of Japanese folk-lore nor in the quaint gardens of -Japanese poetry, but in the vast profound of science. About science -I know little or nothing. And that is why I am not afraid to rush in -where angels fear to tread. If I knew what Professor Watasé knows -about fireflies, I should feel myself less free to cross the boundaries -of relative experience. As it is, I can venture theories. - -* - -The tremendous hypotheses of physical and psychical evolution no -longer seem to me hypotheses: I should never dream of doubting them. -I have ceased to wonder at the growth of Life out of that which has -been called not-living,--the development of organic out of inorganic -existence. The one amazing fact of organic evolution, to which my -imagination cannot become accustomed, is the fact that the substance -of life should possess the latent capacity or tendency to build itself -into complexities incomprehensible of _systematic_ structure. The power -of that substance to evolve radiance or electricity is not really more -extraordinary than its power to evolve colour; and that a noctiluca, -or a luminous centipede, or a firefly, should produce light, ought not -to seem more wonderful than that a plant should produce blue or purple -flowers. But the biological interpretation of the phenomenon leaves me -wondering, just as much as before, at the particular miracle of the -machinery by which the light is made. To find embedded in the body of -the insect a microscopic working-model of everything comprised under -the technical designation of an "electric plant," would not be nearly -so wonderful a discovery as the discovery of what actually exists. -Here is a firefly, able, with its infinitesimal dynamo, to produce a -pure cold light "at one four-hundredth part of the cost of the energy -expended in a candle flame"!... Now why should there have been evolved -in the tail of this tiny creature a luminiferous mechanism at once -so elaborate and so effective that our greatest physiologists and -chemists are still unable to understand the operation of it, and our -best electricians impotent to conceive the possibility of imitating -it? Why should the living tissues crystallize or build themselves -into structures of such stupefying intricacy and beauty as the visual -organs of an ephemera, the electrical organs of a gymnotus, or the -luminiferous organs of a firefly?... The very wonder of the thing -forbids me to imagine gods at work: no mere god could ever contrive -such a prodigy as the eye of a May-fly or the tail of a firefly. - -Biology would answer thus:--"Though it is inconceivable that a -structure like this should have been produced by accumulated effects -of function on structure, yet it is conceivable that successive -selections of favourable variations might have produced it." And no -follower of Herbert Spencer is really justified in wandering further. -But I cannot rid myself of the notion that Matter, in some blind -infallible way, _remembers_; and that in every unit of living substance -there slumber infinite potentialities, simply because to every ultimate -atom belongs the infinite and indestructible experience of billions of -vanished universes. - - -[Footnote 1: Professor Watasé is a graduate of Johns Hopkins. Since -this essay was written, his popular Japanese lectures upon the -firefly have been reissued in a single pretty volume. The coloured -frontispiece,--showing fireflies at night upon a willow-branch,--is -alone worth the price of the book.] - -[Footnote 2: By the old calendar. According to the new calendar, the -date of the Firefly Battle would be considerably later: last year -(1901) it fell upon the tenth day of the sixth month.] - -[Footnote 3: The term _kagar-bi_, often translated by "bonfire," -here especially refers to the little wood-fires which are kindled, -on certain festival occasions, in front of every threshold in the -principal street of a country town, or village. During the festival of -the Bon such little fires are lighted in many parts of the country to -welcome the returning ghosts.] - -[Footnote 4: That is to say, "Do I see only fireflies drifting with the -current? or is the Night itself drifting, with its swarming of stars?"] - -[Footnote 5: More literally: "The water-grasses having appeared to -grow dark, the fireflies begin to fly." The phrase _kururu to miété_ -reminds one of the second stanza in that most remarkable of modern -fairy-ballads, Mr. Yeats' "Folk of the Air":-- - - "And he saw how the weeds grew dark - At the coming of night-tide; - And he dreamed of the long dim hair - Of Bridget his bride." -] - -[Footnote 6: _Oku-no-ma_ really means the back room. But the best -rooms in a Japanese house are always in the rear, and so arranged as -to overlook the garden. The composer of the verse is supposed to be -a guest at some banquet, during which fireflies are set free in the -garden that the visitors may enjoy the spectacle.] - -[Footnote 7: That is to say, makes the fingers appear diaphanous, -as if held before a bright candle-flame. This suggestion of rosy -semi-transparency implies a female speaker.] - -[Footnote 8: The word _sabishi_ usually signifies lonesome or -melancholy; but the sense of it here is "weird." This verse suggests -the popular fancy that the soul of a person, living or dead, may assume -the form of a firefly.] - -[Footnote 9: The speaker is supposed to be a woman. Somebody has been -making love to her in the dark; and she half doubts the sincerity of -the professed affection.] - -[Footnote 10: From the _Fugetsu-Sh'u_. The speaker is a woman: by the -simile of the silent-glowing firefly she suggests her own secret love.] - -[Footnote 11: From the Kokon Wakashū Enkyō. The speaker is supposed to -be a woman.] - -[Footnote 12: Or, "he stoops low." The word _bikui_ really means low of -stature.] - -[Footnote 13: A kind of arrowroot.] - -[Footnote 14: Not literal; and I doubt whether this poem could be -satisfactorily translated into English. There is a delicate humour in -the use of the word _fuzei_, used in speaking humbly of one's self, or -of one's endeavours to please a superior.] - - - - -A Drop of Dew - - -Tsuyu no inochi. - --_Buddhist proverb._ - -[Illustration] - -To the bamboo lattice of my study-window a single dewdrop hangs -quivering. - -Its tiny sphere repeats the colours of the morning,--colours of sky -and field and far-off trees. Inverted images of these can be discerned -in it,--also the microscopic picture of a cottage, upside down, with -children at play before the door. - -Much more than the visible world is imaged by that dewdrop: the world -invisible, of infinite mystery, is likewise therein repeated. And -without as within the drop there is motion unceasing,--motion forever -incomprehensible of atoms and forces,--faint shiverings also, making -prismatic reply to touches of air and sun. - -* - -Buddhism finds in such a dewdrop the symbol of that other microcosm -which has been called the Soul.... What more, indeed, is man than -just such a temporary orbing of viewless ultimates,--imaging sky and -land and life,--filled with perpetual mysterious shudderings,--and -responding in some wise to every stir of the ghostly forces that -environ him?... - -* - -Soon that tiny globe of light, with all its fairy tints and topsy-turvy -picturings, will have vanished away. Even so, within another little -while, you and I must likewise dissolve and disappear. - -Between the vanishing of the drop and the vanishing of the man, what -difference? A difference of words.... But ask yourself what becomes of -the dewdrop? - -By the great sun its atoms are separated and lifted and scattered. To -cloud and earth, to river and sea they go; and out of land and stream -and sea again they will be updrawn, only to fall and to scatter anew. -They will creep in opalescent mists;--they will whiten in frost and -hail and snow;--they will reflect again the forms and the colours of -the macrocosm; they will throb to the ruby pulsing of hearts that are -yet unborn. For each one of them must combine again with countless -kindred atoms for the making of other drops,--drops of dew and rain and -sap, of blood and sweat and tears.... - -How many times? Billions of ages before our sun began to burn, those -atoms probably moved in other drops, reflecting the sky-tints and the -earth-colours of worlds in some past universe. And after this present -universe shall have vanished out of Space, those very same atoms--by -virtue of the forces incomprehensible that made them--will probably -continue to sphere in dews that will shadow the morning beauty of -planets yet to be. - -* - -Even so with the particles of that composite which you term your -very Self. Before the hosts of heaven the atoms of you were--and -thrilled,--and quickened,--and reflected appearances of things. And -when all the stars of the visible Night shall have burnt themselves -out, those atoms will doubtless again take part in the orbing of -Mind,--will tremble again in thoughts, emotions, memories,--in all -the joys and pains of lives still to be lived in worlds still to be -evolved.... - -* - -Your personality?--your peculiarity? That is to say, your ideas, -sentiments, recollections?--your very particular hopes and fears and -loves and hates? Why, in each of a trillion of dewdrops there must -be differences infinitesimal of atom-thrilling and of reflection. And -in every one of the countless pearls of ghostly vapour updrawn from -the Sea of Birth and Death there are like infinitesimal peculiarities. -Your personality signifies, in the eternal order, just as much as the -especial motion of molecules in the shivering of any single drop. -Perhaps in no other drop will the thrilling and the picturing be ever -exactly the same; but the dews will continue to gather and to fall, -and there will always be quivering pictures ... The very delusion of -delusions is the idea of death as loss. - -There is no loss--because there is not any Self that can be -lost. Whatsoever was, that you have been;--whatsoever is, -that you are;--whatsoever will be, that you must become. -Personality!--individuality!--the ghosts of a dream in a dream! Life -infinite only there is; and all that appears to be is but the thrilling -of it,--sun, moon, and stars,--earth, sky, and sea,--and Mind and -Man, and Space and Time. All of them are shadows. The shadows come and -go;--the Shadow-Maker shapes forever. - - - - -Gaki - - -[Illustration] - - ---"Venerable Nagasena, are there such things as demons in the world?" - ---"Yes, O King." - ---"Do they ever leave that condition of existence?" - ---"Yes, they do." - ---"But, if so, why is it that the remains of those demons are never -found?"... - ---"Their remains are found, O King.... The remains of bad demons can -be found in the form of worms and beetles and ants and snakes and -scorpions and centipedes."... - ---_The Questions of King Milinda._ - - -I - -There are moments in life when truths but dimly known before--beliefs -first vaguely reached through multiple processes of reasoning--suddenly -assume the vivid character of emotional convictions. Such an experience -came to me the other day, on the Suruga coast. While resting under -the pines that fringed the beach, something in the vital warmth -and luminous peace of the hour--some quivering rapture of wind and -light--very strangely bestirred an old belief of mine: the belief that -all being is One. One I felt myself to be with the thrilling of breeze -and the racing of wave,--with every flutter of shadow and flicker of -sun,--with the azure of sky and sea,--with the great green hush of the -land. In some new and wonderful way I found myself assured that there -never could have been a beginning,--that there never could be an end. -Nevertheless, the ideas of the moment were not new: the novelty of the -experience was altogether in the peculiar intensity with which they -presented themselves; making me feel that the flashing dragon-flies, -and the long gray sand-crickets, and the shrilling sémi overhead, and -the little red crabs astir under the roots of the pines, were all of -them brothers and sisters. I seemed to understand, as never before, how -the mystery that is called the Soul of me must have quickened in every -form of past existence, and must as certainly continue to behold the -sun, for other millions of summers, through eyes of other countless -shapes of future being. And I tried to think the long slow thoughts of -the long gray crickets,--and the thoughts of the darting, shimmering -dragonflies,--and the thoughts of the basking, trilling cicadæ,--and -the thoughts of the wicked little crabs that lifted up their claws -from between the roots of the pines. - -[Illustration] - -Presently I discovered myself wondering whether the consequence of -such thoughts could have anything to do with the recombination of my -soul-dust in future spheres of existence. For thousands of years the -East has been teaching that what we think or do in this life really -decides,--through some inevitable formation of-atom-tendencies, or -polarities,--the future place of our substance, and the future state -of our sentiency. And the belief is worth thinking about--though no -amount of thinking can enable us either to confirm or to disprove it. -Very possibly, like other Buddhist doctrines, it may adumbrate some -cosmic truth; but its literal assertions I doubt, because I must doubt -the power ascribed to thought. By the whole infinite past I have been -moulded, within and without: how should the impulse of a moment reshape -me against the weight of the eternities?... Buddhism indeed answers -how, and that astounding answer is irrefutable,--but I doubt.... - -Anyhow, acts and thoughts, according to Buddhist doctrine, are -creative. Visible matter is made by acts and thoughts,--even the -universe of stars, and all that has form and name, and all the -conditions of existence. What we think or do is never for the moment -only, but for measureless time: it signifies some force directed to the -shaping of worlds,--to the making of future bliss or pain. Remembering -this, we may raise ourselves to the zones of the Gods. Ignoring it, we -may deprive ourselves even of the right to be reborn among men, and may -doom ourselves, though innocent of the crimes that cause rebirth in -hell, to reënter existence in the form of animals, or of insects, or of -goblins,--_gaki_.[1] - -So it depends upon ourselves whether we are to become insects or -goblins hereafter; and in the Buddhist system the difference between -insects and goblins is not so well defined as might be supposed. The -belief in a mysterious relation between ghosts and insects, or rather -between spirits and insects, is a very ancient belief in the East, -where it now assumes innumerable forms,--some unspeakably horrible, -others full of weird beauty. - -"The White Moth" of Mr. Quiller-Couch would not impress a Japanese -reader as novel; for the night-moth or the butterfly figures in -many a Japanese poem and legend as the soul of a lost wife. The -night-cricket's thin lament is perhaps the sorrowing of a voice once -human;--the strange red marks upon the heads of cicadæ are characters -of spirit-names;--dragon-flies and grasshoppers are the horses of the -dead. All these are to be pitied with the pity that is kin to love. -But the noxious and dangerous insects represent the results of another -quality of karma,--that which produces goblins and demons. Grisly -names have been given to some of these insects,--as, for example, -_Jigokumushi,_ or "Hell-insect," to the ant-lion; and _Kappa-mushi_, -to a gigantic water-beetle which seizes frogs and fish, and devours -them alive, thus realizing, in a microcosmic way, the hideous myth of -the _Kappa_, or River-goblin. Flies, on the other hand, are especially -identified with the world of hungry ghosts. How often, in the season of -flies, have I heard some persecuted toiler exclaim, "_Kyō no hai wa, -gaki no yo da ne?_" (The flies to-day, how like gaki they are!) - -[Footnote 1: The word gaki is the Japanese Buddhist rendering of the -Sanscrit term "preta," signifying a spirit in that circle or state of -torment called the World of Hungry Ghosts.] - - -II - -In the old Japanese, or, more correctly speaking, Chinese Buddhist -literature relating to the gaki, the Sanscrit names of the gaki are -given in a majority of cases; but some classes of gaki described have -only Chinese names. As the Indian belief reached Japan by way of -China and Korea, it is likely to have received a peculiar colouring -in the course of its journey. But, in a general way, the Japanese -classification of gaki corresponds closely to the Indian classification -of the pretas. - -The place of gaki in the Buddhist system is but one degree removed from -the region of the hells, or Jigokudō,--the lowest of all the States -of Existence. Above the Jigokudō is the Gakidō, or World of Hungry -Spirits; above the Gakidō is the Chikushōdō, or World of Animals; and -above this, again, is the Shuradō, a region of perpetual fighting -and slaughter. Higher than these is placed the Ningendō, or World of -Mankind. - -Now a person released from hell, by exhaustion of the karma that sent -him there, is seldom reborn at once into the zone of human existence, -but must patiently work his way upward thither, through all the -intermediate states of being. Many of the gaki have been in hell. - -But there are gaki also who have not been in hell. Certain kinds or -degrees of sin may cause a person to be reborn as a gaki immediately -after having died in this world. Only the greatest degree of sin -condemns the sinner directly to hell. The second degree degrades him to -the Gakidō. The third causes him to be reborn as an animal. - -* - -Japanese Buddhism recognizes thirty-six principal classes of gaki. -"Roughly counting," says the Shōbō-nen-jō-kyō, "we find thirty-six -classes of gaki; but should we attempt to distinguish all the different -varieties, we should find them to be innumerable." The thirty-six -classes form two great divisions, or orders. One comprises all -"Gaki-World-dwellers" (_Gaki-Sekai-Ju_);--that is to say, all Hungry -Spirits who remain in the Gakidō proper, and are, therefore, never seen -by mankind. The other division is called Nin-chū-Jū, or "Dwellers among -men": these gaki remain always in this world, and are sometimes seen. - -There is yet another classification of gaki, according to the character -of their penitential torment. All gaki suffer hunger and thirst; but -there are three degrees of this suffering. The _Muzai-gaki_ represent -the first degree: they must hunger and thirst uninterruptedly, without -obtaining any nourishment whatever. The _Shōzai-gaki_ suffer only in -the second degree: they are able to feed occasionally upon impure -substances. The _Usai-gaki_ are more fortunate: they can eat such -remains of food as are thrown away by men, and also the offerings of -food set before the images of the gods, or before the tablets of the -ancestors. The last two classes of gaki are especially interesting, -because they are supposed to meddle with human affairs. - -* - -Before modern science introduced exact knowledge of the nature and -cause of certain diseases, Buddhists explained the symptoms of such -diseases by the hypothesis of gaki. Certain kinds of intermittent -fever, for example, were said to be caused by a gaki entering the -human body for the sake of nourishment and warmth. At first the -patient would shiver with cold, because the gaki was cold. Then, as -the gaki gradually became warm, the chill would pass, to be succeeded -by a burning heat. At last the satiated haunter would go away, and -the fever disappear; but upon another day, and usually at an hour -corresponding to that of the first attack, a second fit of ague would -announce the return of the gaki. Other zymotic disorders could be -equally well explained as due to the action of gaki. - -* - -In the Shōbō-nen-jō-kyō a majority of the thirty-six kinds of gaki are -associated with putrescence, disease, and death. Others are plainly -identified with insects. No particular kind of gaki is identified by -name with any particular kind of insect; but the descriptions suggest -conditions of insect-life; and such suggestions are reënforced by a -knowledge of popular superstitions. Perhaps the descriptions are vague -in the case of such spirits as the _Jiki-ketsu-gaki_, or Blood-suckers; -the _Jiki-niku-gaki_, or Flesh-eaters; the _Jiki-da-gaki,_ or * * * * * -*-eaters; the _Jiki-fun-gaki_, or * * * *-eaters; the _Jiki-doku-gaki_, -or Poison-eaters; the Jiki-fu-gaki, or Wind-eaters; the Jiki-ké-gaki, -or Smell-eaters; the _Jiki-kwa-gaki_, or Fire-eaters (perhaps they -fly into lamps?); the _Shikkō-gaki_, who devour corpses and cause -pestilence; the _Shinen-gaki_, who appear by night as wandering fires; -the _Shin-ko-gaki_, or Needle-mouthed; and the _Kwaku-shin-gaki_, or -Cauldron-bodied,--each a living furnace, filled with flame that keeps -the fluids of its body humming like a boiling pot. But the suggestion -of the following excerpts[2] will not be found at all obscure:-- - -* - -"Jiki-man-gaki.--These gaki can live only by eating the wigs of false -hair with which the statues of certain divinities are decorated.... -Such will be the future condition of persons who steal objects of value -from Buddhist temples. - -"Fujō-ko-hyaku-gaki.--These gaki can eat only street filth and -refuse. Such a condition is the consequence of having given putrid or -unwholesome food to priests or nuns, or pilgrims in need of alms. - -"Cho-ken-ju-jiki-netsu-gaki.--These are the eaters of the refuse of -funeral-pyres and of the clay of graves.... They are the spirits of men -who despoiled Buddhist temples for the sake of gain. - -"Ju-chū-gaki.--These spirits are born within the wood of trees, and -are tormented by the growing of the grain. ... Their condition is -the result of having cut down shade-trees for the purpose of selling -the timber. Persons who cut down the trees in Buddhist cemeteries or -temple-grounds are especially likely to become ju-chū-gaki."[3] - -Moths, flies, beetles, grubs, worms, and other unpleasant creatures -seem thus to be indicated. But some kinds of gaki cannot be identified -with insects,--for example, the species called Jiki-hō-gaki, or -"Doctrine-eaters." These can exist only by hearing the preaching of -the Law of the Buddha in some temple. While they hear such preaching, -their torment is assuaged; but at all other times they suffer -agonies unspeakable. To this condition are liable after death all -Buddhist priests or nuns who proclaim the law for the mere purpose -of making money.... Also there are gaki who appear sometimes in -beautiful human shapes. Such are the _Yoku-shiki-gaki_, spirits of -lewdness,--corresponding in some sort to the _incubi_ and _succubi_ of -our own Middle Ages. They can change their sex at will, and can make -their bodies as large or as small as they please. It is impossible to -exclude them from any dwelling, except by the use of holy charms and -spells, since they are able to pass through an orifice even smaller -than the eye of a needle. To seduce young men, they assume beautiful -feminine shapes,--often appearing at wine parties as waitresses or -dancing girls. To seduce women they take the form of handsome lads. -This state of _Yoku-shiki-gaki_ is a consequence of lust in some -previous human existence; but the supernatural powers belonging to -their condition are results of meritorious Karma which the evil Karma -could not wholly counterbalance. - -Even concerning the _Yoku-shiki-gaki_, however, it is plainly stated -that they may take the form of insects. Though wont to appear in human -shape, they can assume the shape of any animal or other creature, and -"fly freely in all directions of space,"--or keep their bodies "so -small that mankind cannot see them...." All insects are not necessarily -gaki; but most gaki can assume the form of insects when it serves their -purpose. - - -[Footnote 2: Abridged from the Shōbō-nen-jō-Kyō. A full translation of -the extraordinary chapter relating to the gaki would try the reader's -nerves rather severely.] - -[Footnote 3: The following story of a tree-spirit is typical:--In -the garden of a Samurai named Satsuma Shichizaëmon, who lived in the -village of Echigawa in the province of Ōmi, there was a very old -énoki. (The énoki, or "Celtis chinensis," is commonly thought to be a -goblin-tree.) From ancient times the ancestors of the family had been -careful never to cut a branch of this tree or to remove any of its -leaves. But Shichizaëmon, who was very self-willed, one day announced -that he intended to have the tree cut down. During the following -night a monstrous being appeared to the mother of Shichizaëmon, in a -dream, and told her that if the inoki were cut down, every member of -the household should die. But when this warning was communicated to -Shichizaëmon, he only laughed; and he then sent a man to cut down the -tree. No sooner had it been cut down than Shichizaëmon became violently -insane. For several days he remained furiously mad, crying out at -intervals, "The tree! the tree! the tree!" He said that the tree put -out its branches, like hands, to tear him. In this condition he died. -Soon afterward his wife went mad, crying out that the tree was killing -her; and she died screaming with fear. One after another, all the -people in that house, not excepting the servants, went mad and died. -The dwelling long remained unoccupied thereafter, no one daring even to -enter the garden. At last it was remembered that before these things -happened a daughter of the Satsuma family had become a Buddhist nun, -and that she was still living, under the name of Jikun, in a temple at -Yamashirō. This nun was sent for; and by request of the villagers she -took up her residence in the house, where she continued to live until -the time of her death,--daily reciting a special service on behalf of -the spirit that had dwelt in the tree. From the time that she began to -live in the house the tree-spirit ceased to give trouble. This story is -related on the authority of the priest Shungyō, who said that he had -heard it from the lips of the nun herself.] - - -III - -Grotesque as these beliefs now seem to us, it was not unnatural that -ancient Eastern fancy should associate insects with ghosts and devils. -In our visible world there are no other creatures so wonderful and so -mysterious; and the true history of certain insects actually realizes -the dreams of mythology. To the minds of primitive men, the mere facts -of insect-metamorphosis must have seemed uncanny; and what but goblinry -or magic could account for the monstrous existence of beings so similar -to dead leaves, or to flowers, or to joints of grass, that the keenest -human sight could detect their presence only when they began to walk -or to fly? Even for the entomologist of to-day, insects remain the -most incomprehensible of creatures. We have learned from him that they -must be acknowledged "the most successful of organized beings" in the -battle for existence;--that the delicacy and the complexity of their -structures surpass anything ever imagined of marvellous before the -age of the microscope;--that their senses so far exceed our own in -refinement as to prove us deaf and blind by comparison. Nevertheless -the insect world remains a world of hopeless enigmas. Who can explain -for us the mystery of the eyes of a myriad facets, or the secret -of the ocular brains connected with them? Do those astounding eyes -perceive the ultimate structure of matter? does their vision pierce -opacity, after the manner of the Röntgen rays? (Or how interpret the -deadly aim of that ichneumon-fly which plunges its ovipositor through -solid wood to reach the grub embedded in the grain?) What, again, of -those marvellous ears in breasts and thighs and knees and feet,--ears -that hear sounds beyond the limit of human audition? and what of the -musical structures evolved to produce such fairy melody? What of the -ghostly feet that walk upon flowing water? What of the chemistry that -kindles the firefly's lamp,--making the cold and beautiful light that -all our electric science cannot imitate? And those newly discovered, -incomparably delicate organs for which we have yet no name, because -our wisest cannot decide the nature of them--do they really, as some -would suggest, keep the insect-mind informed of things unknown to human -sense,--visibilities of magnetism, odours of light, tastes of sound?... -Even the little that we have been able to learn about insects fills -us with the wonder that is akin to fear. The lips that are hands, -and the horns that are eyes, and the tongues that are drills; the -multiple devilish mouths that move in four ways at once; the living -scissors and saws and boring-pumps and brace-bits; the exquisite elfish -weapons which no human skill can copy, even in the finest watch-spring -steel--what superstition of old ever dreamed of sights like these? -Indeed, all that nightmare ever conceived of faceless horror, and all -that ecstasy ever imagined of phantasmal pulchritude, can appear but -vapid and void by comparison with the stupefying facts of entomology. -But there is something spectral, something alarming, in the very beauty -of insects.... - - -IV - -Whether gaki do or do not exist, there is at least some shadowing of -truth in the Eastern belief that the dead become insects. Undoubtedly -our human dust must help, over and over again for millions of ages, -to build up numberless weird shapes of life. But as to that question -of my revery under the pine trees,--whether present acts and thoughts -can have anything to do with the future distribution and requickening -of that dust,--whether human conduct can of itself predetermine the -shapes into which human atoms will be recast,--no reply is possible. I -doubt--but I do not know. Neither does anybody else. - -* - -Supposing, however, that the order of the universe were really as -Buddhists believe, and that I knew myself foredoomed, by reason of -stupidities in this existence, to live hereafter the life of an insect, -I am not sure that the prospect would frighten me. There are insects -of which it is difficult to think with equanimity; but the state of an -independent, highly organized, respectable insect could not be so very -bad. I should even look forward, with some pleasurable curiosity, to -any chance of viewing the world through the marvellous compound eyes -of a beetle, an ephemera, or a dragon-fly. As an ephemera, indeed, I -might enjoy the possession of three different kinds of eyes, and the -power to see colours now totally unimaginable. Estimated in degrees of -human time, my life would be short,--a single summer day would include -the best part of it; but to ephemeral consciousness a few minutes would -appear a season; and my one day of winged existence--barring possible -mishaps--would be one unwearied joy of dancing in golden air. And I -could feel in my winged state neither hunger nor thirst,--having no -real mouth or stomach: I should be, in very truth, a Wind-eater. ... -Nor should I fear to enter upon the much less ethereal condition of a -dragon-fly. I should then have to bear carnivorous hunger, and to hunt -a great deal; but even dragon-flies, after the fierce joy of the chase, -can indulge themselves in solitary meditation. Besides, what wings -would then be mine!--and what eyes!... I could pleasurably anticipate -even the certainty of becoming an _Amembō_,[4] and so being able to run -and to slide upon water--though children might catch me, and bite off -my long fine legs. But I think that I should better enjoy the existence -of a sémi,--a large and lazy cicada, basking on wind-rocked trees, -sipping only dew, and singing from dawn till dusk. - -Of course there would be perils to encounter,--danger from hawks and -crows and sparrows,--danger from insects of prey--danger from bamboos -tipped with birdlime by naughty little boys. But in every condition of -life there must be risks; and in spite of the risks, I imagine that -Anacreon uttered little more than the truth, in his praise of the -cicada: "_O thou earth-horn,--song-loving,--free from pain>--having -flesh without blood,--thou art nearly equal to the Gods!_"... In fact I -have not been able to convince myself that it is really an inestimable -privilege to be reborn a human being. And if the thinking of this -thought, and the act of writing it down, must inevitably affect my -next rebirth, then let me hope that the state to which I am destined -will not be worse than that of a cicada or of a dragon-fly;--climbing -the cryptomerias to clash my tiny cymbals in the sun,--or haunting, -with soundless flicker of amethyst and gold, some holy silence of -lotos-pools. - - -[Footnote 4: A water-insect, much resembling what we call a "skater." -In some parts of the country it is said that the boy who wants to -become a good swimmer must eat the legs of an _Amembō._] - - - - -A Matter of Custom - - -[Illustration] - -There is a nice old priest of the Zen sect,--past-master in the craft -of arranging flowers, and in other arts of the ancient time,--who comes -occasionally to see me. He is loved by his congregation, though he -preaches against many old-fashioned beliefs, and discourages all faith -in omens and dreams, and tells people to believe only in the Law of the -Buddha. Priests of the Zen persuasion are seldom thus sceptical. But -the scepticism of my friend is not absolute; for the last time that we -met we talked of the dead, and he told me something creepy. "Stories of -spirits or ghosts," he said, "I always doubt. Sometimes a _danka_[1] -comes to tell me about having seen a ghost, or having dreamed a strange -dream; but whenever I question such a person carefully, I find that -the matter can be explained in a natural way. - -"Only once in my life I had a queer experience which I could not easily -explain. I was then in Kyūshū,--a young novice; and I was performing my -gyō,--the pilgrimage that every novice has to make. One evening, while -travelling through a mountain-district, I reached a little village -where there was a temple of the Zen sect. I went there to ask for -lodging, according to our rules; but I found that the priest had gone -to attend a funeral at a village several miles away, leaving an old nun -in charge of the temple. The nun said that she could not receive me -during the absence of the priest, and that he would not come back for -seven days.... In that part of the country, a priest was required by -custom to recite the sûtras and to perform a Buddhist service, every -day for seven days, in the house of a dead parishioner.... I said that -I did not want any food, but only a place to sleep: moreover I pleaded -that I was very tired, and at last the old nun took pity on me. She -spread some quilts for me in the temple, near the altar; and I fell -asleep almost as soon as I lay down. In the middle of the night--a -very cold night!--I was awakened by the tapping of a _mokugyo_[2] and -the voice of somebody chanting the _Nembutsu_[3], close to where I was -lying. I opened my eyes; but the temple was utterly dark,--so dark that -if a man had seized me by the nose I could not have seen him [_hana wo -tsumarété mo wakaranai_]; and I wondered that anybody should be tapping -the _mokugyo_ and chanting in such darkness. But, though the sounds -seemed at first to be quite near me, they were somewhat faint; and I -tried to persuade myself that I must have been mistaken,--that the -priest had come back and was performing a service in some other part of -the temple. In spite of the tapping and chanting I fell asleep again, -and slept until morning. Then, as soon as I had washed and dressed, I -went to look for the old nun, and found her. After thanking her for -her kindness, I ventured to remark, 'So the priest came back last -night?' 'He did not,' she answered very crossly--'I told you that he -would not come back for seven days more.' 'Please pardon me,' I said; -Mast night I heard somebody chanting the _Nembutsu_, and beating the -_mokugyo_, so I thought that the priest had come back.' 'Oh, that was -not the priest!' she exclaimed; 'that was the _danka._' 'Who?' I asked; -for I could not understand her. 'Why,' she replied, 'the dead man, of -course![4] That always happens when a parishioner dies; the _hotoké_ -comes to sound the _mokugyo_ and to repeat the _Nembutsu_ ...' She -spoke as if she had been so long accustomed to the thing that it did -not seem to her worthwhile mentioning." - - - -[Footnote 1: _Danka_ or _danké_ signifies the parishioner of a Buddhist -temple. Those who regularly contribute to the support of a Shintō -temple are called _Ujiko_.] - -[Footnote 2: The _mokugyo_ is a very curious musical instrument of -wood, in the form of a fish's head, and is usually lacquered in red -and gold. It is tapped with a stick during certain Buddhist chants or -recitations, producing a dull hollow sound.] - -[Footnote 3: The invocation to Amitâbha, _Namu Amida Butsu_ ("Hail to -the Buddha Amitâbha!"), commonly repeated on behalf of the dead, is -thus popularly named.] - -[Footnote 4: The original expression was at least equally emphatic: -"_Aa, aré desuka?--aré wa botoké ga kita no desu yo!_" The word -"hotoké" means either a Buddha or, as in this case, the spirit of a -dead person.] - - - - -Revery - - -[Illustration] - -It has been said that men fear death much as the child cries at -entering the world, being unable to know what loving hands are waiting -to receive it. Certainly this comparison will not bear scientific -examination. But as a happy fancy it is beautiful, even for those to -whom it can make no religious appeal whatever,--those who must believe -that the individual mind dissolves with the body, and that an eternal -continuance of personality could only prove an eternal misfortune. -It is beautiful, I think, because it suggests, in so intimate a way, -the hope that to larger knowledge the Absolute will reveal itself -as mother-love made infinite. The imagining is Oriental rather than -Occidental; yet it accords with a sentiment vaguely defined in most of -our Western creeds. Through ancient grim conceptions of the Absolute as -Father, there has gradually been infused some later and brighter dream -of infinite tenderness--some all-transfiguring hope created by the -memory of Woman as Mother; and the more that races evolve toward higher -things, the more Feminine becomes their idea of a God. - -Conversely, this suggestion must remind even the least believing that -we know of nothing else, in all the range of human experience, so -sacred as mother-love,--nothing so well deserving the name of divine. -Mother-love alone could have enabled the delicate life of thought to -unfold and to endure upon the rind of this wretched little planet: -only through that supreme unselfishness could the nobler emotions ever -have found strength to blossom in the brain of man;--only by help of -mother-love could the higher forms of trust in the Unseen ever have -been called into existence. - -* - -But musings of this kind naturally lead us to ask ourselves emotional -questions about the mysteries of Whither and Whence. Must the -evolutionist think of mother-love as a merely necessary result of -material affinities,--the attraction of the atom for the atom? Or can -he venture to assert, with ancient thinkers of the East, that all -atomic tendencies are shapen by one eternal moral law, and that some -are in themselves divine, being manifestations of the Four Infinite -Feelings?... What wisdom can decide for us? And of what avail to know -our highest emotions divine,--since the race itself is doomed to -perish? When mother-love shall have wrought its uttermost for humanity, -will not even that uttermost have been in vain? - -* - -At first thought, indeed, the inevitable dissolution must appear the -blackest of imaginable tragedies,--tragedy made infinite! Eventually -our planet must die: its azure ghost of air will shrink and pass, its -seas dry up, its very soil perish utterly, leaving only a universal -waste of sand and stone--the withered corpse of a world. Still for a -time this mummy will turn about the sun, but only as the dead moon -wheels now across our nights,--one face forever in scorching blaze, the -other in icy darkness. So will it circle, blank and bald as a skull; -and like a skull will it bleach and crack and crumble, ever drawing -nearer and yet more near to the face of its flaming parent, to vanish -suddenly at last in the cyclonic lightning of his breath. One by one -the remaining planets must follow. Then will the mighty star himself -begin to fail--to flicker with ghastly changing colours--to crimson -toward his death. And finally the monstrous fissured cinder of him, -hurled into some colossal sun-pyre, will be dissipated into vapour more -tenuous than the dream of the dream of a ghost.... - -What, then, will have availed the labour of the life that was,--the -life effaced without one sign to mark the place of its disparition -in the illimitable abyss? What, then, the worth of mother-love, the -whole dead world of human tenderness, with its sacrifices, hopes, -memories,--its divine delights and diviner pains,--its smiles and tears -and sacred caresses,--its countless passionate prayers to countless -vanished gods? - -* - -Such doubts and fears do not trouble the thinker of the East. Us -they disturb chiefly because of old wrong habits of thought, and the -consequent blind fear of knowing that what we have so long called -Soul belongs, not to Essence, but to Form.... Forms appear and vanish -in perpetual succession; but the Essence alone is Real. Nothing -real can be lost, even in the dissipation of a million universes. -Utter destruction, everlasting death,--all such terms of fear have -no correspondence to any truth but the eternal law of change. Even -forms can perish only as waves pass and break: they melt but to swell -anew,--nothing can be lost.... - -In the nebulous haze of our dissolution will survive the essence of -all that has ever been in human life,--the units of every existence -that was or is, with all their affinities, all their tendencies, all -their inheritance of forces making for good or evil, all the powers -amassed through myriad generations, all energies that ever shaped the -strength of races;--and times innumerable will these again be orbed -into life and thought. Transmutations there may be; changes also made -by augmentation or diminution of affinities, by subtraction or addition -of tendencies; for the dust of us will then have been mingled with -the dust of other countless worlds and of their peoples. But nothing -essential can be lost. We shall inevitably bequeath our part to the -making of the future cosmos--to the substance out of which another -intelligence will slowly be evolved. Even as we must have inherited -something of our psychic being out of numberless worlds dissolved, so -will future humanities inherit, not from us alone, but from millions of -planets still existing. - -For the vanishing of our world can represent, in the disparition of a -universe, but one infinitesimal detail of the quenching of thought: the -peopled spheres that must share our doom will exceed for multitude the -visible lights of heaven. - -Yet those countless solar fires, with their viewless millions of -living planets, must somehow reappear: again the wondrous Cosmos, -self-consumed, must resume its sidereal whirl over the deeps of the -eternities. And the love forever with rise again, infinitudes of the -everlasting battle. The light of the mother's smile will survive -our sun;--the thrill of her kiss will last beyond the thrilling of -stars;--the sweetness of her lullaby will endure in the cradle-songs -of worlds yet unevolved;--the tenderness of her faith will quicken the -fervour of prayers to be made to the hosts of another heaven,--to the -gods of a time beyond Time. And the nectar of her breasts can never -fail: that snowy stream will still flow on, to nourish the life of some -humanity more perfect than our own, when the Milky Way that spans our -night shall have vanished forever out of Space. - - - - -Pathological - - -[Illustration] - -Very much do I love cats; and I suppose that I could write a large -book about the different cats which I have kept, in various climes and -times, on both sides of the world. But this is not a Book of Cats; and -I am writing about Tama for merely psychological reasons. She has been -uttering, in her sleep beside my chair, a peculiar cry that touched -me in a particular way. It is the cry that a cat makes only for her -kittens,--a soft trilling coo,--a pure caress of tone. And I perceive -that her attitude, as she lies there on her side, is the attitude of -a cat holding something,--something freshly caught: the forepaws are -stretched out as to grasp, and the pearly talons are playing. - -* - -We call her Tama ("Jewel")--not because of her beauty, though she is -beautiful, but because Tama is a female name accorded by custom to -pet cats. She was a very small tortoise-shell kitten when she was -first brought to me as a gift worth accepting,--a cat-of-three-colours -(miké-neko) being somewhat uncommon in Japan. In certain parts of the -country such a cat is believed to be a luck-bringer, and gifted with -power to frighten away goblins as well as rats. Tama is now two years -old. I think that she has foreign blood in her veins: she is more -graceful and more slender than the ordinary Japanese cat; and she has a -remarkably long tail, which, from a Japanese point of view, is her only -defect. Perhaps one of her ancestors came to Japan in some Dutch or -Spanish ship during the time of Iyéyasu. But, from whatever ancestors -descended, Tama is quite a Japanese cat in her habits;--for example, -she eats rice! - -* - -The first time that she had kittens, she proved herself an excellent -mother,--devoting all her strength and intelligence to the care of her -little ones, until, by dint of nursing them and moiling for them, she -became piteously and ludicrously thin. She taught them how to keep -clean,--how to play and jump and wrestle,--how to hunt. At first, of -course, she gave them only her long tail to play with; but later she -found them other toys. She brought them not only rats and mice, but -also frogs, lizards, a bat, and one day a small lamprey, which she must -have managed to catch in a neighbouring rice-field. After dark I used -to leave open for her a small window at the head of the stairs leading -to my study,--in order that she might go out to hunt by way of the -kitchen roof. And one night she brought in, through that window, a big -straw sandal for her kittens to play with. She found it in the field; -and she must have carried it over a wooden fence ten feet high, up the -house wall to the roof of the kitchen, and thence through the bars of -the little window to the stairway. There she and her kittens played -boisterously with it till morning; and they dirtied the stairway, -for that sandal was muddy. Never was cat more fortunate in her first -maternal experience than Tama. - -But the next time she was not fortunate. She had got into the habit of -visiting friends in another street, at a perilous distance; and one -evening, while on her way thither, she was hurt by some brutal person. -She came back to us stupid and sick; and her kittens were born dead. I -thought that she would die also; but she recovered much more quickly -than anybody could have imagined possible,--though she still remains, -for obvious reasons, troubled in spirit by the loss of the kittens. - -* - -The memory of animals, in regard to certain forms of relative -experience, is strangely weak and dim. But the organic memory of -the animal,--the memory of experience accumulated through countless -billions of lives,--is superhumanly vivid, and very seldom at fault.... -Think of the astonishing skill with which a cat can restore the -respiration of her drowned kitten! Think of her untaught ability to -face a dangerous enemy seen for the first time,--a venomous serpent, -for example! Think of her wide acquaintance with small creatures -and their ways,--her medical knowledge of herbs,--her capacities of -strategy, whether for hunting or fighting! What she knows is really -considerable; and she knows it all perfectly, or almost perfectly. But -it is the knowledge of other existences. Her memory, as to the pains of -the present life, is mercifully brief. - -* - -Tama could not clearly remember that her kittens were dead. She knew -that she ought to have had kittens; and she looked everywhere and -called everywhere for them, long after they had been buried in the -garden. She complained a great deal to her friends; and she made me -open all the cupboards and closets,--over and over again,--to prove to -her that the kittens were not in the house. At last she was able to -convince herself that it was useless to look for them any more. But she -plays with them in dreams, and coos to them, and catches for them small -shadowy things,--perhaps even brings to them, through some dim window -of memory, a sandal of ghostly straw.... - - - - -In the Dead of the Night - - -[Illustration] - -Black, chill, and still,--so black, so still, that I touch myself to -find out whether I have yet a body. Then I grope about me to make sure -that I am not under the earth,--buried forever beyond the reach of -light and sound. .. . A clock strikes three! I shall see the sun again! - -Once again, at least. Possibly several thousand times. But there will -come a night never to be broken by any dawn,--a stillness never to be -broken by any sound. - -This is certain. As certain as the fact that I exist. - -Nothing else is equally certain. Reason deludes; feeling deludes; all -the senses delude. But there is no delusion whatever in the certain -knowledge of that night to come. - -Doubt the reality of substance, the reality of ghosts, the faiths -of men, the gods;--doubt right and wrong, friendship and love, the -existence of beauty, the existence of horror;--there will always remain -one thing impossible to doubt,--one infinite blind black certainty. - -The same darkness for all,--for the eyes of creatures and the eyes -of heaven;--the same doom for all,--insect and man, ant-hill and -city, races and worlds, suns and galaxies: inevitable dissolution, -disparition, and oblivion. - -And vain all human striving not to remember, not to think: the -Veil that old faiths wove, to hide the Void, has been rent forever -away;--and Sheol is naked before us,--and destruction hath no covering. - -So surely as I believe that I exist, even so surely must I believe that -I shall cease to exist--which is horror!... But-- - -Must I believe that I really exist?... In the moment of that -self-questioning, the Darkness stood about me as a wall, and spake:-- - -"I am only the Shadow: I shall pass. But the Reality will come, and -will not pass. - -"I am only the Shadow. In me there are lights,--the glimmering of a -hundred millions of suns. And in me there are voices. With the coming -of the Reality, there will be no more lights, nor any voice, nor any -rising, nor any hope. - -"But far above you there will still be sun for many a million -years,--and warmth and youth and love and joy.. .. Vast azure of -sky and sea,--fragrance of summer bloom,--shrillings in grass and -grove,--flutter of shadows and flicker of light,--laughter of waters -and laughter of girls. Blackness and silence for you,--and cold blind -creepings." - -I made reply:-- - -"Of thoughts like these I am now afraid. But that is only because I -have been startled out of sleep. When all my brain awakens, I shall -not be afraid. For this fear is brute fear only,--the deep and dim -primordial fear bequeathed me from the million ages of the life of -instinct.... Already it is passing. I can begin to think of death as -dreamless rest,--a sleep with no sensation of either joy or pain." - -The Darkness whispered:-- - -"What is sensation?" - -And I could not answer, and the Gloom took weight, and pressed upon me, -and said:-- - -"You do not know what is sensation? How, then, can you say whether -there will or will not be pain for the dust of you,--the molecules of -your body, the atoms of your soul?... Atoms--what are they?" - -Again I could make no answer, and the weight of the Gloom waxed -greater--a weight of pyramids--and the whisper hissed:-- - -"Their repulsions? their attractions? The awful clingings of them -and the leapings?... What are these?... Passions of lives burnt -out?--furies of insatiable desire?--frenzies of everlasting hate? ---madnesses of never ending torment?... You do not know? But you say -that there will be no more pain!..." - -Then I cried out to the mocker:--"I am awake--awake--fully awake! -I have ceased to fear;--I remember!... All that I am is all that I -have been. Before the beginnings of Time I was;--beyond the uttermost -circling of the Eternities I shall endure. In myriad million forms I -but seem to pass: as form I am only Wave; as essence I am Sea. Sea -without shore I am;--and Doubt and Fear and Pain are but duskings -that fleet on the face of my depth.. .. Asleep, I behold the illusions -of Time; but, waking, I know myself timeless: one with the Life that -has neither form yet also one begins and the grave and graves,--the -the eater of neither form nor name, yet also one with all that begins -and ends,--even the grave and the maker of graves,--the corpse and the -eater of corpses...." - -* - -A sparrow twittered from the roof; another responded. Shapes of things -began to define in a soft gray glimmering;--and the gloom slowly -lightened. Murmurs of the city's wakening came to my ears, and grew and -multiplied. And the dimness flushed. - -Then rose the beautiful and holy Sun, the mighty Quickener, the mighty -Putrefier,--symbol sublime of that infinite Life whose forces are also -mine!... - - - - -Kusa-Hibari - - -Issun no mushi ni mo gobu no tamashii.--_Japanese Proverb._ - - -[Illustration] - -His cage is exactly two Japanese inches high and one inch and a half -wide: its tiny wooden door, turning upon a pivot, will scarcely -admit the tip of my little finger. But he has plenty of room in that -cage,--room to walk, and jump, and fly; for he is so small that you -must look very carefully through the brown-gauze sides of it in order -to catch a glimpse of him. I have always to turn the cage round and -round, several times, in a good light, before I can discover his -whereabouts; and then I usually find him resting in one of the upper -corners,--clinging, upside down, to his ceiling of gauze. - -Imagine a cricket about the size of an ordinary mosquito,--with a -pair of antennae much longer than his own body, and so fine that -you can distinguish them only against the light. _Kusa-Hibari_, or -"Grass-Lark," is the Japanese name of him; and he is worth in the -market exactly twelve cents: that is to say, very much more than his -weight in gold. Twelve cents for such a gnat-like thing!... - -By day he sleeps or meditates, except while occupied with the slice of -fresh egg-plant or cucumber which must be poked into his cage every -morning. ... To keep him clean and well fed is somewhat troublesome: -could you see him, you would think it absurd to take any pains for the -sake of a creature so ridiculously small. - -But always at sunset the infinitesimal soul of him awakens: then -the room begins to fill with a delicate and ghostly music of -indescribable sweetness,-a thin, thin silvery rippling and trilling as -of tiniest electric bells. As the darkness deepens, the sound becomes -sweeter,--sometimes swelling till the whole house seems to vibrate -with the elfish resonance,--sometimes thinning down into the faintest -imaginable thread of a voice. But loud or low, it keeps a penetrating -quality that is weird.... All night, the atomy thus sings: he ceases -only when the temple bell proclaims the hour of dawn. - -* - -Now this tiny song is a song of love,--vague love of the unseen and -unknown. It is quite impossible that he should ever have seen or -known, in this present existence of his. Not even his ancestors, for -many generations back, could have known anything of the night-life -of the fields, or the amorous value of song. They were born of eggs -hatched in a jar of clay, in the shop of some insect-merchant; and they -dwelt thereafter only in cages. But he sings the song of his race as it -was sung a myriad years ago, and as faultlessly as if he understood the -exact significance of every note. Of course he did not learn the song. -It is a song of organic memory,--deep, dim memory of other quintillions -of lives, when the ghost of him shrilled at night from the dewy grasses -of the hills. Then that song brought him love--and death. He has -forgotten all about death; but he remembers the love. And therefore he -sings now--for the bride that will never come. - -So that his longing is unconsciously retrospective: he cries to the -dust of the past,--he calls to the silence and the gods for the return -of time.... Human lovers do very much the same thing without knowing -it. They call their illusion an Ideal; and their Ideal is, after all, -a mere shadowing of race-experience, a phantom of organic memory. The -living present has very little to do with it.... Perhaps this atomy -also has an ideal, or at least the rudiment of an ideal; but, in any -event, the tiny desire must utter its plaint in vain. - -The fault is not altogether mine. I had been warned that if the -creature were mated, he would cease to sing and would speedily die. -But, night after night, the plaintive, sweet, unanswered trilling -touched me like a reproach,--became at last an obsession, an -affliction, a torment of conscience; and I tried to buy a female. -It was too late in the season; there were no more kusa-hibari for -sale,--either males or females. The insect-merchant laughed and said, -"He ought to have died about the twentieth day of the ninth month." (It -was already the second day of the tenth month.) But the insect-merchant -did not know that I have a good stove in my study, and keep the -temperature at above 75° F. Wherefore my grass-lark still sings at -the close of the eleventh month, and I hope to keep him alive until -the Period of Greatest Cold. However, the rest of his generation are -probably dead: neither for love nor money could I now find him a mate. -And were I to set him free in order that he might make the search for -himself, he could not possibly live through a single night, even if -fortunate enough to escape by day the multitude of his natural enemies -in the garden,--ants, centipedes, and ghastly earth-spiders. - -* - -Last evening--the twenty-ninth of the eleventh month--an odd feeling -came to me as I sat at my desk: a sense of emptiness in the room. Then -I became aware that my grass-lark was silent, contrary to his wont. I -went to the silent cage, and found him lying dead beside a dried-up -lump of egg-plant as gray and hard as a stone. Evidently he had not -been fed for three or four days; but only the night before his death he -had been singing wonderfully,--so that I foolishly imagined him to be -more than usually contented. My student, Aki, who loves insects, used -to feed him; but Aki had gone into the country for a week's holiday, -and the duty of caring for the grass-lark had devolved upon Hana, the -housemaid. She is not sympathetic, Hana the housemaid. She says that -she did not forget the mite,--but there was no more egg-plant. And -she had never thought of substituting a slice of onion or of cucumber! -... I spoke words of reproof to Hana the housemaid, and she dutifully -expressed contrition. But the fairy-music has stopped; and the -stillness reproaches; and the room is cold, in spite of the stove. - -* - -Absurd!... I have made a good girl unhappy because of an insect half -the size of a barley-grain! The quenching of that infinitesimal life -troubles me more than I could have believed possible. ... Of course, -the mere habit of thinking about a creature's wants--even the wants of -a cricket--may create, by insensible degrees, an imaginative interest, -an attachment of which one becomes conscious only when the relation -is broken. Besides, I had felt so much, in the hush of the night, -the charm of the delicate voice,--telling of one minute existence -dependent upon my will and selfish pleasure, as upon the favour of a -god,--telling me also that the atom of ghost in the tiny cage, and -the atom of ghost within myself, were forever but one and the same in -the deeps of the Vast of being.... And then to think of the little -creature hungering and thirsting, night after night, and day after day, -while the thoughts of his guardian deity were turned to the weaving of -dreams!... How bravely, nevertheless, he sang on to the very end,--an -atrocious end, for he had eaten his own legs!... May the gods forgive -us all,--especially Hana the housemaid! - -Yet, after all, to devour one's own legs--for hunger is not the worst -by that can happen to a being cursed with the gift of song. There are -human crickets who must eat their own hearts in order to sing. - - - - -The Eater of Dreams - - -[Illustration] - - Mijika-yo ya! - Baku no yumé kū - Hima mo nashi! - ---"Alas! how short this night of ours! The Baku will not even have time -to eat our dreams!"--Old Japanese Love-song. - -The name of the creature is Baku, or Shirokinakatsukami; and its -particular function is the eating of Dreams. It is variously -represented and described. An ancient book in my possession states that -the male Baku has the body of a horse, the face of a lion, the trunk -and tusks of an elephant, the forelock of a rhinoceros, the tail of a -cow, and the feet of a tiger. The female Baku is said to differ greatly -in shape from the male; but the difference is not clearly set forth. In -the time of the old Chinese learning, pictures of the Baku used to be -hung up in Japanese houses, such pictures being supposed to exert the -same beneficent power as the creature itself. My ancient book contains -this legend about the custom:-- - -"In the _Shōsei-Roku_ it is declared that Kōtei, while hunting on the -Eastern coast, once met with a Baku having the body of an animal, -but speaking like a man. Kōtei said: 'Since the world is quiet and -at peace, why should we still see goblins? If a Baku be needed to -extinguish evil sprites, then it were better to have a picture of the -Baku suspended to the wall of one's house. Thereafter, even though some -evil Wonder should appear, it could do no harm.'" - -Then there is given a long list of evil Wonders, and the signs of their -presence:-- - -"When the Hen lays a soft egg, the demon's name is Taifu. - -"When snakes appear entwined together, the demon's name is Jinzu. - -"When dogs go with their ears turned back, the demon's name is Taiyō. - -"When the Fox speaks with the voice of a man, the demon's name is -Gwaishū. - -"When blood appears on the clothes of men, the demon's name is Yūki. - -[Illustration] - -"_When the rice-pot speaks with a human voice, the demon's name is_ -Kanjo. - -"_When the dream of the night is an evil dream, the demon's name is_ -Ringetsu...." - -And the old book further observes: "Whenever any such evil marvel -happens, let the name of the Baku be invoked: then the evil sprite will -immediately sink three feet under the ground." - -* - -But on the subject of evil Wonders I do not feel qualified to -discourse: it belongs to the unexplored and appalling world of Chinese -demonology, and it has really very little to do with the subject of the -Baku in Japan. The Japanese Baku is commonly known only as the Eater -of Dreams; and the most remarkable fact in relation to the cult of the -creature is that the Chinese character representing its name used to -be put in gold upon the lacquered wooden pillows of lords and princes. -By the virtue and power of this character on the pillow, the sleeper -was thought to be protected from evil dreams. It is rather difficult to -find such a pillow to-day: even pictures of the Baku (or "Hakutaku," as -it is sometimes called) have become very rare. But the old invocation -to the Baku still survives in common parlance: Baku kuraë! Baku -kuraë!--"Devour, O Baku! devour my evil dream!"... When you awake from -a nightmare, or from any unlucky dream, you should quickly repeat that -invocation three times;--then the Baku will eat the dream, and will -change the misfortune or the fear into good fortune and gladness. - -* - -It was on a very sultry night, during the Period of Greatest Heat, that -I last saw the Baku. I had just awakened out of misery; and the hour -was the Hour of the Ox; and the Baku came in through the window to ask, -"Have you anything for me to eat?" - -I gratefully made answer:-- - -"Assuredly!... Listen, good Baku, to this dream of mine!-- - -"I was standing in some great white-walled room, where lamps were -burning; but I cast no shadow on the naked floor of that room,--and -there, upon an iron bed, I saw my own dead body. How I had come to die, -and when I had died, I could not remember. Women were sitting near the -bed,--six or seven,--and I did not know any of them. They were neither -young nor old, and all were dressed in black: watchers I took them to -be. They sat motionless and silent: there was no sound in the place; -and I somehow felt that the hour was late. - -"In the same moment I became aware of something nameless in the -atmosphere of the room,-a heaviness that weighed upon the will,--some -viewless numbing power that was slowly growing. Then the watchers began -to watch each other, stealthily; and I knew that they were afraid. -Soundlessly one rose up, and left the room. Another followed; then -another. So, one by one, and lightly as shadows, they all went out. I -was left alone with the corpse of myself. - -"The lamps still burned clearly; but the terror in the air was -thickening. The watchers had stolen away almost as soon as they began -to feel it. But I believed that there was yet time to escape;--I -thought that I could safely delay a moment longer. A monstrous -curiosity obliged me to remain: I wanted to look at my own body, -to examine it closely.... I approached it. I observed it. And I -wondered--because it seemed to me very long,--unnaturally long.... - -"Then I thought that I saw one eyelid quiver. But the appearance of -motion might have been caused by the trembling of a lamp-flame. I -stooped to look--slowly, and very cautiously, because I was afraid that -the eyes might open. - -"'It is Myself,' I thought, as I bent down,--'and yet, it is growing -queer!'... The face appeared to be lengthening.... 'It is not Myself,' -I thought again, as I stooped still lower,--'and yet, it cannot be any -other!' And I became much more afraid, unspeakably afraid, that the -eyes would open.... - -"_They_ opened!--horribly they opened!--and that thing sprang,--sprang -from the bed at me, and fastened upon me,--moaning, and gnawing, and -rending! Oh! with what madness of terror did I strive against it! But -the eyes of it, and the moans of it, and the touch of it, sickened; -and all my being seemed about to burst asunder in frenzy of loathing, -when--I knew not how-- - -I found in my hand an axe. And I struck with the axe;--I clove, I -crushed, I brayed the Moaner,--until there lay before me only a -shapeless, hideous, reeking mass,--the abominable ruin of Myself.... - -"--_Baku kuraë! Baku kuraë! Baku kuraë!_ Devour, O Baku! devour the -dream!" "Nay!" made answer the Baku. "I never eat lucky dreams. That -is a very lucky dream,--a most fortunate dream.... The axe--yes! the -Axe of the Excellent Law, by which the monster of Self is utterly -destroyed!... The best kind of a dream! My friend, _I_ believe in the -teaching of the Buddha." - -And the Baku went out of the window. I looked after him;--and I beheld -him fleeing over the miles of moonlit roofs,--passing, from house-top -to house-top, with amazing soundless leaps,--like a great cat.... - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kott?, by Lafcadio Hearn - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KOTT? *** - -***** This file should be named 55473-0.txt or 55473-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/4/7/55473/ - -Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at Free Literature (online soon -in an extended version,also linking to free sources for -education worldwide ... MOOC's, educational materials,...) -Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - diff --git a/old/55473-0.zip b/old/55473-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 90ad6f5..0000000 --- a/old/55473-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h.zip b/old/55473-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 2b6e3ea..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/55473-h.htm b/old/55473-h/55473-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index cb96d91..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/55473-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5560 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Kottō, by Lafcadio Hearn. - </title> - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; - background-color: #faf1d1; -} - - h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} -.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} -.p6 {margin-top: 6em;} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - clear: both; -} - -hr.tb {width: 45%;} -hr.chap {width: 65%} -hr.full {width: 95%;} - -hr.r5 {width: 5%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;} -hr.r65 {width: 65%; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em;} - -.blockquot { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -a:link {color: #000099;} - -v:link {color: #000099;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -.figleft { - float: left; - clear: left; - margin-left: 0; - margin-bottom: 1em; - margin-top: 1em; - margin-right: 1em; - padding: 0; - text-align: center; -} - -.figright { - float: right; - clear: right; - margin-left: 1em; - margin-bottom: - 1em; - margin-top: 1em; - margin-right: 0; - padding: 0; - text-align: center; -} - -/* Footnotes */ -.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} - -.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} - -.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} - -.fnanchor { - vertical-align: super; - font-size: .8em; - text-decoration: - none; -} - -/* Transcriber's notes */ -.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; - color: black; - font-size:smaller; - padding:0.5em; - margin-bottom:5em; - font-family:sans-serif, serif; } - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kott?, by Lafcadio Hearn - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Kott? - Being Japanese Curio's with Sundry Cobwebs - -Author: Lafcadio Hearn - -Illustrator: Genjiro Yeto - -Release Date: September 1, 2017 [EBook #55473] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KOTT? *** - - - - -Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at Free Literature (online soon -in an extended version,also linking to free sources for -education worldwide ... MOOC's, educational materials,...) -Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_tp.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> - -<h1>KOTTŌ</h1> - -<h3>BEING JAPANESE CURIOS, WITH<br /> -SUNDRY COBWEBS</h3> - -<h4>COLLECTED BY</h4> - -<h2>LAFCADIO HEARN</h2> - -<h4>Lecturer on Literature in the Imperial University of Tōkyō, Japan</h4> - -<h4>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY</h4> - -<h4>GENJIRO YETO</h4> - -<h5>New York</h5> - -<h5>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</h5> - -<h5>LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO. LTD.</h5> - -<h5>1903</h5> -<hr class="full" /> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_001.jpg" width="475" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="center" style="font-size: 0.8em;">TO</p> - -<p class="center">SIR EDWIN ARNOLD</p> - -<p class="center" style="font-size: 0.8em;">IN</p> - -<p class="center">GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE</p> - -<p class="center" style="font-size: 0.8em;">OF</p> - -<p class="center">KIND WORDS</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p style="margin-left: 20%;">Contents<br /> -<br /> -Old Stories:<br /> -<a href="#The_Legend_of_Yurei-Daki">The Legend of Yurei-Daki</a><br /> -<a href="#In_a_Cup_of_Tea">In a Cup of Tea</a><br /> -<a href="#Common_Sense">Common Sense</a><br /> -<a href="#Ikiryo1">Ikiryō</a><br /> -<a href="#Shiryo1">Shiryō</a><br /> -<a href="#The_Story_of_O-Kame">The Story of O-Kamé</a><br /> -<a href="#Story_of_a_Fly">Story of a Fly</a><br /> -<a href="#Story_of_a_Pheasant">Story of a Pheasant</a><br /> -<a href="#The_Story_of_Chugoro">The Story of Chūgorō</a><br /> -<br /> -<a href="#A_Womans_Diary">A Woman's Diary</a><br /> -<a href="#Heike-gani">Heiké-gani</a><br /> -<a href="#Fireflies">Fireflies</a><br /> -<a href="#A_Drop_of_Dew">A Drop of Dew</a><br /> -<a href="#Gaki">Gaki</a><br /> -<a href="#A_Matter_of_Custom">A Matter of Custom</a><br /> -<a href="#Revery">Revery</a><br /> -<a href="#Pathological">Pathological</a><br /> -<a href="#In_the_Dead_of_the_Night">In the Dead of the Night</a><br /> -<a href="#Kusa-Hibari">Kusa-Hibari</a><br /> -<a href="#The_Eater_of_Dreams">The Eater of Dreams</a><br /> -</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h2><a name="Old_Stories" id="Old_Stories">Old Stories</a></h2> - -<p><i>The following nine tales have been selected from the -"Shin-Chomon-Shū" "Hyaku Monogatari," "Uji-Jūi-Monogatari-Shō," and -other old Japanese books, to illustrate some strange beliefs. They are -only Curios.</i></p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="The_Legend_of_Yurei-Daki" id="The_Legend_of_Yurei-Daki">The Legend of Yurei-Daki</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_002.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> - -<p>Near the village of Kurosaka, in the province of Hōki, there is -a waterfall called Yurei-Daki, or The Cascade of Ghosts. Why it -is so called I do not know. Near the foot of the fall there is a -small Shintō shrine of the god of the locality, whom the people -name Taki-Daimyōjin; and in front of the shrine is a little wooden -money-box—<i>saisen-bako</i>—to receive the offerings of believers. And -there is a story about that money-box.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>One icy winter's evening, thirty-five years ago, the women and girls -employed at a certain <i>asa-toriba</i>, or hemp-factory, in Kurosaka, -gathered around the big brazier in the spinning-room after their -day's work had been done. Then they amused themselves by telling -ghost-stories. By the time that a dozen stories had been told, most -of the gathering felt uncomfortable; and a girl cried out, just to -heighten the pleasure of fear, "Only think of going this night, all -by one's self, to the Yurei-Daki!" The suggestion provoked a general -scream, followed by nervous bursts of laughter.... "I'll give all the -hemp I spun to-day," mockingly said one of the party, "to the person -who goes!" "So will I," exclaimed another. "And I," said a third. "All -of us," affirmed a fourth.... Then from among the spinners stood up -one Yasumoto O-Katsu, the wife of a carpenter;—she had her only son, -a boy of two years old, snugly wrapped up and asleep upon her back. -"Listen," said O-Katsu; "if you will all really agree to make over to -me all the hemp spun to-day, I will go to the Yurei-Daki." Her proposal -was received with cries of astonishment and of defiance. But after -having been several times repeated, it was seriously taken. Each of -the spinners in turn agreed to give up her share of the day's work to -O-Katsu, providing that O-Katsu should go to the Yurei-Daki. "But how -are we to know if she really goes there?" a sharp voice asked. "Why, -let her bring back the money-box of the god," answered an old woman -whom the spinners called Obaa-San, the Grandmother; "that will be proof -enough." "I'll bring it," cried O-Katsu. And out she darted into the -street, with her sleeping boy upon her back.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>The night, was frosty, but clear. Down the empty street O-Katsu -hurried; and she saw that all the house fronts were tightly closed, -because of the piercing cold. Out of the village, and along the -high road she ran—<i>pichà-pichà</i>—with the great silence of frozen -rice-fields on either hand, and only the stars to light her. Half -an hour she followed the open road; then she turned down a narrower -way, winding under cliffs. Darker and rougher the path became as she -proceeded; but she knew it well, and she soon heard the dull roar of -the water. A few minutes more, and the way widened into a glen,—and -the dull roar suddenly became a loud clamor,—and before her she -saw, looming against a mass of blackness, the long glimmering of the -fall. Dimly she perceived the shrine,—the money-box. She rushed -forward,—put out her hand....</p> - -<p>"<i>Oi!</i> O-Katsu-San!"<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> suddenly called a warning voice above the crash -of the water.</p> - -<p>O-Katsu stood motionless,—stupefied by terror.</p> - -<p>"<i>Oi!</i> O-Katsu-San!" again pealed the voice,—this time with more of -menace in its tone.</p> - -<p>But O-Katsu was really a bold woman. At once recovering from her -stupefaction, she snatched up the money-box and ran. She neither -heard nor saw anything more to alarm her until she reached the -highroad, where she stopped a moment to take breath. Then she ran on -steadily,—<i>pichà-pichà</i>,—till she got to Kurosaka, and thumped at the -door of the <i>asa-toriba</i>.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>How the women and the girls cried out as she entered, panting, with the -money-box of the god in her hand! Breathlessly they heard her story; -sympathetically they screeched when she told them of the Voice that -had called her name, twice, out of the haunted water.... What a woman! -Brave O-Katsu!—well had she earned the hemp!... "But your boy must be -cold, O-Katsu!" cried the Obaa-San, "let us have him here by the fire!"</p> - -<p>"He ought to be hungry," exclaimed the mother; "I must give him his -milk presently."... "Poor O-Katsu!" said the Obaa-San, helping to -remove the wraps in which the boy had been carried,—"why, you are all -wet behind!" Then, with a husky scream, the helper vociferated, "<i>Arà! -it is blood!</i>"</p> - -<p>And out of the wrappings unfastened there fell to the floor a -blood-soaked bundle of baby clothes that left exposed two very small -brown feet, and two very small brown hands—nothing more. The child's -head had been torn off!...</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_003.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The exclamation <i>Oi!</i> is used to call the attention of a -person: it is the Japanese equivalent for such English exclamations as -"Halloa!" "Ho, there!" etc.</p></div> - - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="In_a_Cup_of_Tea" id="In_a_Cup_of_Tea">In a Cup of Tea</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_004.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>Have you ever attempted to mount some old tower stairway, spiring up -through darkness, and in the heart of that darkness found yourself -at the cobwebbed edge of nothing? Or have you followed some coast -path, cut along the face of a cliff, only to discover yourself, at -a turn, on the jagged verge of a break? The emotional worth of such -experience—from a literary point of view—is proved by the force -of the sensations aroused, and by the vividness with which they are -remembered.</p> - -<p>Now there have been curiously preserved, in old Japanese story-books, -certain fragments of fiction that produce an almost similar emotional -experience.... Perhaps the writer was lazy; perhaps he had a quarrel -with the publisher; perhaps he was suddenly called away from his little -table, and never came back; perhaps death stopped the writing-brush -in the very middle of a sentence. But no mortal man can ever tell us -exactly why these things were left unfinished.... I select a typical -example.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the fourth day of the first month of the third Tenwa,—that is to -say, about two hundred and twenty years ago,—the lord Nakagawa Sado, -while on his way to make a New Year's visit, halted with his train -at a tea-house in Hakusan, in the Hongō district of Yedo. While the -party were resting there, one of the lord's attendants,—a <i>wakatō</i><a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> -named Sekinai,—feeling very thirsty, filled for himself a large -water-cup with tea. He was raising the cup to his lips when he suddenly -perceived, in the transparent yellow infusion, the image or reflection -of a face that was not his own. Startled, he looked around, but could -see no one near him. The face in the tea appeared, from the coiffure, -to be the face of a young samurai: it was strangely distinct, and -very handsome,—delicate as the face of a girl. And it seemed the -reflection of a living face; for the eyes and the lips were moving. -Bewildered by this mysterious apparition, Sekinai threw away the tea, -and carefully examined the cup. It proved to be a very cheap water-cup, -with no artistic devices of any sort. He found and filled another cup; -and again the face appeared in the tea. He then ordered fresh tea, -and refilled the cup; and once more the strange face appeared,—this -time with a mocking smile. But Sekinai did not allow himself to be -frightened. "Whoever you are," he muttered, "you shall delude me no -further!"—then he swallowed the tea, face and all, and went his way, -wondering whether he had swallowed a ghost.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Late in the evening of the same day, while on watch in the palace of -the lord Nakagawa, Sekinai was surprised by the soundless coming of -a stranger into the apartment. This stranger, a richly dressed young -samurai, seated himself directly in front of Sekinai, and, saluting the -<i>wakatō</i> with a slight bow, observed:—</p> - -<p>"I am Shikibu Heinai—met you to-day for the first time.... You do not -seem to recognize me."</p> - -<p>He spoke in a very low, but penetrating voice. And Sekinai was -astonished to find before him the same sinister, handsome face of -which he had seen, and swallowed, the apparition in a cup of tea. It -was smiling now, as the phantom had smiled; but the steady gaze of the -eyes, above the smiling lips, was at once a challenge and an insult.</p> - -<p>"No, I do not recognize you," returned Sekinai, angry but cool;—"and -perhaps you will now be good enough to inform me how you obtained -admission to this house?"</p> - -<p>[In feudal times the residence of a lord was strictly guarded at -all hours; and no one could enter unannounced, except through some -unpardonable negligence on the part of the armed watch.]</p> - -<p>"Ah, you do not recognize me!" exclaimed the visitor, in a tone of -irony, drawing a little nearer as he spoke. "No, you do not recognize -me! Yet you took upon yourself this morning to do me a deadly -injury!..."</p> - -<p>Sekinai instantly seized the <i>tantō</i><a name="FNanchor_2_3" id="FNanchor_2_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_3" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> at his girdle, and made a -fierce thrust at the throat of the man. But the blade seemed to touch -no substance. Simultaneously and soundlessly the intruder leaped -sideward to the chamber-wall, <i>and through it!</i> ... The wall showed no -trace of his exit. He had traversed it only as the light of a candle -passes through lantern-paper.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>When Sekinai made report of the incident, his recital astonished and -puzzled the retainers. No stranger had been seen either to enter or -to leave the palace at the hour of the occurrence; and no one in the -service of the lord Nakagawa had ever heard of the name "Shikibu -Heinai."</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the following night Sekinai was off duty, and remained at home with -his parents. At a rather late hour he was informed that some strangers -had called at the house, and desired to speak with him for a moment. -Taking his sword, he went to the entrance, and there found three armed -men,—apparently retainers,—waiting in front of the doorstep. The -three bowed respectfully to Sekinai; and one of them said:—</p> - -<p>"Our names are Matsuoka Bungō, Tsuchibashi Bungō, and Okamura Heiroku. -We are retainers of the noble Shikibu Heinai. When our master last -night deigned to pay you a visit, you struck him with a sword. He was -much will hurt, and has been obliged to go to the hot springs, where -his wound is now being treated. But on the sixteenth day of the coming -month he will return; and he will then fitly repay you for the injury -done him...."</p> - -<p>Without waiting to hear more, Sekinai leaped out, sword in hand, and -slashed right and left, at the strangers. But the three men sprang -to the wall of the adjoining building, and flitted up the wall like -shadows, and....</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_005.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>Here the old narrative breaks off; the rest of the story existed only -in some brain that has been dust for a century.</p> - -<p>I am able to imagine several possible endings; but none of them would -satisfy an Occidental imagination. I prefer to let the reader attempt -to decide for himself the probable consequence of swallowing a Soul.</p> -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The armed attendant of a <i>samurai</i> was thus called. The -relation of the <i>wakatō</i> to the <i>samurai</i> was that of squire to knight.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2_3" id="Footnote_2_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_3"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The shorter of the two swords carried by samurai. The -longer sword was called <i>katana</i>.</p></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="Common_Sense" id="Common_Sense">Common Sense</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_006.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> - -<p>Once there lived upon the mountain called Atagoyama, near Kyoto, a -certain learned priest who devoted all his time to meditation and the -study of the sacred books. The little temple in which he dwelt was far -from any village; and he could not, in such a solitude, have obtained -without help the common necessaries of life. But several devout country -people regularly contributed to his maintenance, bringing him each -month supplies of vegetables and of rice.</p> - -<p>Among these good folk there was a certain hunter, who sometimes visited -the mountain in search of game. One day, when this hunter had brought a -bag of rice to the temple, the priest said to him:—</p> - -<p>"Friend, I must tell you that wonderful things have happened here since -the last time I saw you. I do not certainly know why such things should -have happened in my unworthy presence. But you are aware that I have -been meditating, and reciting the sûtras daily, for many years; and -it is possible that what has been vouchsafed me is due to the merit -obtained through these religious exercises. I am not sure of this. But -I am sure that Fugen Bosatsu<a name="FNanchor_1_4" id="FNanchor_1_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_4" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> comes nightly to this temple, riding -upon his elephant.... Stay here with me this night, friend; then you -will be able to see and to worship the Buddha."</p> - -<p>"To witness so holy a vision," the hunter replied, "were a privilege -indeed! Most gladly I shall stay, and worship with you."</p> - -<p>So the hunter remained at the temple. But while the priest was engaged -in his religious exercises, the hunter began to think about the -promised miracle, and to doubt whether such a thing could be. And the -more he thought, the more he doubted. There was a little boy in the -temple,—an acolyte,—and the hunter found an opportunity to question -the boy.</p> - -<p>"The priest told me," said the hunter, "that Fugen Bosatsu comes to -this temple every night. Have you also seen Fugen Bosatsu?"</p> - -<p>"Six times, already," the acolyte replied, "I have seen and reverently -worshipped Fugen Bosatsu." This declaration only served to increase -the hunter's suspicions, though he did not in the least doubt the -truthfulness of the boy. He reflected, however, that he would probably -be able to see whatever the boy had seen; and he waited with eagerness -for the hour of the promised vision.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Shortly before midnight the priest announced that it was time to -prepare for the coming of Fugen Bosatsu. The doors of the little temple -were thrown open; and the priest knelt down at the threshold, with his -face to the east. The acolyte knelt at his left hand, and the hunter -respectfully placed himself behind the priest.</p> - -<p>It was the night of the twentieth of the ninth month,—a dreary, -dark, and very windy night; and the three waited a long time for the -coming of Fugen Bosatsu. But at last a point of white light appeared, -like a star, in the direction of the east; and this light approached -quickly,—growing larger and larger as it came, and illuminating all -the slope of the mountain. Presently the light took shape—the shape -of a being divine, riding upon a snow-white elephant with six tusks. -And, in another moment, the elephant with its shining rider arrived -before the temple, and there stood towering, like a mountain of -moonlight,—wonderful and weird.</p> - -<p>Then the priest and the boy, prostrating themselves, began with -exceeding fervour to repeat the holy invocation to Fugen Bosatsu. But -suddenly the hunter rose up behind them, bow in hand; and, bending his -bow to the full, he sent a long arrow whizzing straight at the luminous -Buddha, into whose breast it sank up to the very feathers. Immediately, -with a sound like a thunder-clap, the white light vanished, and the -vision disappeared. Before the temple there was nothing but windy -darkness.</p> - -<p>"O miserable man!" cried out the priest, with tears of shame and -despair, "O most wretched and wicked man! what have you done?—what -have you done?"</p> - -<p>But the hunter received the reproaches of the priest without any sign -of compunction or of anger. Then he said, very gently:—</p> - -<p>"Reverend sir, please try to calm yourself, and listen to me. You -thought that you were able to see Fugen Bosatsu because of some merit -obtained through your constant meditations and your recitation of the -sûtras. But if that had been the case, the Buddha would have appeared -to you only—not to me, nor even to the boy. I am an ignorant hunter, -and my occupation is to kill;—and the taking of life is hateful to the -Buddhas. How then should I be able to see Fugen Bosatsu? I have been -taught that the Buddhas are everywhere about us, and that we remain -unable to see them because of our ignorance and our imperfections. -You—being a learned priest of pure life—might indeed acquire such -enlightenment as would enable you to see the Buddhas; but how should -a man who kills animals for his livelihood find the power to see the -divine? Both I and this little boy could see all that you saw. And -let me now assure you, reverend sir, that what you saw was not Fugen -Bosatsu, but a goblinry intended to deceive you—perhaps even to -destroy you. I beg that you will try to control your feelings until -daybreak. Then I will prove to you the truth of what I have said."</p> - -<p>At sunrise the hunter and the priest examined the spot where the vision -had been standing, and they discovered a thin trail of blood. And after -having followed this trail to a hollow some hundred paces away, they -came upon the body of a great badger, transfixed by the hunter's arrow.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>The priest, although a learned and pious person, had easily been -deceived by a badger. But the hunter, an ignorant and irreligious man, -was gifted with strong common sense: and by mother-wit alone he was -able at once to detect and to destroy a dangerous illusion.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_007.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_4" id="Footnote_1_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_4"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.</p></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="Ikiryo1" id="Ikiryo1"></a>Ikiryō<a name="FNanchor_1_5" id="FNanchor_1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_5" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_008.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>Formerly, in the quarter of Reiganjima, in Yedo, there was a great -porcelain shop called the Setomonodana, kept by a rich man named Kihei. -Kihei had in his employ, for many years, a head clerk named Rokubei. -Under Rokubei's care the business prospered;—and at last it grew so -large that Rokubei found himself unable to manage it without help. -He therefore asked and obtained permission to hire an experienced -assistant; and he then engaged one of his own nephews,—a young man -about twenty-two years old, who had learned the porcelain trade in -Osaka.</p> - -<p>The nephew proved a very capable assistant,—shrewder in business -than his experienced uncle. His enterprise extended the trade of the -house, and Kihei was greatly pleased. But about seven months after his -engagement, the young man became very ill, and seemed likely to die. -The best physicians in Yedo were summoned to attend him; but none of -them could understand the nature of his sickness. They prescribed no -medicine, and expressed the opinion that such a sickness could only -have been caused by some secret grief.</p> - -<p>Rokubei imagined that it might be a case of lovesickness. He therefore -said to his nephew:—</p> - -<p>"I have been thinking that, as you are still very young, you might have -formed some secret attachment which is making you unhappy,—perhaps -even making you ill. If this be the truth, you certainly ought to -tell me all about your troubles. Here I stand to you in the place of -a father, as you are far away from your parents; and if you have any -anxiety or sorrow, I am ready to do for you whatever a father should -do. If money can help you, do not be ashamed to tell me, even though -the amount be large. I think that I could assist you; and I am sure -that Kihei would be glad to do anything to make you happy and well."</p> - -<p>The sick youth appeared to be embarrassed by these kindly assurances; -and for some little time he remained silent. At last he answered:—</p> - -<p>"Never in this world can I forget those generous words. But I have no -secret attachment—no longing for any woman. This sickness of mine is -not a sickness that doctors can cure; and money could not help me in -the least. The truth is, that I have been so persecuted in this house -that I scarcely care to live. Everywhere—by day and by night, whether -in the shop or in my room, whether alone or in company—I have been -unceasingly followed and tormented by the Shadow of a woman. And it is -long, long since I have been able to get even one night's rest. For so -soon as I close my eyes, the Shadow of the woman takes me by the throat -and strives to strangle me. So I cannot sleep...."</p> - -<p>"And why did you not tell me this before?" asked Rokubei.</p> - -<p>"Because I thought," the nephew answered, "that it would be of no use -to tell you. The Shadow is not the ghost of a dead person. It is made -by the hatred of a living person—a person whom you very well know."</p> - -<p>"What person?" questioned Rokubei, in great astonishment.<a name="FNanchor_2_6" id="FNanchor_2_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_6" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> - -<p>"The mistress of this house," whispered the youth,—"the wife of Kihei -Sama.. .. She wishes to kill me."</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Rokubei was bewildered by this confession. He doubted nothing of -what his nephew had said; but he could not imagine a reason for the -haunting. An <i>ikiryō</i> might be caused by disappointed love, or by -violent hate,—without the knowledge of the person from whom it had -emanated. To suppose any love in this case was impossible;—the wife -of Kihei was considerably more than fifty years of age. But, on the -other hand, what could the young clerk have done to provoke hatred,—a -hatred capable of producing an ikiryō? He had been irreproachably well -conducted, unfailingly courteous, and earnestly devoted to his duties. -The mystery troubled Rokubei; but, after careful reflection, he decided -to tell everything to Kihei, and to request an investigation.</p> - -<p>Kihei was astounded; but in the time of forty years he had never had -the least reason to doubt the word of Rokubei. He therefore summoned -his wife at once, and carefully questioned her, telling her, at the -same time, what the sick clerk had said. At first she turned pale, and -wept; but, after some hesitation, she answered frankly:—</p> - -<p>"I suppose that what the new clerk has said about the <i>ikiryō</i> is -true,—though I really tried never to betray, by word or look, the -dislike which I could not help feeling for him. You know that he is -very skilful in commerce,—very shrewd in everything that he does. -And you have given him much authority in this house—power over the -apprentices and the servants. But our only son, who should inherit this -business, is very simple-hearted and easily deceived; and I have long -been thinking that your clever new clerk might so delude our boy as to -get possession of all this property. Indeed, I am certain that your -clerk could at any time, without the least difficulty, and without the -least risk to himself, ruin our business and ruin our son. And with -this certainty in my mind, I cannot help fearing and hating the man. I -have often and often wished that he were dead; I have even wished that -it were in my own power to kill him. ... Yes, I know that it is wrong -to hate any one in such a way; but I could not check the feeling. Night -and day I have been wishing evil to that clerk. So I cannot doubt that -he has really seen the thing of which he spoke to Rokubei."</p> - -<p>"How absurd of you," exclaimed Kihei, "to torment yourself thus! Up -to the present time that clerk has done no single thing for which he -could be blamed; and you have caused him to suffer cruelly.... Now if I -should send him away, with his uncle, to another town, to establish a -branch business, could you not endeavour to think more kindly of him?"</p> - -<p>"If I do not see his face or hear his voice," the wife answered,—"if -you will only send him away from this house,—then I think that I shall -be able to conquer my hatred of him."</p> - -<p>"Try to do so," said Kihei;—"for, if you continue to hate him as you -have been hating him, he will certainly die, and you will then be -guilty of having caused the death of a man who has done us nothing but -good. He has been, in every way, a most excellent servant."</p> - -<p>Then Kihei quickly made arrangements for the establishment of a branch -house in another city; and he sent Rokubei there with the clerk, to -take charge. And thereafter the <i>ikiryō</i> ceased to torment the young -man, who soon recovered his health.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_008.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_5" id="Footnote_1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_5"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Literally, "living spirit,"—that is to say, the ghost of -a person still alive. An <i>ikiryō</i> may detach itself from the body under -the influence of anger, and proceed to haunt and torment the individual -by whom the anger was caused.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2_6" id="Footnote_2_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_6"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> An <i>ikiryō</i> is seen only by the person haunted.—For -another illustration of this curious belief, see the paper entitled -"The Stone Buddha" in my <i>Out of the East</i>, p. 171.</p></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="Shiryo1" id="Shiryo1"></a>Shiryō<a name="FNanchor_1_7" id="FNanchor_1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_7" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_010.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>On the death of Nomoto Yajiyémon, a daikwan<a name="FNanchor_2_8" id="FNanchor_2_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_8" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> in the province of -Echizen, his clerks entered into a conspiracy to defraud the family of -their late master. Under pretext of paying some of the daikwan's debts, -they took possession of all the money, valuables, and furniture in his -house; and they furthermore prepared a false report to make it appear -that he had unlawfully contracted obligations exceeding the worth of -his estate. This false report they sent to the Saishō,<a name="FNanchor_3_9" id="FNanchor_3_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_9" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> and the -Saishō thereupon issued a decree banishing the widow and the children -of Nomoto from the province of Echizen. For in those times the family -of a daikwan were held in part responsible, even after his death, for -any malfeasance proved against him.</p> - -<p>But at the moment when the order of banishment was officially announced -to the widow of Nomoto, a strange thing happened to a maid-servant in -the house. She was seized with convulsions and shudderings, like a -person possessed; and when the convulsions passed, she rose up, and -cried out to the officers of the Saishō, and to the clerks of her late -master:—</p> - -<p>"Now listen to me! It is not a girl who is speaking to you; it is -I,—Yajiyémon, Nomoto Yajiyémon,—returned to you from the dead. In -grief and great anger do I return—grief and anger caused me by those -in whom I vainly put my trust!... O you infamous and ungrateful clerks! -how could you so forget the favours bestowed upon you, as thus to ruin -my property, and to disgrace my name?... Here, now, in my presence, let -the accounts of my office and of my house be made; and let a servant -be sent for the books of the Metsuké,<a name="FNanchor_4_10" id="FNanchor_4_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_10" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> so that the estimates may be -compared!"</p> - -<p>As the maid uttered these words, all present were filled with -astonishment; for her voice and her manner were the voice and the -manner of Nomoto Yajiyémon. The guilty clerks turned pale. But the -representatives of the Saishō at once commanded that the desire -expressed by the girl should be fully granted. All the account-books -of the office were promptly placed before her,—and the books of the -Metsuké were brought in; and she began the reckoning. Without making -a single error, she went through all the accounts, writing down the -totals and correcting every false entry. And her writing, as she wrote, -was seen to be the very writing of Nomoto Yajiyémon.</p> - -<p>Now this reëxamination of the accounts not only proved that there had -been no indebtedness, but also showed that there had been a surplus -in the office treasury at the time of the daikwan's death. Thus the -villany of the clerks became manifest.</p> - -<p>And when all the accounts had been made up, the girl said, speaking in -the very voice of Nomoto Yajiyémon:—</p> - -<p>"Now everything is finished; and I can do nothing further in the -matter. So I shall go back to the place from which I came."</p> - -<p>Then she lay down, and instantly fell asleep; and she slept like a -dead person during two days and two nights. [For great weariness and -deep sleep fall upon the possessed, when the possessing spirit passes -from them.] When she again awoke, her voice and her manner were the -voice and the manner of a young girl; and neither at that time, nor -at any time after, could she remember what had happened while she was -possessed by the ghost or Nomoto Yajiyémon.</p> - -<p>A report of this event was promptly sent to the Saishō; and the Saishō, -in consequence, not only revoked the order of banishment, but made -large gifts to the family of the daikwan. Later on, various posthumous -honours were conferred upon Nomoto Yajiyémon; and for many subsequent -years his house was favoured by the Government, so that it prospered -greatly. But the clerks received the punishment which they deserved.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_010.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_7" id="Footnote_1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_7"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The term <i>shiryō</i>, "dead ghost,"—that is to say, the -ghost of a dead person,—is used in contradistinction to the term -<i>ikiryō</i>, signifying the apparition of a living person. <i>Yūrei</i> is a -more generic name for ghosts of any sort.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2_8" id="Footnote_2_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_8"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> A <i>daikwan</i> was a district governor under the direct -control of the Shōgunate. His functions were both civil and judicial.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3_9" id="Footnote_3_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_9"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The <i>Saishō</i> was a high official of the Shōgunate, with -duties corresponding to those of a prime minister.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4_10" id="Footnote_4_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_10"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The <i>Metsuké</i> was a government official, charged with the -duty of keeping watch over the conduct of local governors or district -judges, and of inspecting their accounts.</p></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="The_Story_of_O-Kame" id="The_Story_of_O-Kame">The Story of O-Kamé</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_012.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>O-Kamé, daughter of the rich Gonyémon of Nagoshi, in the province of -Tosa, was very fond of her husband, Hachiyémon. She was twenty-two, and -Hachiyémon twenty-five. She was so fond of him that people imagined her -to be jealous. But he never gave her the least cause for jealousy; and -it is certain that no single unkind word was ever spoken between them.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately the health of O-Kamé was feeble. Within less than two -years after her marriage she was attacked by a disease, then prevalent -in Tosa, and the best doctors were not able to cure her. Persons seized -by this malady could not eat or drink; they remained constantly drowsy -and languid, and troubled by strange fancies. And, in spite of constant -care, O-Kamé grew weaker and weaker, day by day, until it became -evident, even to herself, that she was going to die. Then she called -her husband, and said to him:—</p> - -<p>"I cannot tell you how good you have been to me during this miserable -sickness of mine. Surely no one could have been more kind. But that -only makes it all the harder for me to leave you now.... Think! I am -not yet even twenty-five,—and I have the best husband in all this -world,—and yet I must die!... Oh, no, no! it is useless to talk to me -about hope; the best Chinese doctors could do nothing for me. I did -think to live a few months longer; but when I saw my face this morning -in the mirror, I knew that I must die to-day,—yes, this very day. And -there is something that I want to beg you to do for me—if you wish me -to die quite happy."</p> - -<p>"Only tell me what it is," Hachiyémon answered; "and if it be in my -power to do, I shall be more than glad to do it."</p> - -<p>"No, no—you will not be glad to do it," she returned: "you are still -so young! It is difficult—very, very difficult—even to ask you to do -such a thing; yet the wish for it is like a fire burning in my breast. -I must speak it before I die.... My dear, you know that sooner or -later, after I am dead, they will want you to take another wife. Will -you promise me—can you promise me—not to marry again?..."</p> - -<p>"Only that!" Hachiyémon exclaimed. "Why, if that be all that you wanted -to ask for, your wish is very easily granted. With all my heart I -promise you that no one shall ever take your place."</p> - -<p>"<i>Aa! uréshiya!</i>" cried O-Kamé, half-rising from her couch;—"oh, how -happy you have made me!"</p> - -<p>And she fell back dead.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Now the health of Hachiyémon appeared to fail after the death of -O-Kamé. At first the change in his aspect was attributed to natural -grief, and the villagers only said, "How fond of her he must have -been!" But, as the months went by, he grew paler and weaker, until -at last he became so thin and wan that he looked more like a ghost -than a man. Then people began to suspect that sorrow alone could not -explain this sudden decline of a man so young. The doctors said that -Hachiyémon was not suffering from any known form of disease: they -could not account for his condition; but they suggested that it might -have been caused by some very unusual trouble of mind. Hachiyémon's -parents questioned him in vain;—he had no cause for sorrow, he said, -other than what they already knew. They counselled him to remarry; but -he protested that nothing could ever induce him to break his promise to -the dead.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Thereafter Hachiyémon continued to grow visibly weaker, day by day; -and his family despaired of his life. But one day his mother, who -felt sure that he had been concealing something from her, adjured him -so earnestly to tell her the real cause of his decline, and wept so -bitterly before him, that he was not able to resist her entreaties.</p> - -<p>"Mother," he said, "it is very difficult to speak about this matter, -either to you or to any one; and, perhaps, when I have told you -everything, you will not be able to believe me. But the truth is that -O-Kamé can find no rest in the other world, and that the Buddhist -services repeated for her have been said in vain. Perhaps she will -never be able to rest unless I go with her on the long black journey. -For every night she returns, and lies down by my side. Every night, -since the day of her funeral, she has come back. And sometimes I -doubt if she be really dead; for she looks and acts just as when she -lived,—except that she talks to me only in whispers. And she always -bids me tell no one that she comes. It may be that she wants me to die; -and I should not care to live for my own sake only. But it is true, -as you have said, that my body really belongs to my parents, and that -I owe to them the first duty. So now, mother, I tell you the whole -truth.. .. Yes: every night she comes, just as I am about to sleep; and -she remains until dawn. As soon as she hears the temple-bell, she goes -away."</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>When the mother of Hachiyémon had heard these things, she was greatly -alarmed; and, hastening at once to the parish-temple, she told the -priest all that her son had confessed, and begged for ghostly help. The -priest, who was a man of great age and experience, listened without -surprise to the recital, and then said to her:—</p> - -<p>"It is not the first time that I have known such a thing to happen; -and I think that I shall be able to save your son. But he is really -in great danger. I have seen the shadow of death upon his face; and, -if O-Kamé return but once again, he will never behold another sunrise. -Whatever can be done for him must be done quickly. Say nothing of the -matter to your son; but assemble the members of both families as soon -as possible, and tell them to come to the temple without delay. For -your son's sake it will be necessary to open the grave of O-Kamé."</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>So the relatives assembled at the temple; and when the priest had -obtained their consent to the opening of the sepulchre, he led the way -to the cemetery. Then, under his direction, the tombstone of O-Kamé -was shifted, the grave opened, and the coffin raised. And when the -coffin-lid had been removed, all present were startled; for O-Kamé sat -before them with a smile upon her face, seeming as comely as before the -time of her sickness; and there was not any sign of death upon her. But -when the priest told his assistants to lift the dead woman out of the -coffin, the astonishment changed to fear; for the corpse was blood-warm -to the touch, and still flexible as in life, notwithstanding the -squatting posture in which it had remained so long.<a name="FNanchor_1_11" id="FNanchor_1_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_11" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> - -<p>It was borne to the mortuary chapel; and there the priest, with a -writing-brush, traced upon the brow and breast and limbs of the body -the Sanscrit characters (<i>Bonji</i>) of certain holy talismanic words. -And he performed a Ségaki-service for the spirit of O-Kamé, before -suffering her corpse to be restored to the ground.</p> - -<p>She never again visited her husband; and Hachiyémon gradually recovered -his health and strength. But whether he always kept his promise, the -Japanese story-teller does not say.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_012.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_11" id="Footnote_1_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_11"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The Japanese dead are placed in a sitting posture in the -coffin,—which is almost square in form.</p></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="Story_of_a_Fly" id="Story_of_a_Fly">Story of a Fly</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_014.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> - -<p>About two hundred years ago, there lived in Kyoto a merchant named -Kazariya Kyūbei. His shop was in the street called Teramachidōri, a -little south of the Shimabara thoroughfare. He had a maid-servant named -Tama,—a native of the province of Wakasa.</p> - -<p>Tama was kindly treated by Kyūbei and his wife, and appeared to be -sincerely attached to them. But she never cared to dress nicely, like -other girls; and whenever she had a holiday she would go out in her -working-dress, notwithstanding that she had been given several pretty -robes. After she had been in the service of Kyūbei for about five -years, he one day asked her why she never took any pains to look neat.</p> - -<p>Tama blushed at the reproach implied by this question, and answered -respectfully:—</p> - -<p>"When my parents died, I was a very little girl; and, as they had no -other child, it became my duty to have the Buddhist services performed -on their behalf. At that time I could not obtain the means to do so; -but I resolved to have their <i>ihai</i> [mortuary tablets] placed in the -temple called Jōrakuji, and to have the rites performed, so soon as I -could earn the money required. And in order to fulfil this resolve I -have tried to be saving of my money and my clothes;—perhaps I have -been too saving, as you have found me negligent of my person. But I -have already been able to put by about one hundred <i>mommé</i> of silver -for the purpose which I have mentioned; and hereafter I will try to -appear before you looking neat. So I beg that you will kindly excuse my -past negligence and rudeness."</p> - -<p>Kyūbei was touched by this simple confession; and he spoke to the -girl kindly,—assuring her that she might consider herself at liberty -thenceforth to dress as she pleased, and commending her filial piety.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Soon after this conversation, the maid Tama was able to have the -tablets of her parents placed in the temple Jōrakuji, and to have the -appropriate services performed. Of the money which she had saved she -thus expended seventy <i>mommé</i>; and the remaining thirty <i>mommé</i> she -asked her mistress to keep for her.</p> - -<p>But early in the following winter Tama was suddenly taken ill; and -after a brief sickness she died, on the eleventh day of the first month -of the fifteenth year of Genroku [1702]. Kyūbei and his wife were much -grieved by her death.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Now, about ten days later, a very large fly came into the house, and -began to fly round and round the head of Kyūbei. This surprised Kyūbei, -because no flies of any kind appear, as a rule, during the Period of -Greatest Cold, and the larger kinds of flies are seldom seen except in -the warm season. The fly annoyed Kyūbei so persistently that he took -the trouble to catch it, and put it out of the house,—being careful -the while to injure it in no way; for he was a devout Buddhist. It soon -came back again, and was again caught and thrown out; but it entered -a third time. Kyūbei's wife thought this a strange thing. "I wonder," -she said, "if it is Tama." [For the dead—particularly those who pass -to the state of Gaki—sometimes return in the form of insects.] Kyūbei -laughed, and made answer, "Perhaps we can find out by marking it." He -caught the fly, and slightly nicked the tips of its wings with a pair -of scissors,—after which he carried it to a considerable distance from -the house and let it go.</p> - -<p>Next day it returned. Kyūbei still doubted whether its return had any -ghostly significance. He caught it again, painted its wings and body -with beni (rouge), carried it away from the house to a much greater -distance than before, and set it free. But, two days later, it came -back, all red; and Kyūbei ceased to doubt.</p> - -<p>"I think it is Tama," he said. "She wants something;—but what does she -want?"</p> - -<p>The wife responded:—</p> - -<p>"I have still thirty <i>mommé</i> of her savings. Perhaps she wants us to -pay that money to the temple, for a Buddhist service on behalf of her -spirit. Tama was always very anxious about her next birth."</p> - -<p>As she spoke, the fly fell from the paper window on which it had been -resting. Kyūbei picked it up, and found that it was dead.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Thereupon the husband and wife resolved to go to the temple at once, -and to pay the girl's money to the priests. They put the body of the -fly into a little box, and took it along with them.</p> - -<p>Jiku Shōnin, the chief priest of the temple, on hearing the story of -the fly, decided that Kyūbei and his wife had acted rightly in the -matter. Then Jiku Shōnin performed a <i>Ségaki</i> service on behalf of the -spirit of Tama; and over the body of the fly were recited the eight -rolls of the sûtra <i>Myōten</i>. And the box containing the body of the fly -was buried in the grounds of the temple; and above the place a <i>sotoba</i> -was set up, appropriately inscribed.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_014.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="Story_of_a_Pheasant" id="Story_of_a_Pheasant">Story of a Pheasant</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_016.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>In the Toyama district of the province of Bishū, there formerly lived a -young farmer and his wife. Their farm was situated in a lonely place, -among the hills.</p> - -<p>One night the wife dreamed that her father-in-law, who had died some -years before, came to her and said, "<i>To-morrow I shall be in great -danger: try to save me if you can!</i>" In the morning she told this to -her husband; and they talked about the dream. Both imagined that the -dead man wanted something; but neither could imagine what the words of -the vision signified.</p> - -<p>After breakfast, the husband went to the fields; but the wife remained -at her loom. Presently she was startled by a great shouting outside. -She went to the door, and saw the Jitō<a name="FNanchor_1_12" id="FNanchor_1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_12" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> of the district, with a -hunting party, approaching the farm. While she stood watching them, a -pheasant ran by her into the house; and she suddenly remembered her -dream. "Perhaps it is my father-in-law," she thought to herself;—"I -must try to save it!" Then, hurrying in after the bird,—a fine male -pheasant,—she caught it without any difficulty, put it into the empty -rice-pot, and covered the pot with the lid.</p> - -<p>A moment later some of the Jitō's followers entered, and asked her -whether she had seen a pheasant. She answered boldly that she had not; -but one of the hunters declared that he had seen the bird run into -the house. So the party searched for it, peeping into every nook and -corner; but nobody thought of looking into the rice-pot. After looking -everywhere else to no purpose, the men decided that the bird must have -escaped through some hole; and they went away.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>When the farmer came home his wife told him about the pheasant, which -she had left in the rice-pot, so that he might see it. "When I caught -it," she said, "it did not struggle in the least; and it remained very -quiet in the pot. I really think that it is father-in-law." The farmer -went to the pot, lifted the lid, and took out the bird. It remained -still in his hands, as if tame, and looked at him as if accustomed to -his presence. One of its eyes was blind. "Father was blind of one eye," -the farmer said,—"the right eye; and the right eye of this bird is -blind. Really, I think it is father. See! it looks at us just as father -used to do!... Poor father must have thought to himself, '<i>Now that I -am a bird, better to give my body to my children for food than to let -the hunters have it.</i>'... And that explains your dream of last night," -he added,—turning to his wife with an evil smile as he wrung the -pheasant's neck.</p> - -<p>At the sight of that brutal act, the woman screamed, and cried out:—</p> - -<p>"Oh, you wicked man! Oh, you devil! Only a man with the heart of a -devil could do what you have done!... And I would rather die than -continue to be the wife of such a man!"</p> - -<p>And she sprang to the door, without waiting even to put on her sandals. -He caught her sleeve as she leaped; but she broke away from him, and -ran out, sobbing as she ran. And she ceased not to run, barefooted, -till she reached the town, when she hastened directly to the residence -of the Jitō. Then, with many tears, she told the Jitō everything: her -dream of the night before the hunting, and how she had hidden the -pheasant in order to save it, and how her husband had mocked her, and -had killed it.</p> - -<p>The Jitō spoke to her kindly, and gave orders that she should be well -cared for; but he commanded his officers to seize her husband.</p> - -<p>Next day the farmer was brought up for judgment; and, after he had -been made to confess the truth concerning the killing of the pheasant, -sentence was pronounced. The Jitō said to him:—</p> - -<p>"Only a person of evil heart could have acted as you have acted; and -the presence of so perverse a being is a misfortune to the community -in which he happens to reside. The people under Our jurisdiction are -people who respect the sentiment of filial piety; and among them you -cannot be suffered to live."</p> - -<p>So the farmer was banished from the district, and forbidden ever -to return to it on pain of death. But to the woman the Jitō made a -donation of land; and at a later time he caused her to be provided with -a good husband.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_016.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_12" id="Footnote_1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_12"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The lord of the district, who acted both as governor and -magistrate.</p></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="The_Story_of_Chugoro" id="The_Story_of_Chugoro">The Story of Chūgorō</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_018.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> - -<p>Along time ago there lived, in the Koishi-kawa quarter of Yedo, a -<i>hatamoto</i> named Suzuki, whose yashiki was situated on the bank of the -Yedogawa, not far from the bridge called Naka-no-hashi. And among the -retainers of this Suzuki there was an <i>ashigaru</i><a name="FNanchor_1_13" id="FNanchor_1_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_13" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> named Chūgorō. -Chūgorō was a handsome lad, very amiable and clever, and much liked by -his comrades.</p> - -<p>For several years Chūgorō remained in the service of Suzuki, conducting -himself so well that no fault was found with him. But at last the -other <i>ashigaru</i> discovered that Chūgorō was in the habit of leaving -the yashiki every night, by way of the garden, and staying out until -a little before dawn. At first they said nothing to him about this -strange behaviour; for his absences did not interfere with any regular -duty, and were supposed to be caused by some love-affair. But after a -time he began to look pale and weak; and his comrades, suspecting some -serious folly, decided to interfere. Therefore, one evening, just as he -was about to steal away from the house, an elderly retainer called him -aside, and said:—</p> - -<p>"Chūgorō, my lad, we know that you go out every night and stay away -until early morning; and we have observed that you are looking unwell. -We fear that you are keeping bad company, and injuring your health. And -unless you can give a good reason for your conduct, we shall think that -it is our duty to report this matter to the Chief Officer. In any case, -since we are your comrades and friends, it is but right that we should -know why you go out at night, contrary to the custom of this house."</p> - -<p>Chūgorō appeared to be very much embarrassed and alarmed by these -words. But after a short silence he passed into the garden, followed by -his comrade. When the two found themselves well out of hearing of the -rest, Chūgorō stopped, and said:—</p> - -<p>"I will now tell you everything; but I must entreat you to keep my -secret. If you repeat what I tell you, some great misfortune may -befall me.</p> - -<p>"It was in the early part of last spring—about five months ago—that -I first began to go out at night, on account of a love-affair. One -evening, when I was returning to the yashiki after a visit to my -parents, I saw a woman standing by the riverside, not far from the main -gateway. She was dressed like a person of high rank; and I thought -it strange that a woman so finely dressed should be standing there -alone at such an hour. But I did not think that I had any right to -question her; and I was about to pass her by, without speaking, when -she stepped forward and pulled me by the sleeve. Then I saw that she -was very young and handsome. 'Will you not walk with me as far as the -bridge?' she said; 'I have something to tell you.' Her voice was very -soft and pleasant; and she smiled as she spoke; and her smile was hard -to resist. So I walked with her toward the bridge; and on the way she -told me that she had often seen me going in and out of the yashiki, -and had taken a fancy to me. 'I wish to have you for my husband,' -she said;—'if you can like me, we shall be able to make each other -very happy.' I did not know how to answer her; but I thought her very -charming. As we neared the bridge, she pulled my sleeve again, and led -me down the bank to the very edge of the river. 'Come in with me,' she -whispered, and pulled me toward the water. It is deep there, as you -know; and I became all at once afraid of her, and tried to turn back. -She smiled, and caught me by the wrist, and said, 'Oh, you must never -be afraid with me!' And, somehow, at the touch of her hand, I became -more helpless than a child. I felt like a person in a dream who tries -to run, and cannot move hand or foot. Into the deep water she stepped, -and drew me with her; and I neither saw nor heard nor felt anything -more until I found myself walking beside her through what seemed to be -a great palace, full of light. I was neither wet nor cold: everything -around me was dry and warm and beautiful. I could not understand where -I was, nor how I had come there. The woman led me by the hand: we -passed through room after room,—through ever so many rooms, all empty, -but very fine,—until we entered into a guest-room of a thousand mats. -Before a great alcove, at the farther end, lights were burning, and -cushions laid as for a feast; but I saw no guests. She led me to the -place of honour, by the alcove, and seated herself in front of me, and -said: 'This is my home: do you think that you could be happy with me -here?' As she asked the question she smiled; and I thought that her -smile was more beautiful than anything else in the world; and out of -my heart I answered, 'Yes....' In the same moment I remembered the -story of Urashima; and I imagined that she might be the daughter of a -god; but I feared to ask her any questions.... Presently maid-servants -came in, bearing rice-wine and many dishes, which they set before -us. Then she who sat before me said: 'To-night shall be our bridal -night, because you like me; and this is our wedding-feast.' We pledged -ourselves to each other for the time of seven existences; and after the -banquet we were conducted to a bridal chamber, which had been prepared -for us.</p> - -<p>"It was yet early in the morning when she awoke me, and said: 'My dear -one, you are now indeed my husband. But for reasons which I cannot tell -you, and which you must not ask, it is necessary that our marriage -remain secret. To keep you here until daybreak would cost both of us -our lives. Therefore do not, I beg of you, feel displeased because I -must now send you back to the house of your lord. You can come to me -to-night again, and every night hereafter, at the same hour that we -first met. Wait always for me by the bridge; and you will not have to -wait long. But remember, above all things, that our marriage must be a -secret, and that, if you talk about it, we shall probably be separated -forever.'</p> - -<p>"I promised to obey her in all things,—remembering the fate of -Urashima,—and she conducted me through many rooms, all empty and -beautiful, to the entrance. There she again took me by the wrist, and -everything suddenly became dark, and I knew nothing more until I found -myself standing alone on the river bank, close to the Naka-no-hashi. -When I got back to the yashiki, the temple bells had not yet begun to -ring.</p> - -<p>"In the evening I went again to the bridge, at the hour she had named, -and I found her waiting for me. She took me with her, as before, into -the deep water, and into the wonderful place where we had passed our -bridal night. And every night, since then, I have met and parted from -her in the same way. To-night she will certainly be waiting for me, and -I would rather die than disappoint her: therefore I must go.... But let -me again entreat you, my friend, never to speak to any one about what I -have told you."</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>The elder <i>ashigaru</i> was surprised and alarmed by this story. He felt -that Chūgorō had told him the truth; and the truth suggested unpleasant -possibilities. Probably the whole experience was an illusion, and -an illusion produced by some evil power for a malevolent end. -Nevertheless, if really bewitched, the lad was rather to be pitied than -blamed; and any forcible interference would be likely to result in -mischief. So the <i>ashigaru</i> answered kindly:—</p> - -<p>"I shall never speak of what you have told me—never, at least, while -you remain alive and well. Go and meet the woman; but—beware of her! I -fear that you are being deceived by some wicked spirit."</p> - -<p>Chūgorō only smiled at the old man's warning, and hastened away. -Several hours later he reentered the yashiki, with a strangely dejected -look. "Did you meet her?" whispered his comrade. "No," replied Chūgorō; -"she was not there. For the first time, she was not there. I think that -she will never meet me again. I did wrong to tell you;—I was very -foolish to break my promise...." The other vainly tried to console -him. Chūgorō lay down, and spoke no word more. He was trembling from -head to foot, as if he had caught a chill.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>When the temple bells announced the hour of dawn, Chūgorō tried to get -up, and fell back senseless. He was evidently sick,—deathly sick. A -Chinese physician was summoned.</p> - -<p>"Why, the man has no blood!" exclaimed the doctor, after a careful -examination;—"there is nothing but water in his veins! It will be very -difficult to save him.... What maleficence is this?"</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Everything was done that could be done to save Chūgorō's life—but in -vain. He died as the sun went down. Then his comrade related the whole -story.</p> - -<p>"Ah! I might have suspected as much!" exclaimed the doctor.... "No -power could have saved him. He was not the first whom she destroyed."</p> - -<p>"Who is she?—or what is she?" the <i>ashigaru</i> asked,—"a Fox-Woman?"</p> - -<p>"No; she has been haunting this river from ancient time. She loves the -blood of the young...."</p> - -<p>"A Serpent-Woman?—A Dragon-Woman?"</p> - -<p>"No, no! If you were to see her under that bridge by daylight, she -would appear to you a very loathsome creature."</p> - -<p>"But what kind of a creature?"</p> - -<p>"Simply a Frog,—a great and ugly Frog!"</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_018.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_13" id="Footnote_1_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_13"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The <i>ashigaru</i> were the lowest class of retainers in -military service.</p></div> -<hr /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_020.jpg" width="600" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr /> -<h3><a id="A_Womans_Diary"></a>A Woman's Diary</h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_021.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>Recently there was put into my hands a somewhat remarkable -manuscript,—seventeen long narrow sheets of soft paper, pierced with a -silken string, and covered with fine Japanese characters. It was a kind -of diary, containing the history of a woman's married life, recorded by -herself. The writer was dead; and the diary had been found in a small -work-box (<i>haribako</i>) which had belonged to her.</p> - -<p>The friend who lent me the manuscript gave me leave to translate as -much of it as I might think worth publishing. I have gladly availed -myself of this unique opportunity to present in English the thoughts -and feelings, joys and sorrows, of a simple woman of the people—just -as she herself recorded them in the frankest possible way, never -dreaming that any foreign eye would read her humble and touching memoir.</p> - -<p>But out of respect to her gentle ghost, I have tried to use the -manuscript in such a way only as could not cause her the least pain -if she were yet in the body, and able to read me. Some parts I have -omitted, because I thought them sacred. Also I have left out a few -details relating to customs or to local beliefs that the Western -reader could scarcely understand, even with the aid of notes. And the -names, of course, have been changed. Otherwise I have followed the -text as closely as I could,—making no changes of phrase except when -the Japanese original could not be adequately interpreted by a literal -rendering.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>In addition to the facts stated or suggested in the diary itself, I -could learn but very little of the writer's personal history. She was -a woman of the poorest class; and from her own narrative it appears -that she remained unmarried until she was nearly thirty. A younger -sister had been married several years previously; and the diary does -not explain this departure from custom. A small photograph found with -the manuscript shows that its author never could have been called -good-looking; but the face has a certain pleasing expression of shy -gentleness. Her husband was a <i>kozukai</i>,<a name="FNanchor_1_14" id="FNanchor_1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_14" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> employed in one of the -great public offices, chiefly for night duty, at a salary of ten yen -per month. In order to help him to meet the expenses of housekeeping, -she made cigarettes for a tobacco dealer.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>The manuscript shows that she must have been at school for some years: -she could write the <i>kana</i> very nicely, but she had not learned -many Chinese characters,—so that her work resembles the work of a -schoolgirl. But it is written without mistakes, and skilfully. The -dialect is of Tōkyō,—the common speech of the city people,—full of -idiomatic expressions, but entirely free from coarseness.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Some one might naturally ask why this poor woman, so much occupied with -the constant struggle for mere existence, should have taken the pains -to write down what she probably never intended to be read. I would -remind such a questioner of the old Japanese teaching that literary -composition is the best medicine for sorrow; and I would remind him -also of the fact that, even among the poorest classes, poems are still -composed upon all occasions of joy or pain. The latter part of the -diary was written in lonely hours of illness; and I suppose that she -then wrote chiefly in order to keep her thoughts composed at a time -when solitude had become dangerous for her. A little before her death, -her mind gave way; and these final pages probably represent the last -brave struggle of the spirit against the hopeless weakness of the flesh.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>I found that the manuscript was inscribed, on the outside sheet, with -the title, <i>Mukashi-hanashi</i>: "A Story of Old Times." According to -circumstances, the word <i>mukashi</i> may signify either "long ago," in -reference to past centuries, or "old times," in reference to one's own -past life. The latter is the obvious meaning in the present case.</p> - -<p class="smcap" style="text-align: center;">Mukashi-Banashi</p> - -<p>On the evening of the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month of the -twenty-eighth year of Meiji [1895]? man of the opposite house came and -asked:—</p> - -<p>"As for the eldest daughter of this family, is it agreeable that she be -disposed of in marriage?"</p> - -<p>Then the answer was given:—</p> - -<p>"Even though the matter were agreeable [<i>to our wishes</i>], no -preparation for such an event has yet been made."<a name="FNanchor_2_15" id="FNanchor_2_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_15" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> - -<p>The man of the opposite house said:—</p> - -<p>"But as no preparation is needed in this case, will you not honourably -give her to the person for whom I speak? He is said to be a very steady -man; and he is thirty-eight years of age. As I thought your eldest girl -to be about twenty-six, I proposed her to him...."</p> - -<p>"No,—she is twenty-nine years old," was answered.</p> - -<p>"Ah!... That being the case, I must again speak to the other party; and -I shall honourably consult with you after I have seen him."</p> - -<p>So saying, the man went away.</p> - -<p>Next evening the man came again,—this time with the wife of -Okada-Shi<a name="FNanchor_3_16" id="FNanchor_3_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_16" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> [<i>a friend of the family</i>],—and said:—</p> - -<p>"The other party is satisfied;—so, if you are willing, the match can -be made."</p> - -<p>Father replied:—</p> - -<p>"As the two are, both of them, <i>shichi-séki-kin</i> ["seven-red-metal"],<a name="FNanchor_4_17" id="FNanchor_4_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_17" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> -they should have the same nature;—so I think that no harm can come -of it."</p> - -<p>The match-maker asked:—</p> - -<p>"Then how would it be to arrange for the <i>miai</i><a name="FNanchor_5_18" id="FNanchor_5_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_18" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> ["see-meeting"] -to-morrow?"</p> - -<p>Father said:—</p> - -<p>"I suppose that everything really depends upon the <i>En</i> -[<i>karma-relation formed in previous states of existence</i>].... -Well, then, I beg that you will honourably meet us to-morrow evening at -the house of Okada."</p> - -<p>Thus the betrothal promise was given on both sides.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>The person of the opposite house wanted me to go with him next evening -to Okada's; but I said that I wished to go with my mother only, as from -the time of taking such a first step one could not either retreat or -advance. When I went with mother to the house, we were welcomed in with -the words, "<i>Kochira ē</i>!" Then [my future husband and I] greeted each -other for the first time. But somehow I felt so much ashamed that I -could not look at him.</p> - -<p>Then Okada-Shi said to Namiki-Shi [<i>the proposed husband</i>]: "Now that -you have nobody to consult with at home, would it not be well for you -to snatch your luck where you find it, as the proverb says,—<i>'Zen wa -isogé'</i>?"</p> - -<p>The answer was made:—</p> - -<p>"As for me, I am well satisfied; but I do not know what the feeling may -be on the other side."</p> - -<p>"If it be honourably deigned to take me as it is honourably known that -I am ..."<a name="FNanchor_6_19" id="FNanchor_6_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_19" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> I said.</p> - -<p>The match-maker said:—</p> - -<p>"The matter being so, what would be a good day for the wedding?"</p> - -<p>[Namaki-Shi answered:—]</p> - -<p>"Though I can be at home to-morrow, perhaps the first day of the tenth -month would be a better day."</p> - -<p>But Okada-Shi at once said:—</p> - -<p>"As there is cause for anxiety about the house being unoccupied while -Namiki-Shi is absent [<i>on night-duty</i>], to-morrow would perhaps be the -better day—would it not?"</p> - -<p>Though at first that seemed to me much too soon, I presently remembered -that the next day was a <i>Taian-nichi</i><a name="FNanchor_7_20" id="FNanchor_7_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_20" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> [perfectly fortunate day]: so -I gave my consent; and we went home.</p> - -<p>When I told father, he was not pleased. He said that it was too soon, -and that a delay of at least three or four days ought to have been -allowed. Also he said that the direction [<i>hōgaku</i>]<a name="FNanchor_8_21" id="FNanchor_8_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_21" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> was not lucky, -and that other conditions were not favourable.</p> - -<p>I said:—</p> - -<p>"But I have already promised; and I cannot now ask to have the day -changed. Indeed it would be a great pity if a thief were to enter -the house in [his] absence. As for the matter of the direction being -unlucky, even though I should have to die on that account, I would -not complain; for I should die in my own husband's house.. .. And -to-morrow," I added, "I shall be too busy to call on Goto [<i>her -brother-in-law</i>]: so I must go there now." I went to Goto's; but, when -I saw him, I felt afraid to say exactly what I had come to say. I -suggested it only by telling him:—</p> - -<p>"To-morrow I have to go to a strange house."</p> - -<p>Goto immediately asked:—</p> - -<p>"As an honourable daughter-in-law [<i>bride</i>]?"</p> - -<p>After hesitating, I answered at last:—</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"What kind of a person?" Goto asked.</p> - -<p>I answered:—</p> - -<p>"If I had felt myself able to look at him long enough to form any -opinion, I would not have put mother to the trouble of going with me."</p> - -<p>"<i>Ané-San</i> [Elder Sister]!" he exclaimed,—"then what was the use of -going to see him at all?... But," he added, in a more pleasant tone, -"let me wish you luck."</p> - -<p>"Anyhow," I said, "to-morrow it will be."</p> - -<p>And I returned home.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Now the appointed day having come—the twenty-eighth day of the ninth -month—I had so much to do that I did not know how I should ever be -able to get ready. And as it had been raining for several days, the -roadway was very bad, which made matters worse for me—though, luckily, -no rain fell on that day. I had to buy some little things; and I could -not well ask mother to do anything for me,—much as I wished for her -help,—because her feet had become very weak by reason of her great -age. So I got up very early and went out alone, and did the best I -could: nevertheless, it was two o'clock in the afternoon before I got -everything ready.</p> - -<p>Then I had to go to the hair-dresser's to have my hair dressed, and to -go to the bath-house—all of which took time. And when I came back to -dress, I found that no message had yet been received from Namiki-Shi; -and I began to feel a little anxious. Just after we had finished -supper, the message came. I had scarcely time to say good-by to all: -then I went out,—leaving my home behind forever,—and walked with -mother to the house of Okada-Shi.</p> - -<p>There I had to part even from mother; and the wife of Okada-Shi taking -charge of me, I accompanied her to the house of Namaki-Shi in Funamachi.</p> - -<p>The wedding ceremony of the <i>sansan-kudo-no-sakazuki</i><a name="FNanchor_9_22" id="FNanchor_9_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_22" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> having been -performed without any difficulty, and the time of the <i>o-hiraki</i> -["honourable-blossoming"]<a name="FNanchor_10_23" id="FNanchor_10_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_23" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> having come more quickly than I had -expected, the guests all returned home.</p> - -<p>So we two were left, for the first time, each alone with the -other—sitting face to face: my heart beat wildly;<a name="FNanchor_11_24" id="FNanchor_11_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_24" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> and I felt -abashed in such a way as could not be expressed by means of ink and -paper.</p> - -<p>Indeed, what I felt can be imagined only by one who remembers -leaving her parents' home for the first time, to become a bride,—a -daughter-in-law in a strange house.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Afterward, at the hour of meals, I felt very much distressed -[<i>embarrassed</i>]....</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Two or three days later, the father of my husband's former wife [<i>who -was dead</i>] visited me, and said:—</p> - -<p>"Namiki-Shi is really a good man,—a moral, steady man; but as he is -also very particular about small matters and inclined to find fault, -you had better always be careful to try to please him."</p> - -<p>Now as I had been carefully watching my husband's ways from the -beginning, I knew that he was really a very strict man, and I resolved -so to conduct myself in all matters as never to cross his will.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>The fifth day of the tenth month was the day for our <i>satogaëri</i>,<a name="FNanchor_12_25" id="FNanchor_12_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_25" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> -and for the first time we went out together, calling at Goto's on the -way. After we left Goto's, the weather suddenly became bad, and it -began to rain. Then we borrowed a paper umbrella, which we used as -an <i>aigasa</i><a name="FNanchor_13_26" id="FNanchor_13_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_26" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>; and though I was very uneasy lest any of my former -neighbours should see us walking thus together, we luckily reached my -parents' house, and made our visit of duty, without any trouble at all. -While we were in the house, the rain fortunately stopped.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the ninth day of the same month I went with him to the theatre for -the first time. We visited the Engiza at Akasaka, and saw a performance -by the Yamaguchi company.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the eighth day of the eleventh month, we made a visit to -Asakusa-temple,<a name="FNanchor_14_27" id="FNanchor_14_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_27" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> and also went to the [Shinto temple of the] -O-Tori-Sama.</p> - -<p>—During this last month of the year I made new spring robes for my -husband and myself: then I learned for the first time how pleasant such -work was, and I felt very happy.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the twenty-fifth day we visited the temple of Ten-jin-Sama,<a name="FNanchor_15_28" id="FNanchor_15_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_28" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> and -walked about the grounds there.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the eleventh day of the first month of the twenty-ninth year [1896], -called at Okada's.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the twelfth day we paid a visit to Goto's, and had a pleasant time -there.</p> - -<p>On the ninth day of the second month we went to the Mizaki theatre to -see the play <i>Imosé-Yama</i>. On our way to the theatre we met Goto-Shi -unexpectedly; and he went with us. But unluckily it began to rain as we -were returning home, and we found the roads very muddy.</p> - -<p>On the twenty-second day of the same month [we had our] photograph -taken at Amano's.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the twenty-fifth day of the third month we went to the Haruki -theatre, and saw the play <i>Uguisuzuka</i>.—During the month it was -agreed that all of us [<i>kindred, friends, and parents</i>] should make up -a party, and enjoy our <i>hanami</i><a name="FNanchor_16_29" id="FNanchor_16_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_29" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> together; but this could not be -managed.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the tenth day of the fourth month, at nine o'clock in the morning, -we two went out for a walk. We first visited the Shōkonsha [<i>Shintō -shrine</i>] at Kudan: thence we walked to Uyéno [park]; and from there we -went to Asakusa, and visited the Kwannon temple; and we also prayed at -the Monzéki [<i>Higashi Hongwanji</i>]. Thence we had intended to go round -to Asakusa-Okuyama; but we thought that it would be better to have -dinner first—so we went to an eating-house. While we were dining, we -heard such a noise of shouting and screaming that we thought there was -a great quarrel outside. But the trouble was really caused by a fire -in one of the <i>misémono</i> ["shows"]. The fire spread quickly, even while -we were looking at it; and nearly all the show-buildings in that street -were burnt up.... We left the eating-house soon after, and walked about -the Asakusa grounds, looking at things.</p> - -<p>[<i>Here follows, in the original Ms., the text of a little poem, -composed by the writer herself</i>:—]</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -Imado no watashi nité,<br /> -Aimita koto mo naki hito ni,<br /> -Fushigi ni Miméguri-Inari,<br /> -Kaku mo fūfu ni naru nomika.<br /> -Hajimé no omoi ni hikikaëté,<br /> -Itsushika-kokoro mo Sumidagawa.<br /> -Tsugai hanarénu miyakodori,<br /> -Hito mo urayaméba wagami mo mata,<br /> -Sakimidarétaru doté no hana yori mo,<br /> -Hana ni mo mashita sono hito to<br /> -Shirahigé-Yashiro ni naru madé mo.<br /> -Soïtogétashi to inorinenji!<br /> -</p> - -<p>[<i>Freely translated.</i>]<a name="FNanchor_17_30" id="FNanchor_17_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_30" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> - -<p><i>Having been taken across the Imado-Ferry, I strangely met at [the -temple of] Miméguri-Inari with a person whom I had never seen before. -Because of this meeting our relation is now even more than the relation -of husband and wife. And my first anxious doubt, "For how long—?" -having passed away, my mind has become [clear] as the Sumida River. -Indeed we are now like a pair of Miyako-birds [always together]; and -I even think that I deserve to be envied. [To see the flowers we went -out; but] more than the pleasure of viewing a whole shore in blossom -is the pleasure that I now desire,—always to dwell with this person, -dearer to me than any flower, until we enter the Shirahigé-Yashiro. -That we may so remain together, I supplicate the Gods!</i></p> - -<p>... Then we crossed the Azuma bridge on our homeward way; and we -went by steamer to the kaichō [festival] of the temple of the -Soga-Kyōdai,<a name="FNanchor_18_31" id="FNanchor_18_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_31" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> and prayed that love and concord should continue -always between ourselves and our brothers and sisters. It was after -seven o'clock that evening when we got home.</p> - -<p>—On the twenty-fifth day of the same month we went to the -Rokumono-no-Yosé.<a name="FNanchor_19_32" id="FNanchor_19_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_32" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>On the second day of the fifth month we visited [the gardens at] Ōkubo -to see the azaleas in blossom. On the sixth day of the same month we -went to see a display of fireworks at the Shōkonsha.</p> - -<p>—So far we had never had any words between us nor any -disagreement;<a name="FNanchor_20_33" id="FNanchor_20_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_33" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> and I had ceased to feel bashful when we went out -visiting or sight-seeing. Now each of us seemed to think only of how -to please the other; and I felt sure that nothing would ever separate -us.... May our relation always be thus happy!</p> - -<p>The eighteenth day of the sixth month, being the festival of the -Suga-jinja,<a name="FNanchor_21_34" id="FNanchor_21_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_34" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> we were invited to my father's house. But as the -hair-dresser did not come to dress my hair at the proper time, I was -much annoyed. However, I went with O-Tori-San [<i>a younger sister</i>] to -father's. Presently O-Kō-San [<i>a married sister</i>] also came;—and we -had a pleasant time. In the evening Goto-Shi [<i>husband of O-Kō</i>] joined -us; and, last of all, came my husband, for whom I had been waiting with -anxious impatience. And there was one thing that made me very glad. -Often when he and I were to go out together, I had proposed that we -should put on the new spring robes which I had made; but he had as -often refused,—preferring to wear his old <i>kimono</i>. Now, however, he -wore the new one,—having felt obliged to put it on because of father's -invitation.... All of us being thus happily assembled, the party became -more and more enjoyable; and when we had at last to say good-by, we -only regretted the shortness of the summer night.</p> - -<p>These are the poems which we composed that evening:—</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Futa-fūfu</span><br /> -Sorōté iwō,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ujigami no</span><br /> -Matsuri mo kyō wa<br /> -Nigiwai ni kéri.<br /> -—<i>By Namiki (the husband)</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p><i>Two wedded couples having gone together to worship at the temple, the -parish-festival to-day has been merrier than ever before.</i></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ujigami no</span><br /> -Matsuri médétashi<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Futa-fūfu.—<i>Also by the husband</i>.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p><i>Fortunate indeed for two married couples has been the parish-temple -festival!</i></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ikutosé mo</span><br /> -Nigiyaka narishi,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ujigami no,</span><br /> -Matsuri ni sorō,<br /> -Kyō no uréshisa.—<i>By the wife.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p><i>Though for ever so many years it has always been a joyous occasion, -the festival of our parish-temple to-day is more pleasant than ever -before, because of our being thus happily assembled together.</i></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Matsuri toté,</span><br /> -Ikka atsumaru,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tanoshimi wa!</span><br /> -Géni Ujigami no<br /> -Mégumi narikéri.<br /> -—<i>By the wife.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p><i>To-day being a day of festival, and all of us meeting together,—what -a delight! Surely by the favour of the tutelar God [Ujigami] this has -come to pass.</i></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Futa-fūfu</span><br /> -Sorōté kyō no<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shitashimi mo,</span><br /> -Kami no mégumi zo<br /> -Médéta kari-kéri.—By the wife.<br /> -</p> - -<p>Two wedded pairs being to-day united in such friendship as -this,—certainly it has happened only through the favour of the Gods!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ujigami no</span><br /> -Mégumi mo fukaki<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fūfu-zuré.—<i>By the wife.</i></span><br /> -</p> - -<p><i>Deep indeed is the favour of the tutelar God to the two married -couples.</i></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Matsuri toté,</span><br /> -Tsui ni shitatéshi<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Iyō-gasuri,</span><br /> -Kyō tanoshimi ni<br /> -Kiru to omoëba.<br /> -—<i>By the wife.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p><i>This day being a day of festival, we decided to put on, for the joyful -meeting, the robes of Iyogasuri,<a name="FNanchor_22_35" id="FNanchor_22_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_35" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> that had been made alike.</i></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Omoïkya!</span><br /> -Hakarazu sōro<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Futa-fūfu;</span><br /> -Nani ni tatōën<br /> -Kyō no kichi-jitsu.<br /> -—<i>By Goto (the brother-in-law).</i><br /> -</p> - -<p><i>How could we have thought it! Here unexpectedly the two married -couples meet together. What can compare with the good fortune of this -day?</i></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Matsuri toté</span><br /> -Hajimété sorō<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Futa-fūfu,</span><br /> -Nochi no kaëri zo<br /> -Ima wa kanashiki.<br /> -—<i>By O-Kō, the married sister.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p><i>This day being a day of festival, here for the first time two wedded -pairs have met. Already I find myself sorrowing at the thought that we -must separate again.</i></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -Furu-sato no<br /> -Matsuri ni sorō<br /> -Futa-fūfu:<br /> -Katarō ma saë<br /> -Natsu mo mijika yo!<br /> -—<i>By O-Kō.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p><i>At the old parental home, two married couples have met together in -holiday celebration. Alas! that the time of our happy converse should -be only one short summer night!</i></p> - -<p>On the fifth day of the seventh month, went to the Kanazawa-tei,<a name="FNanchor_23_36" id="FNanchor_23_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_36" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> -where Harimadayū was then reciting; and we heard him recite the jōruri -called Sanjūsangendō.</p> - -<p>On the first day of the eighth month we went to the [Buddhist] temple -of Asakusa [Kwannon] to pray,—that day being the first anniversary -[<i>isshūki</i>] of the death of my husband's former wife. Afterward we -went to an eel-house, near the Azuma bridge, for dinner; and while we -were there—just about the hour of noon—an earthquake took place. -Being close to the river, the house rocked very much; and I was greatly -frightened.</p> - -<p>—Remembering that when we went to Asakusa before, in the time of -cherry blossoms, we had seen a big fire, this earthquake made me feel -anxious;—I wondered whether lightning would come next.<a name="FNanchor_24_37" id="FNanchor_24_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_37" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> - -<p>About two o'clock we left the eating-house, and went to the Asakusa -park. From there we went by street-car to Kanda; and we stopped awhile -at a cool place in Kanda, to rest ourselves. On our way home we called -at father's, and it was after nine o'clock when we got back.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>The fifteenth day of the same month was the festival of the -Hachiman-jinja<a name="FNanchor_25_38" id="FNanchor_25_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_38" class="fnanchor">[25]</a>; and Goto, my sister, and the younger sister of -Goto came to the house. I had hoped that we could all go to the temple -together; but that morning my husband had taken a little too much -wine,—so we had to go without him. After worshipping at the temple, we -went to Goto's house; and I stopped there awhile before returning home.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>In the ninth month, on the occasion of the Higan<a name="FNanchor_26_39" id="FNanchor_26_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_39" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> festival, I went -alone to the [Buddhist] temple to pray.</p> - -<p>On the twenty-first day of the tenth month, O-Taka-San [<i>probably a -relative</i>] came from Shidzuoka. I wanted to take her to the theatre -the next day; but she was obliged to leave Tōkyō early in the morning. -However, my husband and I went to the Ryūsei theatre on the following -evening; and we saw the play called <i>Matsumaë Bidan Teichū-Kagami.</i><a name="FNanchor_27_40" id="FNanchor_27_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_40" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> - -<hr /> - -<p>On the twenty-second day of the sixth month I began to sew a kimono -which father had asked me to make for him; but I felt ill, and could -not do much. However, I was able to finish the work on the first day of -the new year [1897].</p> - -<p>... Now we were very happy because of the child that was to be born. -And I thought how proud and glad my parents would be at having a -grandchild for the first time.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p>On the tenth day of the fifth month I went out with mother to worship -Shiogama-Sama,<a name="FNanchor_28_41" id="FNanchor_28_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_41" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> and also to visit Sengakuji. There we saw the tombs -of the Shijin-shichi Shi [Forty-seven Rōnin], and many relics of their -history. We returned by railroad, taking the train from Shinagawa to -Shinjiku. At Shiochō-Sanchōmé I parted from mother, and I got home by -six o'clock.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p>On the eighth day of the sixth month, at four o'clock in the afternoon, -a boy was born. Both mother and child appeared to be as well as could -be wished; and the child much resembled my husband; and its eyes were -large and black.... But I must say that it was a very small child; -for, though it ought to have been born in the eighth month, it was born -indeed in the sixth.... At seven o'clock in the evening of the same -day, when the time came to give the child some medicine, we saw, by the -light of the lamp, that he was looking all about, with his big eyes -wide open. During that night the child slept in my mother's bosom. As -we had been told that he must be kept very warm, because he was only a -seven-months' child, it was decided that he should be kept in the bosom -by day as well as by night.</p> - -<p>Next day—the ninth day of the sixth month—at half-past six o'clock in -the afternoon, he suddenly died....</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>—"<i>Brief is the time of pleasure, and quickly turns to pain; and -whatsoever is born must necessarily die</i>"<a name="FNanchor_29_42" id="FNanchor_29_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_42" class="fnanchor">[29]</a>;—that, indeed, is a true -saying about this world.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Only for one day to be called a mother!—to have a child born only to -see it die!... Surely, I thought, if a child must die within two days -after birth, it were better that it should never be born.</p> - -<p>From the twelfth to the sixth month I had been so ill!—then at -last I had obtained some ease, and joy at the birth of a son; and I -had received so many congratulations about my good fortune;—and, -nevertheless, he was dead!... Indeed, I suffered great grief.</p> - -<p>On the tenth day of the sixth month the funeral took place, at the -temple called Senpukuji, in Ōkubo, and a small tomb was erected.</p> - -<p>The poems composed at that time<a name="FNanchor_30_43" id="FNanchor_30_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_43" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> were the following:—</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Omoïkya!</span><br /> -Mi ni saë kaënu<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nadéshiko ni,</span><br /> -Wakaréshi sodé no<br /> -Tsuyu no tamoto wo!<br /> -</p> - -<p><i>If I could, only have known! Ah, this parting with the flower,<a name="FNanchor_31_44" id="FNanchor_31_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_44" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> for -which I would so gladly have given my own life, has left my sleeves wet -with the dew!</i></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Samidaré ya!</span><br /> -Shimérigachi naru<br /> -Sodé no tamoto wo.<br /> -</p> - -<p><i>Oh! the month of rain!<a name="FNanchor_32_45" id="FNanchor_32_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_45" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> All things become damp;—the ends of my -sleeves are wet.</i></p> - -<p>Some little time afterward, people told me that if I planted the -<i>sotoba</i><a name="FNanchor_33_46" id="FNanchor_33_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_46" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> upside down, another misfortune of this kind would not -come to pass. I had a great many sorrowful doubts about doing such a -thing; but at last, on the ninth day of the eighth month, I had the -<i>sotoba</i> reversed....</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the eighth day of the ninth month we went to the Akasaka theatre.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the eighteenth day of the tenth month I went by myself to the Haruki -theatre in Hongō, to see the play of <i>Ōkubo Hikozaëmon</i>.<a name="FNanchor_34_47" id="FNanchor_34_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_47" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> There, -having carelessly lost my sandal-ticket [<i>gésoku-fuda</i>], I had to -remain until after everybody else had left. Then I was at last able to -get my sandals, and to go home; but the night was so black that I felt -very lonesome on the way.</p> - -<p>On the day of the <i>Sekku</i>,<a name="FNanchor_35_48" id="FNanchor_35_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_48" class="fnanchor">[35]</a>in the first month [1898], I was talking -with Hori's aunt and the wife of our friend Uchimi, when I suddenly -felt a violent pain in my breast, and, being frightened, I tried to -reach a talisman (<i>o-mamori</i>) of Suitengū,<a name="FNanchor_36_49" id="FNanchor_36_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_49" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> which was lying upon the -wardrobe. But in the same moment I fell senseless. Under kind treatment -I soon came to myself again; but I was ill for a long time after.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p>The tenth day of the fourth month being the holiday -<i>Sanjiu-nen-Sai</i>,<a name="FNanchor_37_50" id="FNanchor_37_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_50" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> we arranged to meet at father's. I was to go -there first with Jiunosuké [<i>perhaps a relative</i>], and there wait for -my husband, who had to go to the office that morning for a little -while. He met us at father's house about half-past eight: then the -three of us went out together to look at the streets. We passed through -Kōjimachi to Nakatamachi, and went by way of the Sakurada-Mon to the -Hibiya-Metsuké, and thence from Ginzadōri by way of the Mégané-Bashi -to Uyéno. After looking at things there, we again went to the -Mégané-Bashi; but then I felt so tired that I proposed to return, and -my husband agreed, as he also was very tired. But Jiunosuké said: "As -I do not want to miss this chance to see the Daimyō-procession,<a name="FNanchor_38_51" id="FNanchor_38_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_51" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> I -must go on to Ginza." So there we said good-by to him, and we went to -a little eating-house [<i>tempura-ya</i>], where we were served with fried -fish; and, as luck would have it, we got a good chance to see the -Daimyō-procession from that very house. We did not get back home that -evening until half-past six o'clock.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>From the middle of the fourth month I had much sorrow on account of a -matter relating to my sister Tori [<i>the matter is not mentioned</i>].</p> - -<hr /> - -<p>On the nineteenth day of the eighth month of the thirty-first year of -Meiji [1898] my second child was born, almost painlessly,—a girl; and -we named her Hatsu. We invited to the <i>shichiya</i><a name="FNanchor_39_52" id="FNanchor_39_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_52" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> all those who had -helped us at the time of the child's birth.</p> - -<p>—Mother afterwards remained with me for a couple of days; but she -was then obliged to leave me, because my sister Kō was suffering from -severe pains in the chest. Fortunately my husband had his regular -vacation about the same time; and he helped me all he could,—even in -regard to washing and other matters; but I was often greatly troubled -because I had no woman with me....</p> - -<p>When my husband's vacation was over, mother came often, but only while -my husband was away. The twenty-one days [<i>the period of danger</i>] thus -passed; but mother and child continued well.</p> - -<p>—Up to the time of one hundred days after my daughter's birth, I -was constantly anxious about her, because she often seemed to have a -difficulty in breathing. But that passed off at last, and she appeared -to be getting strong.</p> - -<p>Still, we were unhappy about one matter,—a deformity: Hatsu had been -born with a double thumb on one hand. For a long time we could not make -up our minds to take her to a hospital, in order to have an operation -performed. But at last a woman living near our house told us of a very -skilful surgeon in [the quarter of] Shinjiku; and we decided to go to -him. My husband held the child on his lap during the operation. I could -not bear to see the operation; and I waited in the next room, my heart -full of pain and fear, wondering how the matter would end. But [when -all was over] the little one did not appear to suffer any pain; and she -took the breast as usual a few minutes after. So the matter ended more -fortunately than I had thought possible.</p> - -<p>At home she continued to take her milk as before, and seemed as if -nothing had been done to her little body. But as she was so very young -we were afraid that the operation might in some way cause her to be -sick. By way of precaution, I went with her to the hospital every day -for about three weeks; but she showed no sign of sickness.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the third day of the third month of the thirty-second year [1899], -on the occasion of the <i>hatsu-sekku</i>,<a name="FNanchor_40_53" id="FNanchor_40_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_53" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> we received presents of -<i>Dairi</i> and of <i>hina</i>, both from father's house and from Goto's,—also -the customary gifts of congratulation: a <i>tansu</i> [chest of drawers], -a <i>kyōdai</i> [mirror-stand], and a <i>haribako</i> [work-box: lit. -"needle-box"]<a name="FNanchor_41_54" id="FNanchor_41_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_54" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> We ourselves on the same occasion bought for her -a <i>chadai</i> [teacup stand], a <i>zen</i> [lacquered tray], and some other -little things. Both Goto and Jiunosuké came to see us on that day; and -we had a very happy gathering.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the third day of the fourth month we visited the temple Ana-Hachiman -[<i>Shintō shrine in the district of Waséda</i>] to pray for the child's -health....</p> - -<p>On the twenty-ninth day of the fourth month Hatsu appeared to be -unwell: so I wanted to have her examined by a doctor.</p> - -<p>A doctor promised to come the same morning, but he did not come, and -I waited for him in vain all that day. Next day again I waited, but -he did not come. Toward evening Hatsu became worse, and seemed to be -suffering great pain in her breast, and I resolved to take her to a -doctor early next morning. All through that night I was very uneasy -about her, but at daybreak she seemed to be better. So I went out -alone, taking her on my back, and walked to the office of a doctor in -Akasaka. But when I asked to have the child examined, I was told that I -must wait, as it was not yet the regular time for seeing patients.</p> - -<p>While I was waiting, the child began to cry worse than ever before; -she would not take the breast, and I could do nothing to soothe her, -either by walking or resting, so that I was greatly troubled. At last -the doctor came, and began to examine her; and in the same moment I -noticed that her crying grew feebler, and that her lips were becoming -paler and paler. Then, as I could not remain silent, seeing her thus, I -had to ask, "How is her condition?" "She cannot live until evening," he -answered. "But could you not give her medicine?" I asked. "If she could -drink it," he replied.</p> - -<p>I wanted to go back home at once, and send word to my husband and to -my father's house; but the shock had been too much for me—all my -strength suddenly left me. Fortunately a kind old woman came to my aid, -and carried my umbrella and other things, and helped me to get into a -jinrikisha, so that I was able to return home by jinrikisha. Then I -sent a man to tell my husband and my father. Mita's wife came to help -me; and with her assistance everything possible was done to help the -child.... Still my husband did not come back. But all our pain and -trouble was in vain.</p> - -<p>So, on the second day of the fifth month of the thirty-second year, my -child set out on her journey to the <i>Jūmanokudō</i><a name="FNanchor_42_55" id="FNanchor_42_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_55" class="fnanchor">[42]</a>—never to return to -this world.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>And we, her father and mother, were yet living—though we had caused -her death by neglecting to have her treated by a skilled doctor! This -thought made us both sorrow greatly; and we often reproached ourselves -in vain. But the day after her death the doctor said to us: "Even if -that disease had been treated from the beginning by the best possible -means, your child could not have lived more than about a week. If -she had been ten or eleven years old, she might possibly have been -saved by an operation; but in this case no operation could have been -attempted—the child was too young." Then he explained to us that the -child had died from a <i>jinzōen</i>.<a name="FNanchor_43_56" id="FNanchor_43_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_56" class="fnanchor">[43]</a>...</p> - -<p>Thus all the hopes that we had, and all the pains that we took in -caring for her, and all the pleasure of watching her grow during those -nine months,—all were in vain!</p> - -<p>But we two were at last able to find some ease from our sorrow by -reflecting that our relation to this child, from the time of some -former life, must have been very slight and weak.<a name="FNanchor_44_57" id="FNanchor_44_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_57" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>In the loneliness of that weary time, I tried to express my heart by -writing some verses after the manner of the story of Miyagino and -Shinobu in the <i>gidayū-bon</i><a name="FNanchor_45_58" id="FNanchor_45_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_58" class="fnanchor">[45]</a>:—</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -Koré, kono uchi é enzukishi wa,<br /> -Omoi kaëséba itsutosé maë;<br /> -Kondo mōkéshi wa onago no ko,<br /> -Kawaii mono toté sodatsuru ka to;—<br /> -</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -Waga mi no nari wa uchi-wasuré,<br /> -Sodatéshi koto mo, nasaké nai.<br /> -Kōshita koto to wa tsuyushirazu,<br /> -Kono Hatsu wa buji ni sodatsuru ka.<br /> -Shubi yō seijin shita naraba,<br /> -Yagaté muko wo tori<br /> -Tanoshimashō dōshité to.<br /> -Monomi yusan wo tashinandé,<br /> -Wagako daiji to,<br /> -Otto no koto mo, Hatsu no koto mo,<br /> -Koïshi natsukashi omō no wo;<br /> -—Tanoshimi-kurashita kai mo no.<br /> -Oyako ni narishi wa uréshii ga,<br /> -Sakidatsu koto wo miru haha no<br /> -Kokoro mo suishité tamoi no to!<br /> -<br /> -—Té wo tori-kawasu fūfu ga nagéki,<br /> -Nagéki wo tachi-giku mo,<br /> -Morai nakishité omotéguchi<br /> -Shōji mo nururu bakari nari.<br /> -</p> - -<p><i>Here in this house it was that I married him;—well I remember the -day—five years ago. Here was born the girl-baby,—the loved one whom -we hoped to rear. Caring then no longer for my person [,—heedless -of how I dressed when I went out],—thinking only of how to bring -her up,—I lived. How pitiless [this doom of mine]! Never had I even -dreamed that such a thing could befall me: my only thoughts were as -to how my Hatsu could best be reared. When she grows up, I thought, -soon we shall find her a good husband, to make her life happy. So, -never going out for pleasure-seeking, I studied only how to care for my -little one,—how to love and to cherish my husband and my Hatsu. Vain -now, alas! this hoped-for joy of living only for her sake.. .. Once -having known the delight of the relation of mother and child, deign to -think of the heart of the mother who sees her child die before her!</i> -<a name="FNanchor_46_59" id="FNanchor_46_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_59" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>[<i>All of the foregoing is addressed to the spirit of the dead -child.</i>—Translator.]</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p><i>Now, while husband and wife, each clasping the hands of the other, -make lament together, if any one pausing at the entrance should listen -to their sorrow, surely the paper window would be moistened by tears -from without.</i></p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>About the time of Hatsu's death, the law concerning funerals was -changed for the better; and permission was given for the burning of -corpses in Ōkubo. So I asked Namiki to have the body sent to the temple -of which his family had always been parishioners,—providing that -there should be no [legal] difficulty about the matter. Accordingly -the funeral took place at Monjōji,—a temple belonging to the Asakusa -branch of the Hongwanji Shin-shū; and the ashes were there interred.</p> - -<p>—My sister Kō was sick in bed with a rather bad cold at the time of -Hatsu's death; but she visited us very soon after the news had reached -her. And she called again a few days later to tell us that she had -become almost well, and that we had no more cause to feel anxious about -her.</p> - -<p>—As for myself, I felt a dread of going out anywhere; and I did not -leave the house for a whole month. But as custom does not allow one to -remain always indoors, I had to go out at last; and I made the required -visit to father's and to my sister's.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p>—Having become quite ill, I hoped that mother would be able to help -me. But Kō was again sick, and Yoshi [<i>a younger sister here mentioned -for the first time</i>] and mother had both to attend her constantly: -so I could get no aid from father's house. There was no one to help -me except some of my female neighbours, who attended me out of pure -kindness, when they could spare the time. At last I got Hori-Shi to -engage a good old woman to assist me; and under her kind care I began -to get well. About the beginning of the eighth month I felt much -stronger....</p> - -<p>On the fourth day of the ninth month my sister Kō died of consumption.</p> - -<p>—It had been agreed beforehand that if an unexpected matter<a name="FNanchor_47_60" id="FNanchor_47_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_60" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> came -to pass, my younger sister Yoshi should be received in the place of -Kō. As Goto-Shi found it inconvenient to live altogether alone, the -marriage took place on the eleventh day of the same month; and the -usual congratulations were offered.</p> - -<p>On the last day of the same month Okada-Shi suddenly died.</p> - -<p>We found ourselves greatly troubled [<i>pecuniarily embarrassed</i>] by the -expenses that all these events caused us.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>—When I first heard that Yoshi had been received so soon after the -death of Kō, I was greatly displeased. But I kept my feelings hidden, -and I spoke to the man as before.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>In the eleventh month Goto went alone to Sapporo. On the second day of -the second month, thirty-third year of Meiji [1900], Goto-Shi returned -to Tōkyō; and on the fourteenth day of the same month he went away -again to the Hokkaidō [<i>Yezo</i>], taking Yoshi with him.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p>On the twentieth day of the second month, at six o'clock in the -morning, my third child—a boy—was born. Both mother and child were -well.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>—We had expected a girl, but it was a boy that was born; so, when my -husband came back from his work, he was greatly surprised and pleased -to find that he had a boy.</p> - -<p>—But the child was not well able to take the breast: so we had to -nourish him by means of a feeding-bottle.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>On the seventh day after the boy's birth, we partly shaved his head. -And in the evening we had the <i>shichiya</i> [seventh-day festival]—but, -this time, all by ourselves.</p> - -<p>—My husband had caught a bad cold some time before; and he could not -go to work next morning, as he was coughing badly. So he remained in -the house.</p> - -<p>Early in the morning the child had taken his milk as usual. -But, about ten o'clock in the forenoon, he seemed to be suffering great -pain in his breast; and he began to moan so strangely that we sent -a man for a doctor. Unfortunately the doctor that we asked to come -was out of town; and we were told that he would not come back before -night. Therefore, we thought that it would be better to send at once -for another doctor; and we sent for one. He said that he would come -in the evening. But, about two o'clock in the afternoon, the child's -sickness suddenly became worse; and a little before three o'clock—the -twenty-seventh day of the second month—<i>aënaku</i>!<a name="FNanchor_48_61" id="FNanchor_48_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_61" class="fnanchor">[48]</a>—my child was -dead, having lived for only eight days....</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>—I thought to myself that, even if this new misfortune did not cause -my husband to feel an aversion for me, thus having to part with all my -children, one after another, must be the punishment of some wrong done -in the time of a former life. And, so thinking, I knew that my sleeves -would never again become dry,—that the rain [<i>of tears</i>] would never -cease,—that never again in this world would the sky grow clear for me.</p> - -<p>And more and more I wondered whether my husband's feelings would not -change for the worse, by reason of his having to meet such trouble, -over and over again, on my account. I felt anxious about his heart, -because of what already was in my own.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, he only repeated the words, <i>Temméï itashikata koré -naku</i>: "From the decrees of Heaven there is no escape."</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>—I thought that I should be better able to visit the tomb of my child -if he were buried in some temple near us. So the funeral took place -at the temple called Sempu-kuji in Ōkubo; and the ashes were buried -there....</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tanoshimi mo</span><br /> -Samété hakanashi<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Haru no yumé!<a name="FNanchor_49_62" id="FNanchor_49_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_62" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></span><br /> -</p> - -<p>[<i>Translation.</i>]</p> - -<p>—<i>All the delight having perished, hopeless I remain: it was only a -dream of Spring!</i><a name="FNanchor_50_63" id="FNanchor_50_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_63" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> - -<p>[No date.]</p> - -<p>... I wonder whether it was because of the sorrow that I suffered—my -face and limbs became slightly swollen during the fortnight<a name="FNanchor_51_64" id="FNanchor_51_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_64" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> after -my boy's death.—It was nothing very serious, after all, and it soon -went away.... Now the period of twenty-one days [the period of danger] -is past....</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Here the poor mother's diary ends. The closing statement regarding the -time of twenty-one days from the birth of her child leaves it probable -that these last lines were written on the thirteenth or fourteenth day -of the third month. She died on the twenty-eighth of the same month.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>I doubt if any one not really familiar with the life of Japan can fully -understand this simple history. But to imagine the merely material -conditions of the existence here recorded should not be difficult:—the -couple occupying a tiny house of two rooms—one room of six mats and -one of three;—the husband earning barely per month;—the wife sewing, -washing, cooking (outside the house, of course);—no comfort of fire, -even during the period of greatest cold. I estimate that the pair -must have lived at an average cost of about seven pence a day, not -including house-rent. Their pleasures were indeed very cheap: a payment -of twopence admitted them to theatres or to <i>gidayū</i>-recitations; and -their sight-seeing was done on foot. Yet even these diversions were -luxuries for them. Expenses represented by the necessary purchase of -clothing, or by the obligation of making presents to kindred upon the -occasion of a marriage or a birth or a death, could only have been met -by heroic economy. Now it is true that thousands of poor folk in Tōkyō -live still more cheaply than this,—live upon a much smaller income -than £1 per month,—and nevertheless remain always clean, neat, and -cheerful. But only a very strong woman can easily bear and bring up -children under such conditions,—conditions much more hazardous than -those of the harder but healthier peasant-life of the interior. And, as -might be supposed, the weakly fail and perish in multitude.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Readers of the diary may have wondered at the eagerness shown by -so shy and gentle a woman to become thus suddenly the wife of a -total stranger, about whose character she knew absolutely nothing. -A majority of Japanese marriages, indeed, are arranged for in the -matter-of-fact way here described, and with the aid of a <i>nakōdo</i>; -but the circumstances, in this particular case, were exceptionally -discomforting. The explanation is pathetically simple. All good girls -are expected to marry; and to remain unmarried after a certain age is a -shame and a reproach. The dread of such reproach, doubtless, impelled -the writer of the diary to snatch at the first chance of fulfilling her -natural destiny. She was already twenty-nine years old;—another such -chance might never have offered itself.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>To me the chief significance of this humble confession of struggle -and failure is not in the utterance of anything exceptional, but -in the expression of something as common to Japanese life as blue -air and sunshine. The brave resolve of the woman to win affection -by docility and by faultless performance of duty, her gratitude for -every small kindness, her childlike piety, her supreme unselfishness, -her Buddhist interpretation of suffering as the penalty for some -fault committed in a previous life, her attempts to write poetry -when her heart was breaking,—all this, indeed, I find touching, and -more than touching. But I do not find it exceptional. The traits -revealed are typical,—typical of the moral nature of the woman of -the people. Perhaps there are not many Japanese women of the same -humble class who could express their personal joy and pain in a -record at once so artless and pathetic; but there are millions of -such women inheriting—from ages and ages of unquestioning faith—a -like conception of life as duty, and an equal capacity of unselfish -attachment.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_021.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_14" id="Footnote_1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_14"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> A <i>kozukai</i> is a man-servant chiefly employed as -doorkeeper and messenger. The term is rendered better by the French -word <i>concierge</i> than by our English word "porter"; but neither -expression exactly meets the Japanese meaning.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2_15" id="Footnote_2_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_15"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The reader must understand that "the man of the opposite -house" is acting as <i>nakōdo</i>, or match-maker, in the interest of a -widower who wishes to remarry. By the statement, "no preparation -has been made," the hither means that he is unable to provide for -his daughter's marriage, and cannot furnish her with a bridal -outfit,—clothing, household furniture, etc.,—as required by custom. -The reply that "no preparation is needed" signifies that the proposed -husband is willing to take the girl without any marriage gifts.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3_16" id="Footnote_3_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_16"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Throughout this Ms., except in one instance, the more -respectful form <i>Sama</i> never occurs after a masculine name, the popular -form <i>Shi</i> being used even after the names of kindred.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4_17" id="Footnote_4_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_17"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The father has evidently been consulting a fortune-telling -book, such as the <i>San-zé-sō</i>, or a professional diviner. The allusion -to the astrologically determined natures, or temperaments, of the pair -could scarcely be otherwise explained.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_5_18" id="Footnote_5_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_18"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Miai</i> is a term used to signify a meeting arranged in -order to enable the parties affianced to see each other before the -wedding-day.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_6_19" id="Footnote_6_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_19"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Meaning: "I am ready to become your wife, if you are -willing to take me as you have been informed that I am,—a poor girl -without money or clothes."</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_7_20" id="Footnote_7_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_20"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Lucky and unlucky days were named and symbolized as -follows, according to the old Japanese astrological system:— -</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 30px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_note01_01.jpg" width="30" alt="" /> -</div> -<p>Senkatsu:—forenoon good; afternoon bad.</p> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 30px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_note01_02.jpg" width="30" alt="" /> -</div> -<p>Tomobiki:—forenoon good; afternoon good at the beginning and the end, -but bad in the middle.</p> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 30px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_note01_03.jpg" width="30" alt="" /> -</div> -<p>Senpu;—forenoon bad; afternoon good.</p> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 30px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_note01_04.jpg" width="30" alt="" /></div> -<p>Butsumetsu:—wholly unlucky.</p> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 30px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_note01_05.jpg" width="30" alt="" /> -</div> -<p>Taian;—altogether good.</p> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 30px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_note01_06.jpg" width="30" alt="" /> -</div> -<p>Shakō:—all unlucky, except at noon.</p> -</div> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_8_21" id="Footnote_8_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_21"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> This statement also implies that a professional diviner -has been consulted. The reference to the direction, or <i>bōgaku</i>, can -be fully understood only by those conversant with the old Chinese -nature-philosophy.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_9_22" id="Footnote_9_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_22"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Lit. "thrice-three-nine-times-wine-cup."</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_10_23" id="Footnote_10_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_23"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> At a Japanese wedding it is customary to avoid the use -of any words to which an unlucky signification attaches, or of any -words suggesting misfortune in even an indirect way. The word <i>sumu</i>, -"to finish," or "to end"; the word <i>kaēru</i>, "to return," (suggesting -divorce), as well as many others, are forbidden at weddings. -Accordingly, the term <i>o-hiraki</i> has long been euphemistically -substituted for the term <i>oitoma</i> ("honourable leave-taking," i.e. -"farewell"), in the popular etiquette of wedding assemblies.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_11_24" id="Footnote_11_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_24"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> "I felt a tumultuous beating within my breast," would -perhaps be a closer rendering of the real sense; but it would sound -oddly artificial by comparison with the simple Japanese utterance: -"<i>Ato ni wa futari sashi-mukai to nari, muné uchi-sawagi; sono -bazukashisa bisthi ni tsukushi-gatashi.</i>"</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_12_25" id="Footnote_12_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_25"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> From <i>sato</i>, "the parental home," and <i>kaëri</i>, "to -return." The first visit of a bride to her parents, after marriage, is -thus called.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_13_26" id="Footnote_13_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_26"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Aigasa</i>, a fantastic term compounded from the verb -<i>au</i>, "to accord," "to harmonize," and the noun <i>kasa</i>, "an umbrella." -It signifies one umbrella used by two persons—especially lovers: an -umbrella-of-loving-accord. To understand the wife's anxiety about being -seen walking with her husband under the borrowed umbrella, the reader -must know that it is not yet considered decorous for wife and husband -even to walk side by side in public. A newly wedded pair, using a -single umbrella in this way, would be particularly liable to have jests -made at their expense—jests that might prove trying to the nerves of a -timid bride.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_14_27" id="Footnote_14_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_27"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> She means the great Buddhist temple of Kwannon,—the most -popular, and perhaps the most famous, Buddhist temple in Tokyo.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_15_28" id="Footnote_15_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_28"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> In the Ōkubo quarter. The shrine is shadowed by a fine -grove of trees.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_16_29" id="Footnote_16_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_29"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> That is to say, "It was agreed that we should all go -together to see the flowers." The word <i>hanami</i> ("flower-seeing") might -be given to any of the numerous flower-festivals of the year, according -to circumstances; but it here refers to the season of cherry blossoms. -Throughout this diary the dates are those of the old lunar calendar.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_17_30" id="Footnote_17_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_30"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> A literal rendering is almost impossible. There is -a ferry, called the Ferry of Imado, over the Sumidagawa; but the -reference here is really neither to the ferry nor to the ferryman, -but to the <i>nakōdo</i>, or match-maker, who arranged for the marriage. -<i>Miméguri-Inari</i> is the popular name of a famous temple of the God of -Rice, in Mukojima; but there is an untranslatable play here upon the -name, suggesting a lovers' meeting. The reference to the Sumidagawa -also contains a play upon the syllables <i>sumi</i>,—the verb "sumi" -signifying "to be clear." <i>Shirahigé-Yashiro</i> ("White-Hair Temple") -is the name of a real and very celebrated Shintō shrine in the city; -but the name is here used chiefly to express the hope that the union -may last into the period of hoary age. Besides these suggestions, we -may suppose that the poem contains allusions to the actual journey -made,—over the Sumidagawa by ferry, and thence to the various temples -named. From old time, poems of like meaning have been made about these -places; but the lines above given are certainly original, with the -obvious exception of a few phrases which have become current coin in -popular poetry.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_18_31" id="Footnote_18_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_31"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The Soga Brothers were famous heroes of the twelfth -century. The word <i>kaichō</i> signifies the religious festival during -which the principal image of a temple is exposed to view.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_19_32" id="Footnote_19_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_32"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Name of a public hall at which various kinds of -entertainments are given, more especially recitations by professional -story-tellers.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_20_33" id="Footnote_20_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_33"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Lit. "there never yet having been any waves nor even wind -between us." -</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_21_34" id="Footnote_21_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_34"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> The Shinto parish-temple, or more correctly, -district-temple of the Yotsuya quarter. Each quarter, or district, -of the city has its tutelar divinity, or Ujigami. Suga-jinja is the -Ujigami-temple of Yotsuya.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_22_35" id="Footnote_22_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_35"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Iyogasuri</i> is the name given to a kind of dark-blue -cotton-cloth, with a sprinkling of white in small patterns, -manufactured at Iyo, in Shikoku.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_23_36" id="Footnote_23_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_36"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> The Kanazawa-tei is a public hall in the Yotsuya quarter. -Harimadayū is the professional name of a celebrated chanter of the -dramatic recitations called <i>jōruri</i> and <i>gidayū</i>,—in which the -reciter, or chanter, mimes the voices and action of many different -characters.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_24_37" id="Footnote_24_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_37"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> She alludes to a popular saying of Buddhist -origin:—<i>Jishin, kwaji, kaminari, misoka, kikin, yamai no naki kuni é -yuku</i> ("Let us go to the Land where there is neither earthquake, nor -fire, nor lightning, nor any last day of the month, nor famine, nor -sickness").</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_25_38" id="Footnote_25_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_38"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>Ujigami</i> of the Ushigomé district.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_26_39" id="Footnote_26_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_39"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Festival of the "Further Shore" (that is to say, -Paradise). There are two great Buddhist festivals thus called,—the -first representing a period of seven days during the spring equinox; -the second, a period of seven days during the autumnal equinox.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_27_40" id="Footnote_27_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_40"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> This drama is founded upon the history of a famous rice -merchant named Matsumaëya Gorōbei.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_28_41" id="Footnote_28_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_41"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Shiogama-Daimyōjin, a Shinto deity, to whom women pray -for easy delivery in child-birth. Shrines of this divinity may be found -in almost every province of Japan.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_29_42" id="Footnote_29_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_42"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Uréshiki ma wa wazuka nité, mata kanashimi to henzuru; -umaréru mono wa kanarazu shizu.—A Buddhist text that has become a -Japanese proverb.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_30_43" id="Footnote_30_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_43"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Composed by the bereaved mother herself, as a discipline -against grief.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_31_44" id="Footnote_31_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_44"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Nadéshiko</i> literally means a pink; but in poetry the -word is commonly used in the meaning of "baby."</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_32_45" id="Footnote_32_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_45"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>Samidaré</i> is the name given to the old fifth month, or, -more strictly speaking, to a rainy period occurring in that month. -The verses are, of course, allusive, and their real meaning might be -rendered thus: "Oh! the season of grief! All things now seem sad: the -sleeves of my robe are moist with my tears!"</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_33_46" id="Footnote_33_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_46"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> The <i>sotoba</i> is a tall wooden lath, inscribed with -Buddhist texts, and planted above a grave. For a full account of the -<i>sotoba</i>, see the article entitled "The Literature of the Dead," in my -<i>Exotics and Retrospectives</i>, p. 102. I am not able to give any account -or explanation of the curious superstition here referred to; but it -is probably of the same class with the strange custom recorded in my -<i>Gleanings in Buddha-Fields</i>, p. 126.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_34_47" id="Footnote_34_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_47"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> It would be unfair to suppose that this visit to the -theatre was made only for pleasure; it was made rather in the hope of -forgetting pain, and probably by order of the husband. -</p> -<p> -Ōkubo Hikozaëmon was the favourite minister and adviser of the Shōgun -Iyem-itsu. Numberless stories of his sagacity and kindness are recorded -in popular literature; and in many dramas the notable incidents of his -official career are still represented.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_35_48" id="Footnote_35_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_48"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> There are five holidays thus named in every year. These -<i>go-sekku</i> are usually called, <i>Jinjitsu</i> (the 7th of the 1st month), -<i>Joki</i> (the 3d of the 3d month), <i>Tango</i> (the 5th of the 5th month), -<i>Tanabata</i> (the 7th of the 7th month), and <i>Chōyō</i> (the 9th of the 9th -month).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_36_49" id="Footnote_36_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_49"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> A divinity half-Buddhist, half-Shintō, in origin, but now -popularly considered Shintō. This god is especially worshipped as a -healer, and a protector against sickness. His principal temple in Tōkyō -is in the Nihonbashi district.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_37_50" id="Footnote_37_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_50"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> A festival in commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary -of the establishment of Tōkyō as the Imperial capital, instead of -Kyōtō.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_38_51" id="Footnote_38_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_51"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>Daimyō-no-g yōretsu</i>. On the festival mentioned there -was a pageant representing feudal princes travelling in state, -accompanied by their retainers and servants. The real armour, costumes, -and weapons of the period before Meiji were effectively displayed on -this occasion.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_39_52" id="Footnote_39_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_52"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> A congratulatory feast, held on the evening of the -seventh day after the birth of a child. Relatives and friends invited -usually make small presents to the baby.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_40_53" id="Footnote_40_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_53"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> The first annual Festival of Girls is thus called.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_41_54" id="Footnote_41_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_54"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> All the objects here mentioned are toys—toys appropriate -to the occasion. The <i>Dairi</i> are old-fashioned toy-figures, -representing an emperor and empress in ancient costume. <i>Hina</i> are -dolls.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_42_55" id="Footnote_42_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_55"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Another name for the Buddhist Paradise of the West,—the -heaven of Amida (Amitābha).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_43_56" id="Footnote_43_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_56"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Nephritis.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_44_57" id="Footnote_44_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_57"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Or, "very thin and loose,"—the Karma-relation being -emblematically spoken of as a bond or tie. She means, of course, that -the loss of the child was the inevitable consequence of some fault -committed in a previous state of existence.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_45_58" id="Footnote_45_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_58"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Gidayū-bon</i>, "the book of the <i>gidayū</i>." There are many -<i>gidayū</i> books. <i>Gidayū</i> is the name given to a kind of musical drama. -In the dramatic composition here referred to, the characters Miyagino -and Shinobu are sisters, who relate their sorrows to each other.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_46_59" id="Footnote_46_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_59"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> I.e. before she herself (the mother) dies;—there is a -colloquial phrase in the Japanese text. <i>Ko ga oya ni sakidatsu</i> is the -common expression: "the child goes before the parents,"—that is to -say, dies before the parents.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_47_60" id="Footnote_47_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_60"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> A euphemistic expression for death.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_48_61" id="Footnote_48_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_61"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Aënaku</i> is an adjective signifying, according to -circumstances, "feeble," or "transitory," or "sad." Its use here might -best be rendered by some such phrase as "Piteous to say!"</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_49_62" id="Footnote_49_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_62"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Her poem bears no date.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_50_63" id="Footnote_50_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_63"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> A necessarily free translation;—the lines might also -be read thus: "Having awakened, all the joy fleets and fades;—it was -only a dream of Spring." The verb <i>saméru</i>, very effectively used here, -allows of this double rendering; for it means either "to awake" or "to -fade." The adjective <i>hakanashi</i> also has a double meaning: according -to circumstances it may signify either "fleeting" (evanescent) or -"hopeless" (wretched).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_51_64" id="Footnote_51_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_64"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Lit. "the first two <i>nanuka</i>": one <i>nanuka</i> representing -a period of seven successive days from the date of death.</p></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="Heike-gani" id="Heike-gani">Heiké-gani</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_023.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>In various countries of which the peoples appear strange to us, by -reason of beliefs, ideas, customs, and arts having nothing in common -with our own, there can be found something in the nature of the -land—something in its flora or fauna—characterized by a corresponding -strangeness. Probably the relative queerness of the exotic nature in -such regions helped more or less to develop the apparent oddity of the -exotic mind. National differences of thought or feeling should not be -less evolutionally interpretable than the forms of vegetables or of -insects; and, in the mental evolution of a people, the influence of -environment upon imagination must be counted as a factor....</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>These reflections were induced by a box of crabs sent me from the -Province of Chōshū,—crabs possessing that very same quality of -grotesqueness which we are accustomed to think of as being peculiarly -Japanese. On the backs of these creatures there are bossings and -depressions that curiously simulate the shape of a human face,—a -distorted face,—a face modelled in relief as a Japanese craftsman -might have modelled it in some moment of artistic whim.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_024.jpg" width="400" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>Two varieties of such crabs—nicely dried and polished—are constantly -exposed for sale in the shops of Akamagaséki (better known to -foreigners by the name of Shimonoséki). They are caught along the -neighbouring stretch of coast called Dan-no-Ura, where the great -clan of the Heiké, or Taira, were exterminated in a naval battle, -seven centuries ago, by the rival clan of Genji, or Minamoto. Readers -of Japanese history will remember the story of the Imperial Nun, -Nii-no-Ama, who in the hour of that awful tragedy composed a poem, and -then leaped into the sea, with the child-emperor Antoku in her arms.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_025.jpg" width="400" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>Now the grotesque crabs of this coast are called Heiké-gani, or -"Heiké-crabs," because of a legend that the spirits of the drowned and -slaughtered warriors of the Heiké-clan assumed such shapes; and it is -said that the fury or the agony of the death-struggle can still be -discerned in the faces upon the backs of the crabs. But to feel the -romance of this legend you should be familiar with old pictures of the -fight of Dan-no-Ura,—old coloured prints of the armoured combatants, -with their grim battle-masks of iron and their great fierce eyes.</p> - -<p>The smaller variety of crab is known simply as a -"Heiké-crab,"—Heiké-gani. Each Heiké-gani is supposed to be animated -by the spirit of a common Heiké warrior only,—an ordinary samurai. But -the larger kind of crab is also termed Taishō-gani ("Chieftain-crab"), -or Tatsugashira ("Dragon-helmet"); and all Taishō-gani or Tatsugashira -are thought to be animated by ghosts of those great Heiké captains -who bore upon their helmets monsters unknown to Western heraldry, and -glittering horns, and dragons of gold.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 175px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_026.jpg" width="175" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>I got a Japanese friend to draw for me the two pictures of Heiké-gani -herewith reproduced; and I can vouch for their accuracy. But I told -him that I could not see anything resembling a helmet, either in his -drawing of the Tatsugashira, nor in the original figure upon the back -of the crab.</p> - -<p>"Can you see it?" I asked. "Why, yes,—somewhat like this," he -answered, making the following sketch:—</p> - -<p>"Well, I can make out part of the head-gear," I said;—"but that -outline of yours is not according to facts,—and that face is vapid as -the face of the Moon. Look at the nightmare on the back of the real -crab!..."</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_023.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="Fireflies" id="Fireflies">Fireflies</a></h3> - - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_028.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> - -<h4>I</h4> - -<p>I want to talk about Japanese fireflies, but not entomologically. -If you are interested, as you ought to be, in the scientific side -of the subject, you should seek enlightenment from a Japanese -professor of biology, now lecturing at the Imperial University of -Tōkyō. He signs himself "Mr. S. Watasé" (the "S" standing for the -personal name Shozaburo); and he has been a teacher as well as a -student of science in America, where a number of his lectures have -been published,<a name="FNanchor_1_65" id="FNanchor_1_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_65" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>—lectures upon animal phosphorescence, animal -electricity, the light-producing organs of insects and fishes, and -other wonderful topics of biology. He can tell you all that is -known concerning the morphology of fireflies, the physiology of -fireflies, the photometry of fireflies, the chemistry of their -luminous substance, the spectroscopic analysis of their light, and the -significance of that light in terms of ether-vibration. By experiment -he can show you that, under normal conditions of temperature and -environment, the number of light-pulsations produced by one species -of Japanese firefly averages twenty-six per minute; and that the -rate suddenly rises to sixty-three per minute, if the insect be -frightened by seizure. Also he can prove to you that another and -smaller kind of firefly, when taken in the hand, will increase the -number of its light-pulsings to upward of two hundred per minute. -He suggests that the light may be of some protective value to the -insect,—like the "warning colours" of sundry nauseous caterpillars -and butterflies,—because the firefly has a very bitter taste, and -birds appear to find it unpalatable. (Frogs, he has observed, do not -mind the bad taste: they fill their cold bellies with fireflies till -the light shines through them, much as the light of a candle-flame -will glow through a porcelain jar.) But whether of protective value or -not, the tiny dynamo would seem to be used in a variety of ways,—as -a phototelegraph, for example. As other insects converse by sound or -by touch, the firefly utters its emotion in luminous pulsings: its -speech is a language of light.... I am only giving you some hints about -the character of the professor's lectures, which are never merely -technical. And for the best part of this non-scientific essay of -mine,—especially that concerning the capture and the sale of fireflies -in Japan,—I am indebted to some delightful lectures which he delivered -last year to Japanese audiences in Tōkyō.</p> - - -<h4>II</h4> - -<p>As written to-day, the Japanese name of the firefly (<i>hotaru</i>) is -ideographically composed with the sign for fire, doubled, above the -sign for insect. The real origin of the word is nevertheless doubtful; -and various etymologies have been suggested. Some scholars think that -the appellation anciently signified "the First-born of Fire"; while -others believe that it was first composed with syllables meaning "star" -and "drop." The more poetical of the proposed derivations, I am sorry -to say, are considered the least probable. But whatever may have been -the primal meaning of the word <i>hotaru</i>, there can be no doubt as to -the romantic quality of certain folk-names still given to the insect. -Two species of firefly have a wide distribution in Japan; and these -have been popularly named <i>Genji-botaru</i> and <i>Heiké-botaru</i>: that is -to say, "the Minamoto-Firefly" and "the Taira-Firefly." A legend avers -that these fireflies are the ghosts of the old Minamoto and Taira -warriors; that, even in their insect shapes, they remember the awful -clan-struggle of the twelfth century; and that once every year, on the -night of the twentieth day of the fourth month,<a name="FNanchor_2_66" id="FNanchor_2_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_66" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> they fight a great -battle on the Uji River. Therefore, on that night all caged fireflies -should be set free, in order that they may be able to take part in the -contest.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>The <i>Genji-botaru</i> is the largest of Japanese fireflies,—the largest -species, at least, in Japan proper, not including the Loochoo Islands. -It is found in almost every part of the country from Kyūshū to Ōshū. -The <i>Heiké-botaru</i> ranges further north, being especially common in -Yezo; but it is found also in the central and southern provinces. It -is smaller than the Genji, and emits a feebler light. The fireflies -commonly sold by insect-dealers in Tōkyō, Ōsaka, Kyoto, and other -cities, are of the larger species. Japanese observers have described -the light of both insects as "tea-coloured" (<i>cha-iro</i>),—the tint of -the ordinary Japanese infusion, when the leaf is of good quality, being -a clear greenish yellow. But the light of a fine Genji-firefly is so -brilliant that only a keen eye can detect the greenish colour: at first -sight the flash appears yellow as the flame of a wood-fire, and its -vivid brightness has not been overpraised in the following <i>hokku</i>:—</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kagaribi mo</span><br /> -Hotaru mo hikaru—<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Genji kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>"Whether it be a glimmering of festal-fires<a name="FNanchor_3_67" id="FNanchor_3_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_67" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> [far away], or a -glimmering of fireflies, [one can hardly tell]—ah, it is the Genji!"</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Although the appellations <i>Genji-botaru</i> and <i>Heiké-botaru</i> are still -in general use, both insects are known by other folk-names. In -different provinces the Genji is called <i>Ō-botaru</i>, or "Great Firefly"; -<i>Ushi-botaru</i>, or "Ox-Firefly"; <i>Kuma-botaru</i>, or "Bear-Firefly"; and -<i>Uji-botaru</i>, or "Firefly of Uji,"—not to mention such picturesque -appellations as <i>Komosō-botaru</i> and <i>Yamabuki-botaru</i>, which could not -be appreciated by the average Western reader. The <i>Heiké-botaru</i> is -also called <i>Himé-botaru</i>, or "Princess-Firefly"; <i>Nennéi-botaru</i>, or -"Baby-Firefly"; and <i>Yuréi-botaru</i>, or "Ghost-Firefly." But these are -only examples chosen at random: in almost every part of Japan there is -a special folk-name for the insect.</p> - - -<h4>III</h4> - -<p>There are many places in Japan which are famous for fireflies,—places -which people visit in summer merely to enjoy the sight of the -fireflies. Anciently the most celebrated of all such places was a -little valley near Ishiyama, by the lake of Ōmi. It is still called -Hotaru-Dani, or the Valley of Fireflies. Before the Period of Genroku -(1688-1703), the swarming of the fireflies in this valley, during the -sultry season, was accounted one of the natural marvels of the country. -The fireflies of the Hotaru-Dani are still celebrated for their size; -but that wonderful swarming of them, which old writers described, -is no longer to be seen there. At present the most famous place for -fireflies is in the neighbourhood of Uji, in Yamashirō. Uji, a pretty -little town in the centre of the celebrated tea-district, is situated -on the Ujigawa, and is scarcely less famed for its fireflies than for -its teas. Every summer special trains run from Kyōtō and Ōsaka to -Uji, bringing thousands of visitors to see the fireflies. But it is -on the river, at a point several miles from the town, that the great -spectacle is to be witnessed,—the <i>Hotaru-Kassen</i>, or Firefly Battle. -The stream there winds between hills covered with vegetation; and -myriads of fireflies dart from either bank, to meet and cling above the -water. At moments they so swarm together as to form what appears to the -eye like a luminous cloud, or like a great ball of sparks. The cloud -soon scatters, or the ball drops and breaks upon the surface of the -current, and the fallen fireflies drift glittering away; but another -swarm quickly collects in the same locality. People wait all night in -boats upon the river to watch the phenomenon. After the <i>Hotaru-Kassen</i> -is done, the Ujikawa, covered with the still sparkling bodies of the -drifting insects, is said to appear like the Milky Way, or, as the -Japanese more poetically call it, the River of Heaven. Perhaps it was -after witnessing such a spectacle that the great female poet, Chiyo of -Kaga, composed these verses:—</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kawa bakari,</span><br /> -Yami wa nagarété—?<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>—Which may be thus freely rendered:—</p> - -<p>"Is it the river only?—or is the darkness itself drifting?... Oh, the -fireflies!..."<a name="FNanchor_4_68" id="FNanchor_4_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_68" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> - - -<h4>IV</h4> - -<p>Many persons in Japan earn their living during the summer months by -catching and selling fireflies: indeed, the extent of this business -entitles it to be regarded as a special industry. The chief centre of -this industry is the region about Ishiyama, in Goshū, by the Lake of -Ōmi,—a number of houses there supplying fireflies to many parts of -the country, and especially to the great cities of Osaka and Kyōtō. -From sixty to seventy firefly-catchers are employed by each of the -principal houses during the busy season. Some training is required -for the occupation. A tyro might find it no easy matter to catch a -hundred fireflies in a single night; but an expert has been known to -catch three thousand. The methods of capture, although of the simplest -possible kind, are very interesting to see.</p> - -<p>Immediately after sunset, the firefly-hunter goes forth, with a long -bamboo pole upon his shoulder, and a long bag of brown mosquito-netting -wound, like a girdle, about his waist. When he reaches a wooded place -frequented by fireflies,—usually some spot where willows are planted, -on the bank of a river or lake,—he halts and watches the trees. As -soon as the trees begin to twinkle satisfactorily, he gets his net -ready, approaches the most luminous tree, and with his long pole -strikes the branches. The fireflies, dislodged by the shock, do not -immediately take flight, as more active insects would do under like -circumstances, but drop helplessly to the ground, beetle-wise, where -their light—always more brilliant in moments of fear or pain—renders -them conspicuous. If suffered to remain upon the ground for a few -moments, they will fly away. But the catcher, picking them up with -astonishing quickness, using both hands at once, deftly tosses them -<i>into his mouth</i>—because he cannot lose the time required to put them, -one by one, into the bag. Only when his mouth can hold no more, does he -drop the fireflies, unharmed, into the netting.</p> - -<p>Thus the firefly-catcher works until about two o'clock in the -morning,—the old Japanese hour of ghosts,—at which time the insects -begin to leave the trees and seek the dewy soil. There they are said to -bury their tails, so as to remain viewless. But now the hunter changes -his tactics. Taking a bamboo broom he brushes the surface of the -turf, lightly and quickly. Whenever touched or alarmed by the broom, -the fireflies display their lanterns, and are immediately nipped and -bagged. A little before dawn, the hunters return to town.</p> - -<p>At the firefly-shops the captured insects are sorted as soon as -possible, according to the brilliancy of their light,—the more -luminous being the higher-priced. Then they are put into gauze-covered -boxes or cages, with a certain quantity of moistened grass in each -cage. From one hundred to two hundred fireflies are placed in a -single cage, according to grade. To these cages are attached small -wooden tablets inscribed with the names of customers,—such as hotel -proprietors, restaurant-keepers, wholesale and retail insect-merchants, -and private persons who have ordered large quantities of fireflies -for some particular festivity. The boxes are despatched to their -destinations by nimble messengers,—for goods of this class cannot be -safely intrusted to express companies.</p> - -<p>Great numbers of fireflies are ordered for display at evening parties -in the summer season. A large Japanese guest-room usually overlooks -a garden; and during a banquet or other evening entertainment, given -in the sultry season, it is customary to set fireflies at liberty in -the garden after sunset, that the visitors may enjoy the sight of the -sparkling. Restaurant-keepers purchase largely. In the famous Dōtombori -of Ōsaka, there is a house where myriads of fireflies are kept in a -large space enclosed by mosquito-netting; and customers of this house -are permitted to enter the enclosure and capture a certain number of -fireflies to take home with them.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>The wholesale price of living fireflies ranges from three sen per -hundred up to thirteen sen per hundred, according to season and -quality. Retail dealers sell them in cages; and in Tokyo the price of -a cage of fireflies ranges from three sen up to several dollars. The -cheapest kind of cage, containing only three or four fireflies, is -scarcely more than two inches square; but the costly cages—veritable -marvels of bamboo work, beautifully decorated—are as large as cages -for song-birds. Firefly cages of charming or fantastic shapes—model -houses, junks, temple-lanterns, etc.—can be bought at prices ranging -from thirty sen up to one dollar.</p> - -<p>Dead or alive, fireflies are worth money. They are delicate insects, -and they live but a short time in confinement. Great numbers die in -the insect-shops; and one celebrated insect-house is said to dispose -every season of no less than five <i>shō</i>—that is to say, about one -peck—of dead fireflies, which are sold to manufacturing establishments -in Osaka. Formerly fireflies were used much more than at present in -the manufacture of poultices and pills, and in the preparation of -drugs peculiar to the practice of Chinese medicine. Even to-day some -curious extracts are obtained from them; and one of these, called -<i>Hotaru-no-abura,</i> or Firefly-grease, is still used by woodworkers for -the purpose of imparting rigidity to objects made of bent bamboo.</p> - -<p>A very curious chapter on firefly-medicine might be written by -somebody learned in the old-fashioned literature. The queerest part of -the subject is Chinese, and belongs much more to demonology than to -therapeutics. Firefly-ointments used to be made which had power, it was -alleged, to preserve a house from the attacks of robbers, to counteract -the effect of any poison, and to drive away "the hundred devils." And -pills were made with firefly-substance which were believed to confer -invulnerability;—one kind of such pills being called <i>Kanshōgan</i>, or -"Commander-in-Chief Pills"; and another, <i>Buigan</i>, or "Military-Power -Pills."</p> - - -<h4>V</h4> - -<p>Firefly-catching, as a business, is comparatively modern; but -firefly-hunting, as a diversion, is a very old custom. Anciently -it was an aristocratic amusement; and great nobles used to give -firefly-hunting parties,—<i>botaru-gari</i>. In this busy era of Meiji -the <i>botaru-gari</i> is rather an amusement for children than for -grown-up folks; but the latter occasionally find time to join in the -sport. All over Japan, the children have their firefly-hunts every -summer;—moonless nights being usually chosen for such expeditions. -Girls follow the chase with paper fans; boys, with long light poles, -to the ends of which wisps of fresh bamboo-grass are tied. When struck -down by a fan or a wisp, the insects are easily secured, as they are -slow to take wing after having once been checked in actual flight. -While hunting, the children sing little songs, supposed to attract -the shining prey. These songs differ according to locality; and the -number of them is wonderful. But there are very few possessing that -sort of interest which justifies quotation. Two examples will probably -suffice:—</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -(<i>Province of Choshū.</i>)<br /> -Hotaru, koi! koi!<br /> -Koi-tomosé!<br /> -Nippon ichi no<br /> -Jōsan ga,<br /> -Chōchin tomoshité,<br /> -Koi to ina!<br /> -</p> - -<p>Come, firefly, come! Come with your light burning! The nicest girl in -Japan wants to know if you will not light your lantern and come!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -(<i>Dialect of Shimonoséki.</i>)<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Hōchin, koi!</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Hōchin, koi!</span><br /> -Séki no machi no bon-san ga,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Chōchin tomoshité,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Koi!</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Koi!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Firefly, come! firefly, come! All the boys of Séki [want you to come] -with your lantern lighted! Come! come!</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Of course, in order to hunt fireflies successfully, it is necessary -to know something about their habits; and on this subject Japanese -children are probably better informed than a majority of my readers, -for whom the following notes may possess a novel interest:—</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Fireflies frequent the neighbourhood of water, and like to circle -above it; but some kinds are repelled by impure or stagnant water, -and are only to be found in the vicinity of clear streams or lakes. -The Genji-firefly shuns swamps, ditches, or foul canals; while the -Heiké-firefly seems to be satisfied with any water. All fireflies -seek by preference grassy banks shaded by trees; but they dislike -certain trees and are attracted by others. They avoid pine trees, for -instance; and they will not light upon rose-bushes. But upon willow -trees—especially weeping willows—they gather in great swarms. -Occasionally, on a summer night, you may see a drooping willow so -covered and illuminated with fireflies that all its branches appear "to -be budding fire." During a bright moonlight night fireflies keep as -much as possible in shadow; but when pursued they fly at once into the -moonshine, where their shimmering is less easily perceived. Lamplight, -or any strong artificial light, drives them away; but small bright -lights attract them. They can be lured, for example, by the sparkling -of a small piece of lighted charcoal, or by the glow of a little -Japanese pipe, kindled in the dark. But the lamping of a single lively -firefly, confined in a bottle, or cup, of clear glass, is the best of -all lures.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>As a rule the children hunt only in parties, for obvious reasons. -In former years it would have been deemed foolhardy to go alone in -pursuit of fireflies, because there existed certain uncanny beliefs -concerning them. And in some of the country districts these beliefs -still prevail. What appear to be fireflies may be malevolent spirits, -or goblin-fires, or fox-lights, kindled to delude the wayfarer. Even -real fireflies are not always to be trusted;—the weirdness of their -kinships might be inferred from their love of willow trees. Other trees -have their particular spirits, good or evil, hamadryads or goblins; but -the willow is particularly the tree of the dead—the favourite of human -ghosts. Any firefly may be a ghost—who can tell? Besides, there is an -old belief that the soul of a person still alive may sometimes assume -the shape of a firefly. And here is a little story that was told me in -Izuno:—</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>One cold winter's night a young shizoku of Matsuë, while on his way -home from a wedding-party, was surprised to perceive a firefly-light -hovering above the canal in front of his dwelling. Wondering that such -an insect should be flying abroad in the season of snow, he stopped -to look at it; and the light suddenly shot toward him. He struck at -it with a stick; but it darted away, and flew into the garden of a -residence adjoining his own.</p> - -<p>Next morning he made a visit to that house, intending to relate the -adventure to his neighbours and friends. But before he found a chance -to speak of it, the eldest daughter of the family, happening to enter -the guest-room without knowing of the young man's visit, uttered a cry -of surprise, and exclaimed, "Oh! how you startled me! No one told me -that you had called; and just as I came in I was thinking about you. -Last night I had so strange a dream! I was flying in my dream,—flying -above the canal in front of our house. It seemed very pleasant to fly -over the water; and while I was flying there I saw you coming along the -bank. Then I went to you to tell you that I had learned how to fly; but -you struck at me, and frightened me so that I still feel afraid when I -think of it.. .." After hearing this, the visitor thought it best not -to relate his own experience for the time being, lest the coincidence -should alarm the girl, to whom he was betrothed.</p> - - -<h4>VI</h4> - -<p>Fireflies have been celebrated in Japanese poetry from ancient time; -and frequent mention of them is made in early classical prose. One -of the fifty-four chapters of the famous novel, <i>Genji-Monogari</i>, -for example,—written either toward the close of the tenth century -or at the beginning of the eleventh,—is entitled, "Fireflies"; and -the author relates how a certain noble person was enabled to obtain -one glimpse of a lady's face in the dark by the device of catching -and suddenly liberating a number of fireflies. The first literary -interest in fireflies may have been stimulated, if not aroused, by -the study of Chinese poetry. Even to-day every Japanese child knows a -little song about the famous Chinese scholar who, in the time of his -struggles with poverty, studied by the light of a paper bag filled with -fireflies. But, whatever the original source of their inspiration, -Japanese poets have been making verses about fireflies during more than -a thousand years. Compositions on the subject can be found in every -form of Japanese poetry; but the greater number of firefly poems are in -<i>hokku</i>,—the briefest of all measures, consisting of only seventeen -syllables. Modern love-poems relating to the firefly are legion; but -the majority of these, written in the popular twenty-six-syllable form -called <i>dodoïtsu</i>, appear to consist of little more than variants of -one old classic fancy, comparing the silent burning of the insect's -light to the consuming passion that is never uttered.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Perhaps my readers will be interested by the following selection of -firefly poems. Some of the compositions are many centuries old:—</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -Catching Fireflies<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mayoi-go no</span><br /> -Naku-naku tsukamu<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Ah! the lost child! Though crying and crying, still he catches -fireflies!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kuraki yori</span><br /> -Kuraki hito yobu:<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Out of the blackness black people call [to each other]: [they are -hunting] fireflies!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Iu koto no</span><br /> -Kikoëté ya, takaku<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tobu hotaru!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Ah! having heard the voices of people [crying "Catch it!"], the firefly -now flies higher!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Owarété wa</span><br /> -Tsuki ni kakururu<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Ah, [the cunning] fireflies! being chased, they hide themselves in the -moonlight!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ubayoté</span><br /> -Fumi-koroshitaru<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>[Two firefly-catchers] having tried to seize it [at the same time], the -poor firefly is trampled to death!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -The Light of Fireflies<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotarubi ya!</span><br /> -Mada kuréyaranu,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hashi no uri.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Fireflies already sparkling under the bridge,—and it is not yet dark!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mizu-gusa no</span><br /> -Kururu to miété<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tobu hotaru.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>When the water-grasses appear to grow dark, the fireflies begin to -fly.<a name="FNanchor_5_69" id="FNanchor_5_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_69" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oku-no-ma yé</span><br /> -Hanashité mitaru<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Pleasant, from the guest-room,<a name="FNanchor_6_70" id="FNanchor_6_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_70" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> to watch the fireflies being set free -in the garden!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yo no fukuru</span><br /> -Hodo ōkinaru<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Ever as the night grows [deeper, the light of] the firefly also grows -[brighter]!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kusakari no</span><br /> -Sodé yori idzuru,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>See! a firefly flies out of the sleeve of the grass-cutter!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Koko kashiko,</span><br /> -Hotaru ni aoshi<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yoru no kusa.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Here and there the night-grass appears green, because of the light of -the fireflies.</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chōchin no</span><br /> -Kiyété, tōtoki<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>How precious seems [the light of] the firefly, now that the -lantern-light has gone out!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mado kuraki,</span><br /> -Shōji wo noboru<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>The window itself is dark, but see!—a firefly is creeping up the paper -pane!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Moë yasuku,</span><br /> -Mata kéyé yasuki,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>How easily kindled, and how easily put out again, is the light of the -firefly!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hitotsu kité,</span><br /> -Niwa no tsuyukéki,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Oh! a single firefly having come, one can see the dew in the garden!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Té no hira wo</span><br /> -Hau ashi miyuru<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Oh, this firefly!—as it crawls on the palm of my hand, its legs are -visible [by its own light]!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Osoroshi no</span><br /> -Té ni sukitōru,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>It is enough to make one afraid! See! the light of this firefly shows -through my hand!<a name="FNanchor_7_71" id="FNanchor_7_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_71" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sabéshisaya!</span><br /> -Isshaku kiyété<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yuku hotaru!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>How uncanny! The firefly shoots to within a foot of me, and—out goes -the light!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yuku saki no</span><br /> -Sawaru mono naki<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>There goes a firefly! but there is nothing in front of it to take hold -of [nothing to touch: what can it be seeking—the ghostly creature?].</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hōki-gi ni</span><br /> -Ari to wa miyété,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>In this hoki-bush it certainly appeared to be,—the firefly! [but where -is it?]</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sodé é kité,</span><br /> -Yōhan no hotaru<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sabishi kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>This midnight firefly coming upon the sleeve of my robe—how -weird<a name="FNanchor_8_72" id="FNanchor_8_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_72" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>!...</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yanagi-ba no</span><br /> -Yami saki kaësu<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>For this willow tree the season of budding would seem to have returned -in the dark—look at the fireflies!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mizu soko no</span><br /> -Kagé wo kowagaru<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Ah, he is afraid of the darkness under the water,—that firefly! -[Therefore he lights his tiny lantern!]</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sugitaru wa!</span><br /> -Mé ni mono sugoshi<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tobu hotaru!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Ah, I am going too far!... The flitting of the fireflies here is a -lonesome sight!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotarubi ya!</span><br /> -Kusa ni osamaru<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yoäkégata.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Ah, the firefly-lights! As the darkness begins to break, they bury -themselves in the grass.</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Love-Poems</span><br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Muréyo, hotaru,</span><br /> -Mono iu kao no<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Miyuru hodo!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>O fireflies, gather here long enough to make visible the face of the -person who says these things to me!<a name="FNanchor_9_73" id="FNanchor_9_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_73" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oto mo sédé,</span><br /> -Omoi ni moyuru,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru koso,</span><br /> -Naku mushi yori mo<br /> -Awaré nari-kéri!<br /> -</p> - -<p>Not making even a sound [yet] burning with desire,—for this the -firefly indeed has become more worthy of pity than any insect that -cries!<a name="FNanchor_10_74" id="FNanchor_10_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_74" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yū sareba,</span><br /> -Hotaru yori ki ni<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Moyurédomo,</span><br /> -Hikari minéba ya<br /> -Hito no tsurénaki!<br /> -</p> - -<p>When evening falls, though the soul of me burn more than burns the -firefly, as the light [of that burning] is viewless, the person -[beloved] remains unmoved.<a name="FNanchor_11_75" id="FNanchor_11_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_75" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -Miscellaneous<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Suito yuku,</span><br /> -Mizu-gi wa suzushi,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tobu-hotaru!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Here at the water's edge, how pleasantly cool!—and the fireflies go -shooting by—suito!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Midzu é kité,</span><br /> -Hikuu naritaru<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Having reached the water, he makes himself low,—the firefly!<a name="FNanchor_12_76" id="FNanchor_12_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_76" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kuzu no ha no</span><br /> -Ura, utsu amé ya,<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tobu-hotaru!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>The rain beats upon the <i>Kuzu</i>-plant;<a name="FNanchor_13_77" id="FNanchor_13_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_77" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>—away starts the firefly from -the underside of the leaf!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Amé no yo wa,</span><br /> -Shita bakari yuku<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Ah! this rainy night they only go along the ground,—the fireflies!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yura-yura to</span><br /> -Ko-amé furu yo no<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>How they swing themselves, to and fro, the fireflies, on a night of -drizzling rain!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Akinuréba,</span><br /> -Kusa nomi zo<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru-kago.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>With the coming of dawn, indeed, there is nothing visible but grass in -the cage of the firefly!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yo ga akété,</span><br /> -Mushi ni naritaru<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>With the coming of the dawn, they change into insects again,—these -fireflies!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hiru miréba,</span><br /> -Kubi-suji akaki<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Oh, this firefly!—seen by daylight, the nape of its neck is red!</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru kōté,</span><br /> -Shiba shi-go-mai ni<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fuzeï kana!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Having bought fireflies, respectfully accord them the favour of four or -five tufts of lawn-grass!<a name="FNanchor_14_78" id="FNanchor_14_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_78" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 10%;"> -Song of the Firefly-seller<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Futatsu, mitsu,</span><br /> -Hanashité misénu<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru-uri.</span><br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mitsu, yotsu wa,</span><br /> -Akari ni nokosé<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru-uri.</span><br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Onoga mi wa</span><br /> -Yami ni kaëru ya<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hotaru-uri.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>He will not give you the chance to see two or three fireflies set -free,—this firefly-seller.</p> - -<p>He leaves in the cage three or four, just to make a light,—this -firefly-seller.</p> - -<p>For now he must take his own body back into the dark night,—this -firefly-seller.</p> - - -<h4>VII</h4> - -<p>But the true romance of the firefly is to be found neither in the -strange fields of Japanese folk-lore nor in the quaint gardens of -Japanese poetry, but in the vast profound of science. About science -I know little or nothing. And that is why I am not afraid to rush in -where angels fear to tread. If I knew what Professor Watasé knows -about fireflies, I should feel myself less free to cross the boundaries -of relative experience. As it is, I can venture theories.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>The tremendous hypotheses of physical and psychical evolution no -longer seem to me hypotheses: I should never dream of doubting them. -I have ceased to wonder at the growth of Life out of that which has -been called not-living,—the development of organic out of inorganic -existence. The one amazing fact of organic evolution, to which my -imagination cannot become accustomed, is the fact that the substance -of life should possess the latent capacity or tendency to build itself -into complexities incomprehensible of <i>systematic</i> structure. The power -of that substance to evolve radiance or electricity is not really more -extraordinary than its power to evolve colour; and that a noctiluca, -or a luminous centipede, or a firefly, should produce light, ought not -to seem more wonderful than that a plant should produce blue or purple -flowers. But the biological interpretation of the phenomenon leaves me -wondering, just as much as before, at the particular miracle of the -machinery by which the light is made. To find embedded in the body of -the insect a microscopic working-model of everything comprised under -the technical designation of an "electric plant," would not be nearly -so wonderful a discovery as the discovery of what actually exists. -Here is a firefly, able, with its infinitesimal dynamo, to produce a -pure cold light "at one four-hundredth part of the cost of the energy -expended in a candle flame"!... Now why should there have been evolved -in the tail of this tiny creature a luminiferous mechanism at once -so elaborate and so effective that our greatest physiologists and -chemists are still unable to understand the operation of it, and our -best electricians impotent to conceive the possibility of imitating -it? Why should the living tissues crystallize or build themselves -into structures of such stupefying intricacy and beauty as the visual -organs of an ephemera, the electrical organs of a gymnotus, or the -luminiferous organs of a firefly?... The very wonder of the thing -forbids me to imagine gods at work: no mere god could ever contrive -such a prodigy as the eye of a May-fly or the tail of a firefly.</p> - -<p>Biology would answer thus:—"Though it is inconceivable that a -structure like this should have been produced by accumulated effects -of function on structure, yet it is conceivable that successive -selections of favourable variations might have produced it." And no -follower of Herbert Spencer is really justified in wandering further. -But I cannot rid myself of the notion that Matter, in some blind -infallible way, <i>remembers</i>; and that in every unit of living substance -there slumber infinite potentialities, simply because to every ultimate -atom belongs the infinite and indestructible experience of billions of -vanished universes.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_028.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_65" id="Footnote_1_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_65"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Professor Watasé is a graduate of Johns Hopkins. Since -this essay was written, his popular Japanese lectures upon the -firefly have been reissued in a single pretty volume. The coloured -frontispiece,—showing fireflies at night upon a willow-branch,—is -alone worth the price of the book.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2_66" id="Footnote_2_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_66"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> By the old calendar. According to the new calendar, the -date of the Firefly Battle would be considerably later: last year -(1901) it fell upon the tenth day of the sixth month.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3_67" id="Footnote_3_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_67"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The term <i>kagar-bi</i>, often translated by "bonfire," -here especially refers to the little wood-fires which are kindled, -on certain festival occasions, in front of every threshold in the -principal street of a country town, or village. During the festival of -the Bon such little fires are lighted in many parts of the country to -welcome the returning ghosts.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4_68" id="Footnote_4_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_68"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> That is to say, "Do I see only fireflies drifting with the -current? or is the Night itself drifting, with its swarming of stars?"</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_5_69" id="Footnote_5_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_69"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> More literally: "The water-grasses having appeared to -grow dark, the fireflies begin to fly." The phrase <i>kururu to miété</i> -reminds one of the second stanza in that most remarkable of modern -fairy-ballads, Mr. Yeats' "Folk of the Air":— -</p> -<p> -"And he saw how the weeds grew dark<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At the coming of night-tide;</span><br /> -And he dreamed of the long dim hair<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Bridget his bride."</span><br /> -</p> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_6_70" id="Footnote_6_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_70"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Oku-no-ma</i> really means the back room. But the best -rooms in a Japanese house are always in the rear, and so arranged as -to overlook the garden. The composer of the verse is supposed to be -a guest at some banquet, during which fireflies are set free in the -garden that the visitors may enjoy the spectacle.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_7_71" id="Footnote_7_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_71"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> That is to say, makes the fingers appear diaphanous, -as if held before a bright candle-flame. This suggestion of rosy -semi-transparency implies a female speaker.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_8_72" id="Footnote_8_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_72"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The word <i>sabishi</i> usually signifies lonesome or -melancholy; but the sense of it here is "weird." This verse suggests -the popular fancy that the soul of a person, living or dead, may assume -the form of a firefly.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_9_73" id="Footnote_9_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_73"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The speaker is supposed to be a woman. Somebody has been -making love to her in the dark; and she half doubts the sincerity of -the professed affection.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_10_74" id="Footnote_10_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_74"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> From the <i>Fugetsu-Sh'u</i>. The speaker is a woman: by the -simile of the silent-glowing firefly she suggests her own secret love.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_11_75" id="Footnote_11_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_75"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> From the Kokon Wakashū Enkyō. The speaker is supposed to -be a woman.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_12_76" id="Footnote_12_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_76"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Or, "he stoops low." The word <i>bikui</i> really means low of -stature.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_13_77" id="Footnote_13_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_77"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> A kind of arrowroot.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_14_78" id="Footnote_14_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_78"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Not literal; and I doubt whether this poem could be -satisfactorily translated into English. There is a delicate humour in -the use of the word <i>fuzei</i>, used in speaking humbly of one's self, or -of one's endeavours to please a superior.</p></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="A_Drop_of_Dew" id="A_Drop_of_Dew">A Drop of Dew</a></h3> - - -<p style="margin-left: 30%;"> -Tsuyu no inochi.<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—<i>Buddhist proverb.</i></span><br /> -</p> -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_030.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>To the bamboo lattice of my study-window a single dewdrop hangs -quivering.</p> - -<p>Its tiny sphere repeats the colours of the morning,—colours of sky -and field and far-off trees. Inverted images of these can be discerned -in it,—also the microscopic picture of a cottage, upside down, with -children at play before the door.</p> - -<p>Much more than the visible world is imaged by that dewdrop: the world -invisible, of infinite mystery, is likewise therein repeated. And -without as within the drop there is motion unceasing,—motion forever -incomprehensible of atoms and forces,—faint shiverings also, making -prismatic reply to touches of air and sun.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Buddhism finds in such a dewdrop the symbol of that other microcosm -which has been called the Soul.... What more, indeed, is man than -just such a temporary orbing of viewless ultimates,—imaging sky and -land and life,—filled with perpetual mysterious shudderings,—and -responding in some wise to every stir of the ghostly forces that -environ him?...</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Soon that tiny globe of light, with all its fairy tints and topsy-turvy -picturings, will have vanished away. Even so, within another little -while, you and I must likewise dissolve and disappear.</p> - -<p>Between the vanishing of the drop and the vanishing of the man, what -difference? A difference of words.... But ask yourself what becomes of -the dewdrop?</p> - -<p>By the great sun its atoms are separated and lifted and scattered. To -cloud and earth, to river and sea they go; and out of land and stream -and sea again they will be updrawn, only to fall and to scatter anew. -They will creep in opalescent mists;—they will whiten in frost and -hail and snow;—they will reflect again the forms and the colours of -the macrocosm; they will throb to the ruby pulsing of hearts that are -yet unborn. For each one of them must combine again with countless -kindred atoms for the making of other drops,—drops of dew and rain and -sap, of blood and sweat and tears....</p> - -<p>How many times? Billions of ages before our sun began to burn, those -atoms probably moved in other drops, reflecting the sky-tints and the -earth-colours of worlds in some past universe. And after this present -universe shall have vanished out of Space, those very same atoms—by -virtue of the forces incomprehensible that made them—will probably -continue to sphere in dews that will shadow the morning beauty of -planets yet to be.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Even so with the particles of that composite which you term your -very Self. Before the hosts of heaven the atoms of you were—and -thrilled,—and quickened,—and reflected appearances of things. And -when all the stars of the visible Night shall have burnt themselves -out, those atoms will doubtless again take part in the orbing of -Mind,—will tremble again in thoughts, emotions, memories,—in all -the joys and pains of lives still to be lived in worlds still to be -evolved....</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Your personality?—your peculiarity? That is to say, your ideas, -sentiments, recollections?—your very particular hopes and fears and -loves and hates? Why, in each of a trillion of dewdrops there must -be differences infinitesimal of atom-thrilling and of reflection. And -in every one of the countless pearls of ghostly vapour updrawn from -the Sea of Birth and Death there are like infinitesimal peculiarities. -Your personality signifies, in the eternal order, just as much as the -especial motion of molecules in the shivering of any single drop. -Perhaps in no other drop will the thrilling and the picturing be ever -exactly the same; but the dews will continue to gather and to fall, -and there will always be quivering pictures ... The very delusion of -delusions is the idea of death as loss.</p> - -<p>There is no loss—because there is not any Self that can be -lost. Whatsoever was, that you have been;—whatsoever is, -that you are;—whatsoever will be, that you must become. -Personality!—individuality!—the ghosts of a dream in a dream! Life -infinite only there is; and all that appears to be is but the thrilling -of it,—sun, moon, and stars,—earth, sky, and sea,—and Mind and -Man, and Space and Time. All of them are shadows. The shadows come and -go;—the Shadow-Maker shapes forever.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_030.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="Gaki" id="Gaki">Gaki</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_032.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<blockquote> -<p style="font-size: 0.8em;">—"Venerable Nagasena, are there such things as demons in the world?"</p> - -<p style="font-size: 0.8em;">—"Yes, O King."</p> - -<p style="font-size: 0.8em;">—"Do they ever leave that condition of existence?"</p> - -<p style="font-size: 0.8em;">—"Yes, they do."</p> - -<p style="font-size: 0.8em;">—"But, if so, why is it that the remains of those demons are never -found?"...</p> - -<p style="font-size: 0.8em;">—"Their remains are found, O King.... The remains of bad demons can -be found in the form of worms and beetles and ants and snakes and -scorpions and centipedes."...</p> - -<p style="text-align: right; font-size: 0.8em;">—<i>The Questions of King Milinda.</i></p> -</blockquote> - -<h4>I</h4> - -<p>There are moments in life when truths but dimly known before—beliefs -first vaguely reached through multiple processes of reasoning—suddenly -assume the vivid character of emotional convictions. Such an experience -came to me the other day, on the Suruga coast. While resting under -the pines that fringed the beach, something in the vital warmth -and luminous peace of the hour—some quivering rapture of wind and -light—very strangely bestirred an old belief of mine: the belief that -all being is One. One I felt myself to be with the thrilling of breeze -and the racing of wave,—with every flutter of shadow and flicker of -sun,—with the azure of sky and sea,—with the great green hush of the -land. In some new and wonderful way I found myself assured that there -never could have been a beginning,—that there never could be an end. -Nevertheless, the ideas of the moment were not new: the novelty of the -experience was altogether in the peculiar intensity with which they -presented themselves; making me feel that the flashing dragon-flies, -and the long gray sand-crickets, and the shrilling sémi overhead, and -the little red crabs astir under the roots of the pines, were all of -them brothers and sisters. I seemed to understand, as never before, how -the mystery that is called the Soul of me must have quickened in every -form of past existence, and must as certainly continue to behold the -sun, for other millions of summers, through eyes of other countless -shapes of future being. And I tried to think the long slow thoughts of -the long gray crickets,—and the thoughts of the darting, shimmering -dragonflies,—and the thoughts of the basking, trilling cicadæ,—and -the thoughts of the wicked little crabs that lifted up their claws -from between the roots of the pines.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_033.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>Presently I discovered myself wondering whether the consequence of -such thoughts could have anything to do with the recombination of my -soul-dust in future spheres of existence. For thousands of years the -East has been teaching that what we think or do in this life really -decides,—through some inevitable formation of-atom-tendencies, or -polarities,—the future place of our substance, and the future state -of our sentiency. And the belief is worth thinking about—though no -amount of thinking can enable us either to confirm or to disprove it. -Very possibly, like other Buddhist doctrines, it may adumbrate some -cosmic truth; but its literal assertions I doubt, because I must doubt -the power ascribed to thought. By the whole infinite past I have been -moulded, within and without: how should the impulse of a moment reshape -me against the weight of the eternities?... Buddhism indeed answers -how, and that astounding answer is irrefutable,—but I doubt....</p> - -<p>Anyhow, acts and thoughts, according to Buddhist doctrine, are -creative. Visible matter is made by acts and thoughts,—even the -universe of stars, and all that has form and name, and all the -conditions of existence. What we think or do is never for the moment -only, but for measureless time: it signifies some force directed to the -shaping of worlds,—to the making of future bliss or pain. Remembering -this, we may raise ourselves to the zones of the Gods. Ignoring it, we -may deprive ourselves even of the right to be reborn among men, and may -doom ourselves, though innocent of the crimes that cause rebirth in -hell, to reënter existence in the form of animals, or of insects, or of -goblins,—<i>gaki</i>.<a name="FNanchor_1_79" id="FNanchor_1_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_79" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> - -<p>So it depends upon ourselves whether we are to become insects or -goblins hereafter; and in the Buddhist system the difference between -insects and goblins is not so well defined as might be supposed. The -belief in a mysterious relation between ghosts and insects, or rather -between spirits and insects, is a very ancient belief in the East, -where it now assumes innumerable forms,—some unspeakably horrible, -others full of weird beauty.</p> - -<p>"The White Moth" of Mr. Quiller-Couch would not impress a Japanese -reader as novel; for the night-moth or the butterfly figures in -many a Japanese poem and legend as the soul of a lost wife. The -night-cricket's thin lament is perhaps the sorrowing of a voice once -human;—the strange red marks upon the heads of cicadæ are characters -of spirit-names;—dragon-flies and grasshoppers are the horses of the -dead. All these are to be pitied with the pity that is kin to love. -But the noxious and dangerous insects represent the results of another -quality of karma,—that which produces goblins and demons. Grisly -names have been given to some of these insects,—as, for example, -<i>Jigokumushi,</i> or "Hell-insect," to the ant-lion; and <i>Kappa-mushi</i>, -to a gigantic water-beetle which seizes frogs and fish, and devours -them alive, thus realizing, in a microcosmic way, the hideous myth of -the <i>Kappa</i>, or River-goblin. Flies, on the other hand, are especially -identified with the world of hungry ghosts. How often, in the season of -flies, have I heard some persecuted toiler exclaim, "<i>Kyō no hai wa, -gaki no yo da ne?</i>" (The flies to-day, how like gaki they are!)</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_79" id="Footnote_1_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_79"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The word gaki is the Japanese Buddhist rendering of the -Sanscrit term "preta," signifying a spirit in that circle or state of -torment called the World of Hungry Ghosts.</p></div> - - -<h4>II</h4> - -<p>In the old Japanese, or, more correctly speaking, Chinese Buddhist -literature relating to the gaki, the Sanscrit names of the gaki are -given in a majority of cases; but some classes of gaki described have -only Chinese names. As the Indian belief reached Japan by way of -China and Korea, it is likely to have received a peculiar colouring -in the course of its journey. But, in a general way, the Japanese -classification of gaki corresponds closely to the Indian classification -of the pretas.</p> - -<p>The place of gaki in the Buddhist system is but one degree removed from -the region of the hells, or Jigokudō,—the lowest of all the States -of Existence. Above the Jigokudō is the Gakidō, or World of Hungry -Spirits; above the Gakidō is the Chikushōdō, or World of Animals; and -above this, again, is the Shuradō, a region of perpetual fighting -and slaughter. Higher than these is placed the Ningendō, or World of -Mankind.</p> - -<p>Now a person released from hell, by exhaustion of the karma that sent -him there, is seldom reborn at once into the zone of human existence, -but must patiently work his way upward thither, through all the -intermediate states of being. Many of the gaki have been in hell.</p> - -<p>But there are gaki also who have not been in hell. Certain kinds or -degrees of sin may cause a person to be reborn as a gaki immediately -after having died in this world. Only the greatest degree of sin -condemns the sinner directly to hell. The second degree degrades him to -the Gakidō. The third causes him to be reborn as an animal.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Japanese Buddhism recognizes thirty-six principal classes of gaki. -"Roughly counting," says the Shōbō-nen-jō-kyō, "we find thirty-six -classes of gaki; but should we attempt to distinguish all the different -varieties, we should find them to be innumerable." The thirty-six -classes form two great divisions, or orders. One comprises all -"Gaki-World-dwellers" (<i>Gaki-Sekai-Ju</i>);—that is to say, all Hungry -Spirits who remain in the Gakidō proper, and are, therefore, never seen -by mankind. The other division is called Nin-chū-Jū, or "Dwellers among -men": these gaki remain always in this world, and are sometimes seen.</p> - -<p>There is yet another classification of gaki, according to the character -of their penitential torment. All gaki suffer hunger and thirst; but -there are three degrees of this suffering. The <i>Muzai-gaki</i> represent -the first degree: they must hunger and thirst uninterruptedly, without -obtaining any nourishment whatever. The <i>Shōzai-gaki</i> suffer only in -the second degree: they are able to feed occasionally upon impure -substances. The <i>Usai-gaki</i> are more fortunate: they can eat such -remains of food as are thrown away by men, and also the offerings of -food set before the images of the gods, or before the tablets of the -ancestors. The last two classes of gaki are especially interesting, -because they are supposed to meddle with human affairs.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Before modern science introduced exact knowledge of the nature and -cause of certain diseases, Buddhists explained the symptoms of such -diseases by the hypothesis of gaki. Certain kinds of intermittent -fever, for example, were said to be caused by a gaki entering the -human body for the sake of nourishment and warmth. At first the -patient would shiver with cold, because the gaki was cold. Then, as -the gaki gradually became warm, the chill would pass, to be succeeded -by a burning heat. At last the satiated haunter would go away, and -the fever disappear; but upon another day, and usually at an hour -corresponding to that of the first attack, a second fit of ague would -announce the return of the gaki. Other zymotic disorders could be -equally well explained as due to the action of gaki.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>In the Shōbō-nen-jō-kyō a majority of the thirty-six kinds of gaki are -associated with putrescence, disease, and death. Others are plainly -identified with insects. No particular kind of gaki is identified by -name with any particular kind of insect; but the descriptions suggest -conditions of insect-life; and such suggestions are re-ënforced by a -knowledge of popular superstitions. Perhaps the descriptions are vague -in the case of such spirits as the <i>Jiki-ketsu-gaki</i>, or Blood-suckers; -the <i>Jiki-niku-gaki</i>, or Flesh-eaters; the <i>Jiki-da-gaki,</i> or * * * * * -*-eaters; the <i>Jiki-fun-gaki</i>, or * * * *-eaters; the <i>Jiki-doku-gaki</i>, -or Poison-eaters; the Jiki-fu-gaki, or Wind-eaters; the Jiki-ké-gaki, -or Smell-eaters; the <i>Jiki-kwa-gaki</i>, or Fire-eaters (perhaps they -fly into lamps?); the <i>Shikkō-gaki</i>, who devour corpses and cause -pestilence; the <i>Shinen-gaki</i>, who appear by night as wandering fires; -the <i>Shin-ko-gaki</i>, or Needle-mouthed; and the <i>Kwaku-shin-gaki</i>, or -Cauldron-bodied,—each a living furnace, filled with flame that keeps -the fluids of its body humming like a boiling pot. But the suggestion -of the following excerpts<a name="FNanchor_2_80" id="FNanchor_2_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_80" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> will not be found at all obscure:—</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>"Jiki-man-gaki.—These gaki can live only by eating the wigs of false -hair with which the statues of certain divinities are decorated.... -Such will be the future condition of persons who steal objects of value -from Buddhist temples.</p> - -<p>"Fujō-ko-hyaku-gaki.—These gaki can eat only street filth and -refuse. Such a condition is the consequence of having given putrid or -unwholesome food to priests or nuns, or pilgrims in need of alms.</p> - -<p>"Cho-ken-ju-jiki-netsu-gaki.—These are the eaters of the refuse of -funeral-pyres and of the clay of graves.... They are the spirits of men -who despoiled Buddhist temples for the sake of gain.</p> - -<p>"Ju-chū-gaki.—These spirits are born within the wood of trees, and -are tormented by the growing of the grain. ... Their condition is -the result of having cut down shade-trees for the purpose of selling -the timber. Persons who cut down the trees in Buddhist cemeteries or -temple-grounds are especially likely to become ju-chū-gaki."<a name="FNanchor_3_81" id="FNanchor_3_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_81" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> - -<p>Moths, flies, beetles, grubs, worms, and other unpleasant creatures -seem thus to be indicated. But some kinds of gaki cannot be identified -with insects,—for example, the species called Jiki-hō-gaki, or -"Doctrine-eaters." These can exist only by hearing the preaching of -the Law of the Buddha in some temple. While they hear such preaching, -their torment is assuaged; but at all other times they suffer -agonies unspeakable. To this condition are liable after death all -Buddhist priests or nuns who proclaim the law for the mere purpose -of making money.... Also there are gaki who appear sometimes in -beautiful human shapes. Such are the <i>Yoku-shiki-gaki</i>, spirits of -lewdness,—corresponding in some sort to the <i>incubi</i> and <i>succubi</i> of -our own Middle Ages. They can change their sex at will, and can make -their bodies as large or as small as they please. It is impossible to -exclude them from any dwelling, except by the use of holy charms and -spells, since they are able to pass through an orifice even smaller -than the eye of a needle. To seduce young men, they assume beautiful -feminine shapes,—often appearing at wine parties as waitresses or -dancing girls. To seduce women they take the form of handsome lads. -This state of <i>Yoku-shiki-gaki</i> is a consequence of lust in some -previous human existence; but the supernatural powers belonging to -their condition are results of meritorious Karma which the evil Karma -could not wholly counterbalance.</p> - -<p>Even concerning the <i>Yoku-shiki-gaki</i>, however, it is plainly stated -that they may take the form of insects. Though wont to appear in human -shape, they can assume the shape of any animal or other creature, and -"fly freely in all directions of space,"—or keep their bodies "so -small that mankind cannot see them...." All insects are not necessarily -gaki; but most gaki can assume the form of insects when it serves their -purpose.</p> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2_80" id="Footnote_2_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_80"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Abridged from the Shōbō-nen-jō-Kyō. A full translation of -the extraordinary chapter relating to the gaki would try the reader's -nerves rather severely.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3_81" id="Footnote_3_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_81"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The following story of a tree-spirit is typical:—In -the garden of a Samurai named Satsuma Shichizaëmon, who lived in the -village of Echigawa in the province of Ōmi, there was a very old -énoki. (The énoki, or "Celtis chinensis," is commonly thought to be a -goblin-tree.) From ancient times the ancestors of the family had been -careful never to cut a branch of this tree or to remove any of its -leaves. But Shichizaëmon, who was very self-willed, one day announced -that he intended to have the tree cut down. During the following -night a monstrous being appeared to the mother of Shichizaëmon, in a -dream, and told her that if the inoki were cut down, every member of -the household should die. But when this warning was communicated to -Shichizaëmon, he only laughed; and he then sent a man to cut down the -tree. No sooner had it been cut down than Shichizaëmon became violently -insane. For several days he remained furiously mad, crying out at -intervals, "The tree! the tree! the tree!" He said that the tree put -out its branches, like hands, to tear him. In this condition he died. -Soon afterward his wife went mad, crying out that the tree was killing -her; and she died screaming with fear. One after another, all the -people in that house, not excepting the servants, went mad and died. -The dwelling long remained unoccupied thereafter, no one daring even to -enter the garden. At last it was remembered that before these things -happened a daughter of the Satsuma family had become a Buddhist nun, -and that she was still living, under the name of Jikun, in a temple at -Yamashirō. This nun was sent for; and by request of the villagers she -took up her residence in the house, where she continued to live until -the time of her death,—daily reciting a special service on behalf of -the spirit that had dwelt in the tree. From the time that she began to -live in the house the tree-spirit ceased to give trouble. This story is -related on the authority of the priest Shungyō, who said that he had -heard it from the lips of the nun herself.</p></div> - - -<h4>III</h4> - -<p>Grotesque as these beliefs now seem to us, it was not unnatural that -ancient Eastern fancy should associate insects with ghosts and devils. -In our visible world there are no other creatures so wonderful and so -mysterious; and the true history of certain insects actually realizes -the dreams of mythology. To the minds of primitive men, the mere facts -of insect-metamorphosis must have seemed uncanny; and what but goblinry -or magic could account for the monstrous existence of beings so similar -to dead leaves, or to flowers, or to joints of grass, that the keenest -human sight could detect their presence only when they began to walk -or to fly? Even for the entomologist of to-day, insects remain the -most incomprehensible of creatures. We have learned from him that they -must be acknowledged "the most successful of organized beings" in the -battle for existence;—that the delicacy and the complexity of their -structures surpass anything ever imagined of marvellous before the -age of the microscope;—that their senses so far exceed our own in -refinement as to prove us deaf and blind by comparison. Nevertheless -the insect world remains a world of hopeless enigmas. Who can explain -for us the mystery of the eyes of a myriad facets, or the secret -of the ocular brains connected with them? Do those astounding eyes -perceive the ultimate structure of matter? does their vision pierce -opacity, after the manner of the Röntgen rays? (Or how interpret the -deadly aim of that ichneumon-fly which plunges its ovipositor through -solid wood to reach the grub embedded in the grain?) What, again, of -those marvellous ears in breasts and thighs and knees and feet,—ears -that hear sounds beyond the limit of human audition? and what of the -musical structures evolved to produce such fairy melody? What of the -ghostly feet that walk upon flowing water? What of the chemistry that -kindles the firefly's lamp,—making the cold and beautiful light that -all our electric science cannot imitate? And those newly discovered, -incomparably delicate organs for which we have yet no name, because -our wisest cannot decide the nature of them—do they really, as some -would suggest, keep the insect-mind informed of things unknown to human -sense,—visibilities of magnetism, odours of light, tastes of sound?... -Even the little that we have been able to learn about insects fills -us with the wonder that is akin to fear. The lips that are hands, -and the horns that are eyes, and the tongues that are drills; the -multiple devilish mouths that move in four ways at once; the living -scissors and saws and boring-pumps and brace-bits; the exquisite elfish -weapons which no human skill can copy, even in the finest watch-spring -steel—what superstition of old ever dreamed of sights like these? -Indeed, all that nightmare ever conceived of faceless horror, and all -that ecstasy ever imagined of phantasmal pulchritude, can appear but -vapid and void by comparison with the stupefying facts of entomology. -But there is something spectral, something alarming, in the very beauty -of insects....</p> - - -<h4>IV</h4> - -<p>Whether gaki do or do not exist, there is at least some shadowing of -truth in the Eastern belief that the dead become insects. Undoubtedly -our human dust must help, over and over again for millions of ages, -to build up numberless weird shapes of life. But as to that question -of my revery under the pine trees,—whether present acts and thoughts -can have anything to do with the future distribution and requickening -of that dust,—whether human conduct can of itself predetermine the -shapes into which human atoms will be recast,—no reply is possible. I -doubt—but I do not know. Neither does anybody else.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Supposing, however, that the order of the universe were really as -Buddhists believe, and that I knew myself foredoomed, by reason of -stupidities in this existence, to live hereafter the life of an insect, -I am not sure that the prospect would frighten me. There are insects -of which it is difficult to think with equanimity; but the state of an -independent, highly organized, respectable insect could not be so very -bad. I should even look forward, with some pleasurable curiosity, to -any chance of viewing the world through the marvellous compound eyes -of a beetle, an ephemera, or a dragon-fly. As an ephemera, indeed, I -might enjoy the possession of three different kinds of eyes, and the -power to see colours now totally unimaginable. Estimated in degrees of -human time, my life would be short,—a single summer day would include -the best part of it; but to ephemeral consciousness a few minutes would -appear a season; and my one day of winged existence—barring possible -mishaps—would be one unwearied joy of dancing in golden air. And I -could feel in my winged state neither hunger nor thirst,—having no -real mouth or stomach: I should be, in very truth, a Wind-eater. ... -Nor should I fear to enter upon the much less ethereal condition of a -dragon-fly. I should then have to bear carnivorous hunger, and to hunt -a great deal; but even dragon-flies, after the fierce joy of the chase, -can indulge themselves in solitary meditation. Besides, what wings -would then be mine!—and what eyes!... I could pleasurably anticipate -even the certainty of becoming an <i>Amembō</i>,<a name="FNanchor_4_82" id="FNanchor_4_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_82" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and so being able to run -and to slide upon water—though children might catch me, and bite off -my long fine legs. But I think that I should better enjoy the existence -of a sémi,—a large and lazy cicada, basking on wind-rocked trees, -sipping only dew, and singing from dawn till dusk.</p> - -<p>Of course there would be perils to encounter,—danger from hawks and -crows and sparrows,—danger from insects of prey—danger from bamboos -tipped with birdlime by naughty little boys. But in every condition of -life there must be risks; and in spite of the risks, I imagine that -Anacreon uttered little more than the truth, in his praise of the -cicada: "<i>O thou earth-horn,—song-loving,—free from pain>—having -flesh without blood,—thou art nearly equal to the Gods!</i>"... In fact I -have not been able to convince myself that it is really an inestimable -privilege to be reborn a human being. And if the thinking of this -thought, and the act of writing it down, must inevitably affect my -next rebirth, then let me hope that the state to which I am destined -will not be worse than that of a cicada or of a dragon-fly;—climbing -the cryptomerias to clash my tiny cymbals in the sun,—or haunting, -with soundless flicker of amethyst and gold, some holy silence of -lotos-pools.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_032.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4_82" id="Footnote_4_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_82"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> A water-insect, much resembling what we call a "skater." -In some parts of the country it is said that the boy who wants to -become a good swimmer must eat the legs of an <i>Amembō.</i></p></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="A_Matter_of_Custom" id="A_Matter_of_Custom">A Matter of Custom</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_035.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>There is a nice old priest of the Zen sect,—past-master in the craft -of arranging flowers, and in other arts of the ancient time,—who comes -occasionally to see me. He is loved by his congregation, though he -preaches against many old-fashioned beliefs, and discourages all faith -in omens and dreams, and tells people to believe only in the Law of the -Buddha. Priests of the Zen persuasion are seldom thus sceptical. But -the scepticism of my friend is not absolute; for the last time that we -met we talked of the dead, and he told me something creepy. "Stories of -spirits or ghosts," he said, "I always doubt. Sometimes a <i>danka</i><a name="FNanchor_1_83" id="FNanchor_1_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_83" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> -comes to tell me about having seen a ghost, or having dreamed a strange -dream; but whenever I question such a person carefully, I find that -the matter can be explained in a natural way.</p> - -<p>"Only once in my life I had a queer experience which I could not easily -explain. I was then in Kyūshū,—a young novice; and I was performing my -gyō,—the pilgrimage that every novice has to make. One evening, while -travelling through a mountain-district, I reached a little village -where there was a temple of the Zen sect. I went there to ask for -lodging, according to our rules; but I found that the priest had gone -to attend a funeral at a village several miles away, leaving an old nun -in charge of the temple. The nun said that she could not receive me -during the absence of the priest, and that he would not come back for -seven days.... In that part of the country, a priest was required by -custom to recite the sûtras and to perform a Buddhist service, every -day for seven days, in the house of a dead parishioner.... I said that -I did not want any food, but only a place to sleep: moreover I pleaded -that I was very tired, and at last the old nun took pity on me. She -spread some quilts for me in the temple, near the altar; and I fell -asleep almost as soon as I lay down. In the middle of the night—a -very cold night!—I was awakened by the tapping of a <i>mokugyo</i><a name="FNanchor_2_84" id="FNanchor_2_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_84" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and -the voice of somebody chanting the <i>Nembutsu</i><a name="FNanchor_3_85" id="FNanchor_3_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_85" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>, close to where I was -lying. I opened my eyes; but the temple was utterly dark,—so dark that -if a man had seized me by the nose I could not have seen him [<i>hana wo -tsumarété mo wakaranai</i>]; and I wondered that anybody should be tapping -the <i>mokugyo</i> and chanting in such darkness. But, though the sounds -seemed at first to be quite near me, they were somewhat faint; and I -tried to persuade myself that I must have been mistaken,—that the -priest had come back and was performing a service in some other part of -the temple. In spite of the tapping and chanting I fell asleep again, -and slept until morning. Then, as soon as I had washed and dressed, I -went to look for the old nun, and found her. After thanking her for -her kindness, I ventured to remark, 'So the priest came back last -night?' 'He did not,' she answered very crossly—'I told you that he -would not come back for seven days more.' 'Please pardon me,' I said; -Mast night I heard somebody chanting the <i>Nembutsu</i>, and beating the -<i>mokugyo</i>, so I thought that the priest had come back.' 'Oh, that was -not the priest!' she exclaimed; 'that was the <i>danka.</i>' 'Who?' I asked; -for I could not understand her. 'Why,' she replied, 'the dead man, of -course!<a name="FNanchor_4_86" id="FNanchor_4_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_86" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> That always happens when a parishioner dies; the <i>hotoké</i> -comes to sound the <i>mokugyo</i> and to repeat the <i>Nembutsu</i> ...' She -spoke as if she had been so long accustomed to the thing that it did -not seem to her worthwhile mentioning."</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_035.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_83" id="Footnote_1_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_83"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Danka</i> or <i>danké</i> signifies the parishioner of a Buddhist -temple. Those who regularly contribute to the support of a Shintō -temple are called <i>Ujiko</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2_84" id="Footnote_2_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_84"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The <i>mokugyo</i> is a very curious musical instrument of -wood, in the form of a fish's head, and is usually lacquered in red -and gold. It is tapped with a stick during certain Buddhist chants or -recitations, producing a dull hollow sound.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3_85" id="Footnote_3_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_85"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The invocation to Amitâbha, <i>Namu Amida Butsu</i> ("Hail to -the Buddha Amitâbha!"), commonly repeated on behalf of the dead, is -thus popularly named.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4_86" id="Footnote_4_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_86"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The original expression was at least equally emphatic: -"<i>Aa, aré desuka?—aré wa botoké ga kita no desu yo!</i>" The word -"hotoké" means either a Buddha or, as in this case, the spirit of a -dead person.</p></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="Revery" id="Revery">Revery</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_037.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>It has been said that men fear death much as the child cries at -entering the world, being unable to know what loving hands are waiting -to receive it. Certainly this comparison will not bear scientific -examination. But as a happy fancy it is beautiful, even for those to -whom it can make no religious appeal whatever,—those who must believe -that the individual mind dissolves with the body, and that an eternal -continuance of personality could only prove an eternal misfortune. -It is beautiful, I think, because it suggests, in so intimate a way, -the hope that to larger knowledge the Absolute will reveal itself -as mother-love made infinite. The imagining is Oriental rather than -Occidental; yet it accords with a sentiment vaguely defined in most of -our Western creeds. Through ancient grim conceptions of the Absolute as -Father, there has gradually been infused some later and brighter dream -of infinite tenderness—some all-transfiguring hope created by the -memory of Woman as Mother; and the more that races evolve toward higher -things, the more Feminine becomes their idea of a God.</p> - -<p>Conversely, this suggestion must remind even the least believing that -we know of nothing else, in all the range of human experience, so -sacred as mother-love,—nothing so well deserving the name of divine. -Mother-love alone could have enabled the delicate life of thought to -unfold and to endure upon the rind of this wretched little planet: -only through that supreme unselfishness could the nobler emotions ever -have found strength to blossom in the brain of man;—only by help of -mother-love could the higher forms of trust in the Unseen ever have -been called into existence.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>But musings of this kind naturally lead us to ask ourselves emotional -questions about the mysteries of Whither and Whence. Must the -evolutionist think of mother-love as a merely necessary result of -material affinities,—the attraction of the atom for the atom? Or can -he venture to assert, with ancient thinkers of the East, that all -atomic tendencies are shapen by one eternal moral law, and that some -are in themselves divine, being manifestations of the Four Infinite -Feelings?... What wisdom can decide for us? And of what avail to know -our highest emotions divine,—since the race itself is doomed to -perish? When mother-love shall have wrought its uttermost for humanity, -will not even that uttermost have been in vain?</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>At first thought, indeed, the inevitable dissolution must appear the -blackest of imaginable tragedies,—tragedy made infinite! Eventually -our planet must die: its azure ghost of air will shrink and pass, its -seas dry up, its very soil perish utterly, leaving only a universal -waste of sand and stone—the withered corpse of a world. Still for a -time this mummy will turn about the sun, but only as the dead moon -wheels now across our nights,—one face forever in scorching blaze, the -other in icy darkness. So will it circle, blank and bald as a skull; -and like a skull will it bleach and crack and crumble, ever drawing -nearer and yet more near to the face of its flaming parent, to vanish -suddenly at last in the cyclonic lightning of his breath. One by one -the remaining planets must follow. Then will the mighty star himself -begin to fail—to flicker with ghastly changing colours—to crimson -toward his death. And finally the monstrous fissured cinder of him, -hurled into some colossal sun-pyre, will be dissipated into vapour more -tenuous than the dream of the dream of a ghost....</p> - -<p>What, then, will have availed the labour of the life that was,—the -life effaced without one sign to mark the place of its disparition -in the illimitable abyss? What, then, the worth of mother-love, the -whole dead world of human tenderness, with its sacrifices, hopes, -memories,—its divine delights and diviner pains,—its smiles and tears -and sacred caresses,—its countless passionate prayers to countless -vanished gods?</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Such doubts and fears do not trouble the thinker of the East. Us -they disturb chiefly because of old wrong habits of thought, and the -consequent blind fear of knowing that what we have so long called -Soul belongs, not to Essence, but to Form.... Forms appear and vanish -in perpetual succession; but the Essence alone is Real. Nothing -real can be lost, even in the dissipation of a million universes. -Utter destruction, everlasting death,—all such terms of fear have -no correspondence to any truth but the eternal law of change. Even -forms can perish only as waves pass and break: they melt but to swell -anew,—nothing can be lost....</p> - -<p>In the nebulous haze of our dissolution will survive the essence of -all that has ever been in human life,—the units of every existence -that was or is, with all their affinities, all their tendencies, all -their inheritance of forces making for good or evil, all the powers -amassed through myriad generations, all energies that ever shaped the -strength of races;—and times innumerable will these again be orbed -into life and thought. Transmutations there may be; changes also made -by augmentation or diminution of affinities, by subtraction or addition -of tendencies; for the dust of us will then have been mingled with -the dust of other countless worlds and of their peoples. But nothing -essential can be lost. We shall inevitably bequeath our part to the -making of the future cosmos—to the substance out of which another -intelligence will slowly be evolved. Even as we must have inherited -something of our psychic being out of numberless worlds dissolved, so -will future humanities inherit, not from us alone, but from millions of -planets still existing.</p> - -<p>For the vanishing of our world can represent, in the disparition of a -universe, but one infinitesimal detail of the quenching of thought: the -peopled spheres that must share our doom will exceed for multitude the -visible lights of heaven.</p> - -<p>Yet those countless solar fires, with their viewless millions of -living planets, must somehow reappear: again the wondrous Cosmos, -self-consumed, must resume its sidereal whirl over the deeps of the -eternities. And the love forever with rise again, infinitudes of the -everlasting battle. The light of the mother's smile will survive -our sun;—the thrill of her kiss will last beyond the thrilling of -stars;—the sweetness of her lullaby will endure in the cradle-songs -of worlds yet unevolved;—the tenderness of her faith will quicken the -fervour of prayers to be made to the hosts of another heaven,—to the -gods of a time beyond Time. And the nectar of her breasts can never -fail: that snowy stream will still flow on, to nourish the life of some -humanity more perfect than our own, when the Milky Way that spans our -night shall have vanished forever out of Space.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_037.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="Pathological" id="Pathological">Pathological</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_039.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>Very much do I love cats; and I suppose that I could write a large -book about the different cats which I have kept, in various climes and -times, on both sides of the world. But this is not a Book of Cats; and -I am writing about Tama for merely psychological reasons. She has been -uttering, in her sleep beside my chair, a peculiar cry that touched -me in a particular way. It is the cry that a cat makes only for her -kittens,—a soft trilling coo,—a pure caress of tone. And I perceive -that her attitude, as she lies there on her side, is the attitude of -a cat holding something,—something freshly caught: the forepaws are -stretched out as to grasp, and the pearly talons are playing.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>We call her Tama ("Jewel")—not because of her beauty, though she is -beautiful, but because Tama is a female name accorded by custom to -pet cats. She was a very small tortoise-shell kitten when she was -first brought to me as a gift worth accepting,—a cat-of-three-colours -(miké-neko) being somewhat uncommon in Japan. In certain parts of the -country such a cat is believed to be a luck-bringer, and gifted with -power to frighten away goblins as well as rats. Tama is now two years -old. I think that she has foreign blood in her veins: she is more -graceful and more slender than the ordinary Japanese cat; and she has a -remarkably long tail, which, from a Japanese point of view, is her only -defect. Perhaps one of her ancestors came to Japan in some Dutch or -Spanish ship during the time of Iyéyasu. But, from whatever ancestors -descended, Tama is quite a Japanese cat in her habits;—for example, -she eats rice!</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>The first time that she had kittens, she proved herself an excellent -mother,—devoting all her strength and intelligence to the care of her -little ones, until, by dint of nursing them and moiling for them, she -became piteously and ludicrously thin. She taught them how to keep -clean,—how to play and jump and wrestle,—how to hunt. At first, of -course, she gave them only her long tail to play with; but later she -found them other toys. She brought them not only rats and mice, but -also frogs, lizards, a bat, and one day a small lamprey, which she must -have managed to catch in a neighbouring rice-field. After dark I used -to leave open for her a small window at the head of the stairs leading -to my study,—in order that she might go out to hunt by way of the -kitchen roof. And one night she brought in, through that window, a big -straw sandal for her kittens to play with. She found it in the field; -and she must have carried it over a wooden fence ten feet high, up the -house wall to the roof of the kitchen, and thence through the bars of -the little window to the stairway. There she and her kittens played -boisterously with it till morning; and they dirtied the stairway, -for that sandal was muddy. Never was cat more fortunate in her first -maternal experience than Tama.</p> - -<p>But the next time she was not fortunate. She had got into the habit of -visiting friends in another street, at a perilous distance; and one -evening, while on her way thither, she was hurt by some brutal person. -She came back to us stupid and sick; and her kittens were born dead. I -thought that she would die also; but she recovered much more quickly -than anybody could have imagined possible,—though she still remains, -for obvious reasons, troubled in spirit by the loss of the kittens.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>The memory of animals, in regard to certain forms of relative -experience, is strangely weak and dim. But the organic memory of -the animal,—the memory of experience accumulated through countless -billions of lives,—is superhumanly vivid, and very seldom at fault.... -Think of the astonishing skill with which a cat can restore the -respiration of her drowned kitten! Think of her untaught ability to -face a dangerous enemy seen for the first time,—a venomous serpent, -for example! Think of her wide acquaintance with small creatures -and their ways,—her medical knowledge of herbs,—her capacities of -strategy, whether for hunting or fighting! What she knows is really -considerable; and she knows it all perfectly, or almost perfectly. But -it is the knowledge of other existences. Her memory, as to the pains of -the present life, is mercifully brief.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Tama could not clearly remember that her kittens were dead. She knew -that she ought to have had kittens; and she looked everywhere and -called everywhere for them, long after they had been buried in the -garden. She complained a great deal to her friends; and she made me -open all the cupboards and closets,—over and over again,—to prove to -her that the kittens were not in the house. At last she was able to -convince herself that it was useless to look for them any more. But she -plays with them in dreams, and coos to them, and catches for them small -shadowy things,—perhaps even brings to them, through some dim window -of memory, a sandal of ghostly straw....</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_039.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="In_the_Dead_of_the_Night" id="In_the_Dead_of_the_Night">In the Dead of the Night</a></h3> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_041.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>Black, chill, and still,—so black, so still, that I touch myself to -find out whether I have yet a body. Then I grope about me to make sure -that I am not under the earth,—buried forever beyond the reach of -light and sound.... A clock strikes three! I shall see the sun again!</p> - -<p>Once again, at least. Possibly several thousand times. But there will -come a night never to be broken by any dawn,—a stillness never to be -broken by any sound.</p> - -<p>This is certain. As certain as the fact that I exist.</p> - -<p>Nothing else is equally certain. Reason deludes; feeling deludes; all -the senses delude. But there is no delusion whatever in the certain -knowledge of that night to come.</p> - -<p>Doubt the reality of substance, the reality of ghosts, the faiths -of men, the gods;—doubt right and wrong, friendship and love, the -existence of beauty, the existence of horror;—there will always remain -one thing impossible to doubt,—one infinite blind black certainty.</p> - -<p>The same darkness for all,—for the eyes of creatures and the eyes -of heaven;—the same doom for all,—insect and man, ant-hill and -city, races and worlds, suns and galaxies: inevitable dissolution, -disparition, and oblivion.</p> - -<p>And vain all human striving not to remember, not to think: the -Veil that old faiths wove, to hide the Void, has been rent forever -away;—and Sheol is naked before us,—and destruction hath no covering.</p> - -<p>So surely as I believe that I exist, even so surely must I believe that -I shall cease to exist—which is horror!... But—</p> - -<p>Must I believe that I really exist?... In the moment of that -self-questioning, the Darkness stood about me as a wall, and spake:—</p> - -<p>"I am only the Shadow: I shall pass. But the Reality will come, and -will not pass.</p> - -<p>"I am only the Shadow. In me there are lights,—the glimmering of a -hundred millions of suns. And in me there are voices. With the coming -of the Reality, there will be no more lights, nor any voice, nor any -rising, nor any hope.</p> - -<p>"But far above you there will still be sun for many a million -years,—and warmth and youth and love and joy.. .. Vast azure of -sky and sea,—fragrance of summer bloom,—shrillings in grass and -grove,—flutter of shadows and flicker of light,—laughter of waters -and laughter of girls. Blackness and silence for you,—and cold blind -creepings."</p> - -<p>I made reply:—</p> - -<p>"Of thoughts like these I am now afraid. But that is only because I -have been startled out of sleep. When all my brain awakens, I shall -not be afraid. For this fear is brute fear only,—the deep and dim -primordial fear bequeathed me from the million ages of the life of -instinct.... Already it is passing. I can begin to think of death as -dreamless rest,—a sleep with no sensation of either joy or pain."</p> - -<p>The Darkness whispered:—</p> - -<p>"What is sensation?"</p> - -<p>And I could not answer, and the Gloom took weight, and pressed upon me, -and said:—</p> - -<p>"You do not know what is sensation? How, then, can you say whether -there will or will not be pain for the dust of you,—the molecules of -your body, the atoms of your soul?... Atoms—what are they?"</p> - -<p>Again I could make no answer, and the weight of the Gloom waxed -greater—a weight of pyramids—and the whisper hissed:—</p> - -<p>"Their repulsions? their attractions? The awful clingings of them -and the leapings?... What are these?... Passions of lives burnt -out?—furies of insatiable desire?—frenzies of everlasting hate? -—madnesses of never ending torment?... You do not know? But you say -that there will be no more pain!..."</p> - -<p>Then I cried out to the mocker:—"I am awake—awake—fully awake! -I have ceased to fear;—I remember!... All that I am is all that I -have been. Before the beginnings of Time I was;—beyond the uttermost -circling of the Eternities I shall endure. In myriad million forms I -but seem to pass: as form I am only Wave; as essence I am Sea. Sea -without shore I am;—and Doubt and Fear and Pain are but duskings -that fleet on the face of my depth.. .. Asleep, I behold the illusions -of Time; but, waking, I know myself timeless: one with the Life that -has neither form yet also one begins and the grave and graves,—the -the eater of neither form nor name, yet also one with all that begins -and ends,—even the grave and the maker of graves,—the corpse and the -eater of corpses...."</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>A sparrow twittered from the roof; another responded. Shapes of things -began to define in a soft gray glimmering;—and the gloom slowly -lightened. Murmurs of the city's wakening came to my ears, and grew and -multiplied. And the dimness flushed.</p> - -<p>Then rose the beautiful and holy Sun, the mighty Quickener, the mighty -Putrefier,—symbol sublime of that infinite Life whose forces are also -mine!...</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_041.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="Kusa-Hibari" id="Kusa-Hibari">Kusa-Hibari</a></h3> - - -<p style="margin-left: 20%; font-size: 0.8em;">Issun no mushi ni mo gobu no tamashii.—<i>Japanese Proverb.</i></p> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_043.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> -<hr class="r5" /> - -<p>His cage is exactly two Japanese inches high and one inch and a half -wide: its tiny wooden door, turning upon a pivot, will scarcely -admit the tip of my little finger. But he has plenty of room in that -cage,—room to walk, and jump, and fly; for he is so small that you -must look very carefully through the brown-gauze sides of it in order -to catch a glimpse of him. I have always to turn the cage round and -round, several times, in a good light, before I can discover his -whereabouts; and then I usually find him resting in one of the upper -corners,—clinging, upside down, to his ceiling of gauze.</p> - -<p>Imagine a cricket about the size of an ordinary mosquito,—with a -pair of antennae much longer than his own body, and so fine that -you can distinguish them only against the light. <i>Kusa-Hibari</i>, or -"Grass-Lark," is the Japanese name of him; and he is worth in the -market exactly twelve cents: that is to say, very much more than his -weight in gold. Twelve cents for such a gnat-like thing!...</p> - -<p>By day he sleeps or meditates, except while occupied with the slice of -fresh egg-plant or cucumber which must be poked into his cage every -morning. ... To keep him clean and well fed is somewhat troublesome: -could you see him, you would think it absurd to take any pains for the -sake of a creature so ridiculously small.</p> - -<p>But always at sunset the infinitesimal soul of him awakens: then -the room begins to fill with a delicate and ghostly music of -indescribable sweetness,-a thin, thin silvery rippling and trilling as -of tiniest electric bells. As the darkness deepens, the sound becomes -sweeter,—sometimes swelling till the whole house seems to vibrate -with the elfish resonance,—sometimes thinning down into the faintest -imaginable thread of a voice. But loud or low, it keeps a penetrating -quality that is weird.... All night, the atomy thus sings: he ceases -only when the temple bell proclaims the hour of dawn.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Now this tiny song is a song of love,—vague love of the unseen and -unknown. It is quite impossible that he should ever have seen or -known, in this present existence of his. Not even his ancestors, for -many generations back, could have known anything of the night-life -of the fields, or the amorous value of song. They were born of eggs -hatched in a jar of clay, in the shop of some insect-merchant; and they -dwelt thereafter only in cages. But he sings the song of his race as it -was sung a myriad years ago, and as faultlessly as if he understood the -exact significance of every note. Of course he did not learn the song. -It is a song of organic memory,—deep, dim memory of other quintillions -of lives, when the ghost of him shrilled at night from the dewy grasses -of the hills. Then that song brought him love—and death. He has -forgotten all about death; but he remembers the love. And therefore he -sings now—for the bride that will never come.</p> - -<p>So that his longing is unconsciously retrospective: he cries to the -dust of the past,—he calls to the silence and the gods for the return -of time.... Human lovers do very much the same thing without knowing -it. They call their illusion an Ideal; and their Ideal is, after all, -a mere shadowing of race-experience, a phantom of organic memory. The -living present has very little to do with it.... Perhaps this atomy -also has an ideal, or at least the rudiment of an ideal; but, in any -event, the tiny desire must utter its plaint in vain.</p> - -<p>The fault is not altogether mine. I had been warned that if the -creature were mated, he would cease to sing and would speedily die. -But, night after night, the plaintive, sweet, unanswered trilling -touched me like a reproach,—became at last an obsession, an -affliction, a torment of conscience; and I tried to buy a female. -It was too late in the season; there were no more kusa-hibari for -sale,—either males or females. The insect-merchant laughed and said, -"He ought to have died about the twentieth day of the ninth month." (It -was already the second day of the tenth month.) But the insect-merchant -did not know that I have a good stove in my study, and keep the -temperature at above 75° F. Wherefore my grass-lark still sings at -the close of the eleventh month, and I hope to keep him alive until -the Period of Greatest Cold. However, the rest of his generation are -probably dead: neither for love nor money could I now find him a mate. -And were I to set him free in order that he might make the search for -himself, he could not possibly live through a single night, even if -fortunate enough to escape by day the multitude of his natural enemies -in the garden,—ants, centipedes, and ghastly earth-spiders.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Last evening—the twenty-ninth of the eleventh month—an odd feeling -came to me as I sat at my desk: a sense of emptiness in the room. Then -I became aware that my grass-lark was silent, contrary to his wont. I -went to the silent cage, and found him lying dead beside a dried-up -lump of egg-plant as gray and hard as a stone. Evidently he had not -been fed for three or four days; but only the night before his death he -had been singing wonderfully,—so that I foolishly imagined him to be -more than usually contented. My student, Aki, who loves insects, used -to feed him; but Aki had gone into the country for a week's holiday, -and the duty of caring for the grass-lark had devolved upon Hana, the -housemaid. She is not sympathetic, Hana the housemaid. She says that -she did not forget the mite,—but there was no more egg-plant. And -she had never thought of substituting a slice of onion or of cucumber! -... I spoke words of reproof to Hana the housemaid, and she dutifully -expressed contrition. But the fairy-music has stopped; and the -stillness reproaches; and the room is cold, in spite of the stove.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>Absurd!... I have made a good girl unhappy because of an insect half -the size of a barley-grain! The quenching of that infinitesimal life -troubles me more than I could have believed possible. ... Of course, -the mere habit of thinking about a creature's wants—even the wants of -a cricket—may create, by insensible degrees, an imaginative interest, -an attachment of which one becomes conscious only when the relation -is broken. Besides, I had felt so much, in the hush of the night, -the charm of the delicate voice,—telling of one minute existence -dependent upon my will and selfish pleasure, as upon the favour of a -god,—telling me also that the atom of ghost in the tiny cage, and -the atom of ghost within myself, were forever but one and the same in -the deeps of the Vast of being.... And then to think of the little -creature hungering and thirsting, night after night, and day after day, -while the thoughts of his guardian deity were turned to the weaving of -dreams!... How bravely, nevertheless, he sang on to the very end,—an -atrocious end, for he had eaten his own legs!... May the gods forgive -us all,—especially Hana the housemaid!</p> - -<p>Yet, after all, to devour one's own legs—for hunger is not the worst -by that can happen to a being cursed with the gift of song. There are -human crickets who must eat their own hearts in order to sing.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_043.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h3><a name="The_Eater_of_Dreams" id="The_Eater_of_Dreams">The Eater of Dreams</a></h3> - - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_045.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> - -<blockquote> -<p style="margin-left: 30%; font-size: 0.8em;"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mijika-yo ya!</span><br /> -Baku no yumé kū<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hima mo nashi!</span><br /> -</p> - -<p style="font-size: 0.8em;">—"Alas! how short this night of ours! The Baku will not even have time -to eat our dreams!"—Old Japanese Love-song.</p> -</blockquote> - -<p>The name of the creature is Baku, or Shirokinakatsukami; and its -particular function is the eating of Dreams. It is variously -represented and described. An ancient book in my possession states that -the male Baku has the body of a horse, the face of a lion, the trunk -and tusks of an elephant, the forelock of a rhinoceros, the tail of a -cow, and the feet of a tiger. The female Baku is said to differ greatly -in shape from the male; but the difference is not clearly set forth. In -the time of the old Chinese learning, pictures of the Baku used to be -hung up in Japanese houses, such pictures being supposed to exert the -same beneficent power as the creature itself. My ancient book contains -this legend about the custom:—</p> - -<p>"In the <i>Shōsei-Roku</i> it is declared that Kōtei, while hunting on the -Eastern coast, once met with a Baku having the body of an animal, -but speaking like a man. Kōtei said: 'Since the world is quiet and -at peace, why should we still see goblins? If a Baku be needed to -extinguish evil sprites, then it were better to have a picture of the -Baku suspended to the wall of one's house. Thereafter, even though some -evil Wonder should appear, it could do no harm.'"</p> - -<p>Then there is given a long list of evil Wonders, and the signs of their -presence:—</p> - -<p>"When the Hen lays a soft egg, the demon's name is Taifu.</p> - -<p>"When snakes appear entwined together, the demon's name is Jinzu.</p> - -<p>"When dogs go with their ears turned back, the demon's name is Taiyō.</p> - -<p>"When the Fox speaks with the voice of a man, the demon's name is -Gwaishū.</p> - -<p>"When blood appears on the clothes of men, the demon's name is Yūki.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_046.jpg" width="600" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>"<i>When the rice-pot speaks with a human voice, the demon's name is</i> -Kanjo.</p> - -<p>"<i>When the dream of the night is an evil dream, the demon's name is</i> -Ringetsu...."</p> - -<p>And the old book further observes: "Whenever any such evil marvel -happens, let the name of the Baku be invoked: then the evil sprite will -immediately sink three feet under the ground."</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>But on the subject of evil Wonders I do not feel qualified to -discourse: it belongs to the unexplored and appalling world of Chinese -demonology, and it has really very little to do with the subject of the -Baku in Japan. The Japanese Baku is commonly known only as the Eater -of Dreams; and the most remarkable fact in relation to the cult of the -creature is that the Chinese character representing its name used to -be put in gold upon the lacquered wooden pillows of lords and princes. -By the virtue and power of this character on the pillow, the sleeper -was thought to be protected from evil dreams. It is rather difficult to -find such a pillow to-day: even pictures of the Baku (or "Hakutaku," as -it is sometimes called) have become very rare. But the old invocation -to the Baku still survives in common parlance: Baku kuraë! Baku -kuraë!—"Devour, O Baku! devour my evil dream!"... When you awake from -a nightmare, or from any unlucky dream, you should quickly repeat that -invocation three times;—then the Baku will eat the dream, and will -change the misfortune or the fear into good fortune and gladness.</p> - -<p class="center">*</p> - -<p>It was on a very sultry night, during the Period of Greatest Heat, that -I last saw the Baku. I had just awakened out of misery; and the hour -was the Hour of the Ox; and the Baku came in through the window to ask, -"Have you anything for me to eat?"</p> - -<p>I gratefully made answer:—</p> - -<p>"Assuredly!... Listen, good Baku, to this dream of mine!—</p> - -<p>"I was standing in some great white-walled room, where lamps were -burning; but I cast no shadow on the naked floor of that room,—and -there, upon an iron bed, I saw my own dead body. How I had come to die, -and when I had died, I could not remember. Women were sitting near the -bed,—six or seven,—and I did not know any of them. They were neither -young nor old, and all were dressed in black: watchers I took them to -be. They sat motionless and silent: there was no sound in the place; -and I somehow felt that the hour was late.</p> - -<p>"In the same moment I became aware of something nameless in the -atmosphere of the room,-a heaviness that weighed upon the will,—some -viewless numbing power that was slowly growing. Then the watchers began -to watch each other, stealthily; and I knew that they were afraid. -Soundlessly one rose up, and left the room. Another followed; then -another. So, one by one, and lightly as shadows, they all went out. I -was left alone with the corpse of myself.</p> - -<p>"The lamps still burned clearly; but the terror in the air was -thickening. The watchers had stolen away almost as soon as they began -to feel it. But I believed that there was yet time to escape;—I -thought that I could safely delay a moment longer. A monstrous -curiosity obliged me to remain: I wanted to look at my own body, -to examine it closely.... I approached it. I observed it. And I -wondered—because it seemed to me very long,—unnaturally long....</p> - -<p>"Then I thought that I saw one eyelid quiver. But the appearance of -motion might have been caused by the trembling of a lamp-flame. I -stooped to look—slowly, and very cautiously, because I was afraid that -the eyes might open.</p> - -<p>"'It is Myself,' I thought, as I bent down,—'and yet, it is growing -queer!'... The face appeared to be lengthening.... 'It is not Myself,' -I thought again, as I stooped still lower,—'and yet, it cannot be any -other!' And I became much more afraid, unspeakably afraid, that the -eyes would open....</p> - -<p>"<i>They</i> opened!—horribly they opened!—and that thing sprang,—sprang -from the bed at me, and fastened upon me,—moaning, and gnawing, and -rending! Oh! with what madness of terror did I strive against it! But -the eyes of it, and the moans of it, and the touch of it, sickened; -and all my being seemed about to burst asunder in frenzy of loathing, -when—I knew not how—</p> - -<p>I found in my hand an axe. And I struck with the axe;—I clove, I -crushed, I brayed the Moaner,—until there lay before me only a -shapeless, hideous, reeking mass,—the abominable ruin of Myself....</p> - -<p>"—<i>Baku kuraë! Baku kuraë! Baku kuraë!</i> Devour, O Baku! devour the -dream!" "Nay!" made answer the Baku. "I never eat lucky dreams. That -is a very lucky dream,—a most fortunate dream.... The axe—yes! the -Axe of the Excellent Law, by which the monster of Self is utterly -destroyed!... The best kind of a dream! My friend, <i>I</i> believe in the -teaching of the Buddha."</p> - -<p>And the Baku went out of the window. I looked after him;—and I beheld -him fleeing over the miles of moonlit roofs,—passing, from house-top -to house-top, with amazing soundless leaps,—like a great cat....</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/kotto_045.jpg" width="250" alt="" /> -</div> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kott?, by Lafcadio Hearn - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KOTT? *** - -***** This file should be named 55473-h.htm or 55473-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/4/7/55473/ - -Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at Free Literature (online soon -in an extended version,also linking to free sources for -education worldwide ... MOOC's, educational materials,...) -Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - - -</pre> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index d08e74b..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_001.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_001.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 6db491f..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_001.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_002.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_002.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index bda1418..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_002.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_003.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_003.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c08d441..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_003.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_004.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_004.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 78f8e63..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_004.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_005.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_005.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3e9083c..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_005.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_006.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_006.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e21ecf2..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_006.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_007.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_007.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index de1a8e7..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_007.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_008.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_008.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 98a787c..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_008.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_010.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_010.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 94c42d3..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_010.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_012.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_012.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 893e2d1..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_012.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_014.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_014.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 9c71fbd..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_014.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_016.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_016.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index a45dcf5..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_016.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_018.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_018.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 4ac871b..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_018.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_020.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_020.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index cff04b5..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_020.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_021.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_021.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 47fa5f6..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_021.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_023.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_023.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 2907d63..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_023.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_024.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_024.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 0a69028..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_024.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_025.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_025.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 4aa87f0..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_025.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_026.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_026.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index b5130ba..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_026.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_028.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_028.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index b6322d5..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_028.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_030.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_030.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 00d3add..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_030.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_032.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_032.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 149b1e3..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_032.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_033.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_033.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index d223cd9..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_033.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_035.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_035.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 99da7cf..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_035.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_037.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_037.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 058c6c7..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_037.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_039.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_039.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 5ed8db9..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_039.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_041.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_041.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 4c092cd..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_041.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_042.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_042.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3df05ea..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_042.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_043.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_043.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 7563abc..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_043.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_045.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_045.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index da86bfe..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_045.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_046.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_046.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 507883a..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_046.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_01.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_01.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index b6117e5..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_01.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_02.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_02.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 442e199..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_02.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_03.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_03.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 07ee57e..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_03.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_04.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_04.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 7448ae6..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_04.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_05.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_05.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 164598e..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_05.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_06.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_06.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index a2815c8..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_note01_06.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_tp.jpg b/old/55473-h/images/kotto_tp.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e95b2a8..0000000 --- a/old/55473-h/images/kotto_tp.jpg +++ /dev/null |
