Transcriber's Note: Phonetic characters are represented by the following symbols: [=x] = any letter "x" with superior macron

SHORT STORY

THE ROMANCE OF THE MILKY WAY

AND OTHER STUDIES & STORIES

BY LAFCADIO HEARN

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN AND COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK 1905

COPYRIGHT 1905 BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN & COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 1905

CONTENTS

 THE ROMANCE OF THE MILKY WAY 1

 GOBLIN POETRY 51

 "ULTIMATE QUESTIONS" 103

 THE MIRROR MAIDEN 125

 THE STORY OF IT[=O] NORISUKÉ 139

 STRANGER THAN FICTION 167

 A LETTER FROM JAPAN 179

INTRODUCTION

Lafcadio Hearn, known to Nippon as Yakumo Koizumi, was born inLeucadia in the Ionian Islands, June 27, 1850. His father was an Irishsurgeon in the British Army; his mother was a Greek. Both parents diedwhile Hearn was still a child, and he was adopted by a great-aunt, and educated for the priesthood. To this training he owed hisLatin scholarship and, doubtless, something of the subtlety ofhis intelligence. He soon found, however, that the prospect of anecclesiastical career was alien from his inquiring mind and vividtemperament, and at the age of nineteen he came to America to seekhis fortune. After working for a time as a proof-reader, he obtainedemployment as a newspaper reporter in Cincinnati. Soon he rose tobe an editorial writer, and went in the course of a few years to NewOrleans to join the editorial staff of the "Times-Democrat. " Here helived until 1887, writing odd fantasies and arabesques for his paper, contributing articles and sketches to the magazines, and publishingseveral curious little books, among them his "Stray Leaves fromStrange Literature, " and his translations from Gautier. In the winterof 1887 he began his pilgrimages to exotic countries, being, ashe wrote to a friend, "a small literary bee in search of inspiringhoney. " After a couple of years, spent chiefly in the French WestIndies, with periods of literary work in New York, he went in 1890to Japan to prepare a series of articles for a magazine. Here throughsome deep affinity of mood with the marvelous people of that countryhe seems suddenly to have felt himself at last at home. He married aJapanese woman; he acquired Japanese citizenship in order to preservethe succession of his property to his family there; he became alecturer in the Imperial University at T[=o]ky[=o]; and in a seriesof remarkable books he made himself the interpreter to the WesternWorld of the very spirit of Japanese life and art. He died there ofparalysis of the heart on the 26th of September, 1904. 

 * * * * *

With the exception of a body of familiar letters now in process ofcollection, the present volume contains all of Hearn's writing thathe left uncollected in the magazines or in manuscript of a sufficientripeness for publication. It is worth noting, however, that perfect asis the writing of "Ultimate Questions, " and complete as the essay isin itself, the author regarded it as unfinished, and, had he lived, would have revised and amplified some portions of it. 

But if this volume lacks the incomparably exquisite touch of itsauthor in its arrangement and revision, it does, nevertheless, presenthim in all of his most characteristic veins, and it is in respect bothto style and to substance perhaps the most mature and significant ofhis works. 

In his first days as a writer Hearn had conceived an ideal of his artas specific as it was ambitious. Early in the eighties he wrote fromNew Orleans in an unpublished letter to the Rev. Wayland D. Ballof Washington: "The lovers of antique loveliness are proving to methe future possibilities of a long cherished dream, --the Englishrealization of a Latin style, modeled upon foreign masters, andrendered even more forcible by that element of _strength_ whichis the characteristic of Northern tongues. This no man can hopeto accomplish, but even a translator may carry his stones to themaster-masons of a new architecture of language. " In the realizationof his ideal Hearn took unremitting pains. He gave a minute andanalytical study to the writings of such masters of style as Flaubertand Gautier, and he chose his miscellaneous reading with a peculiarcare. He wrote again to the same friend: "I never read a book whichdoes not powerfully impress the imagination; but whatever containsnovel, curious, potent imagery I always read, no matter whatthe subject. When the soil of fancy is really well enrichedwith innumerable fallen leaves, the flowers of language growspontaneously. " Finally, to the hard study of technique, to vastbut judicious reading, he added a long, creative brooding time. Toa Japanese friend, Nobushige Amenomori, he wrote in a passagewhich contains by implication a deep theory not only of literarycomposition, but of all art:--

"Now with regard to your own sketch or story. If you are quitedissatisfied with it, I think this is probably due _not_ to what yousuppose, --imperfection of expression, --but rather to the fact thatsome _latent_ thought or emotion has not yet defined itself in yourmind with sufficient sharpness. You feel something and have not beenable to express the feeling--only because you do not yet quite knowwhat it is. We feel without understanding feeling; and our mostpowerful emotions are the most undefinable. This must be so, becausethey are inherited accumulations of feeling, and the multiplicity ofthem--superimposed one over another--blurs them, and makes them dim, even though enormously increasing their strength. .. . _Unconscious_brain work is the best to develop such latent feeling or thought. Byquietly writing the thing over and over again, I find that the emotionor idea often _develops itself_ in the process, --unconsciously. Again, it is often worth while to _try_ to analyze the feeling that remainsdim. The effort of trying to understand exactly what it is that movesus sometimes proves successful. .. . If you have any feeling--no matterwhat--strongly latent in the mind (even only a haunting sadness or amysterious joy), you may be sure that it is expressible. Some feelingsare, of course, very difficult to develop. I shall show you oneof these days, when we see each other, a page that I worked at for_months_ before the idea came clearly. .. . When the best resultcomes, it ought to surprise you, for our best work is out of theUnconscious. "

Through this study, reading, and brooding Lafcadio Hearn's proseripened and mellowed consistently to the end. In mere workmanship thepresent volume is one of his most admirable, while in its heightenedpassages, like the final paragraph of "The Romance of the Milky Way, "the rich, melancholy music, the profound suggestion, are not easilymatched from any but the very greatest English prose. 

In substance the volume is equally significant. In 1884 he wrote toone of the closest of his friends that he had at last found hisfeet intellectually through the reading of Herbert Spencer whichhad dispelled all "isms" from his mind and left him "the vaguebut omnipotent consolation of the Great Doubt. " And in "UltimateQuestions, " which strikes, so to say, the dominant chord of thisvolume, we have an almost lyrical expression of the meaning for him ofthe Spencerian philosophy and psychology. In it is his characteristicmingling of Buddhist and Shinto thought with English and Frenchpsychology, strains which in his work "do not simply mix well, " ashe says in one of his letters, but "absolutely unite, like chemicalelements--rush together with a shock;"--and in it he strikes hisdeepest note. In his steady envisagement of the horror that envelopsthe stupendous universe of science, in his power to evoke and reviveold myths and superstitions, and by their glamour to cast a ghostlylight of vanished suns over the darkness of the abyss, he was the mostLucretian of modern writers. 

 * * * * *

In outward appearance Hearn, the man, was in no way prepossessing. Inthe sharply lined picture of him drawn by one of his Japanese comradesin the "Atlantic" for October, 1905, he appears, "slightly corpulentin later years, short in stature, hardly five feet high, of somewhatstooping gait. A little brownish in complexion, and of rather hairyskin. A thin, sharp, aquiline nose, large protruding eyes, of whichthe left was blind and the right very near-sighted. "

The same writer, Nobushige Amenomori, has set down a reminiscence, notof Hearn the man, but of Hearn the genius, wherewith this introductionto the last of his writings may fitly conclude: "I shall ever retainthe vivid remembrance of the sight I had when I stayed over night athis house for the first time. Being used myself also to sit up late, Iread in bed that night. The clock struck one in the morning, but therewas a light in Hearn's study. I heard some low, hoarse coughing. I wasafraid my friend might be ill; so I stepped out of my room and went tohis study. Not wanting, however, to disturb him, if he was at work, I cautiously opened the door just a little, and peeped in. I sawmy friend intent in writing at his high desk, with his nose almosttouching the paper. Leaf after leaf he wrote on. In a while he heldup his head, and what did I see! It was not the Hearn I was familiarwith; it was another Hearn. His face was mysteriously white; hislarge eye gleamed. He appeared like one in touch with some unearthlypresence. 

"Within that homely looking man there burned something pure as thevestal fire, and in that flame dwelt a mind that called forth life andpoetry out of dust, and grasped the highest themes of human thought. "

F. G. 

September, 1905. 

THE ROMANCE, OF THE MILKY WAY

 Of old it was said: 'The River of Heaven is the Ghost of Waters. ' We behold it shifting its bed in the course of the year as an earthly river sometimes does. 

 _Ancient Scholar_

Among the many charming festivals celebrated by Old Japan, the mostromantic was the festival of Tanabata-Sama, the Weaving-Lady of theMilky Way. In the chief cities her holiday is now little observed; andin T[=o]ky[=o] it is almost forgotten. But in many country districts, and even in villages, near the capital, it is still celebrated in asmall way. If you happen to visit an old-fashioned country town orvillage, on the seventh day of the seventh month (by the ancientcalendar), you will probably notice many freshly-cut bamboos fixedupon the roofs of the houses, or planted in the ground beside them, every bamboo having attached to it a number of strips of coloredpaper. In some very poor villages you might find that these papers arewhite, or of one color only; but the general rule is that the papersshould be of five or seven different colors. Blue, green, red, yellow, and white are the tints commonly displayed. All these papers areinscribed with short poems written in praise of Tanabata and herhusband Hikoboshi. After the festival the bamboos are taken down andthrown into the nearest stream, together with the poems attached tothem. 

 * * * * *

To understand the romance of this old festival, you must know thelegend of those astral divinities to whom offerings used to be made, even by, the Imperial Household, on the seventh day of the seventhmonth. The legend is Chinese. This is the Japanese popular version ofit:--

The great god of the firmament had a lovely daughter, Tanabata-tsumé, who passed her days in weaving garments for her august parent. Sherejoiced in her work, and thought that there was no greater pleasurethan the pleasure of weaving. But one day, as she sat before her loomat the door of her heavenly dwelling, she saw a handsome peasant ladpass by, leading an ox, and she fell in love with him. Her augustfather, divining her secret wish, gave her the youth for a husband. But the wedded lovers became too fond of each other, and neglectedtheir duty to the god of the firmament; the sound of the shuttle wasno longer heard, and the ox wandered, unheeded, over the plains ofheaven. Therefore the great god was displeased, and he separated thepair. They were sentenced to live thereafter apart, with the CelestialRiver between them; but it was permitted them to see each other oncea year, on the seventh night of the seventh moon. On thatnight--providing the skies be clear--the birds of heaven make, withtheir bodies and wings, a bridge over the stream; and by means of thatbridge the lovers can meet. But if there be rain, the River of Heavenrises, and becomes so wide that the bridge cannot be formed. So thehusband and wife cannot always meet, even on the seventh night ofthe seventh month; it may happen, by reason of bad weather, that theycannot meet for three or four years at a time. But their love remainsimmortally young and eternally patient; and they continue to fulfilltheir respective duties each day without fault, --happy in their hopeof being able to meet on the seventh night of the next seventh month. 

 * * * * *

To ancient Chinese fancy, the Milky Way was a luminous river, --theRiver of Heaven, --the Silver Stream. It has been stated by Westernwriters that Tanabata, the Weaving-Lady, is a star in Lyra; and theHerdsman, her beloved, a star in Aquila, on the opposite side of thegalaxy. But it were more correct to say that both are represented, toFar-Eastern imagination, by groups of stars. An old Japanese book putsthe matter thus plainly: "Kengy[=u] (the Ox-Leader) is on the westside of the Heavenly River, and is represented by three stars in arow, and looks like a man leading an ox. Shokujo (the Weaving-Lady)is on the east side of the Heavenly River: three stars so placed asto appear like the figure of a woman seated at her loom. .. . The formerpresides over all things relating to agriculture; the latter, over allthat relates to women's work. "

 * * * * *

In an old book called Zatsuwa-Shin, it is said that these deitieswere of earthly origin. Once in this world they were man and wife, and lived in China; and the husband was called Ishi, and the wifeHakuy[=o]. They especially and most devoutly reverenced the Moon. Every clear evening, after sundown, they waited with eagerness to seeher rise. And when she began to sink towards the horizon, they wouldclimb to the top of a hill near their house, so that they might beable to gaze upon her face as long as possible. Then, when she at lastdisappeared from view, they would mourn together. At the age of ninetyand nine, the wife died; and her spirit rode up to heaven on a magpie, and there became a star. The husband, who was then one hundred andthree years old, sought consolation for his bereavement in looking atthe Moon and when he welcomed her rising and mourned her setting, itseemed to him as if his wife were still beside him. 

One summer night, Hakuy[=o]--now immortally beautiful andyoung--descended from heaven upon her magpie, to visit her husband;and he was made very happy by that visit. But from that time hecould think of nothing but the bliss of becoming a star, and joiningHakuy[=o] beyond the River of Heaven. At last he also ascended to thesky, riding upon a crow; and there he became a star-god. But he couldnot join Hakuy[=o] at once, as he had hoped;--for between his allottedplace and hers flowed the River of Heaven; and it was not permittedfor either star to cross the stream, because the Master of Heaven(_Ten-Tei_) daily bathed in its waters. Moreover, there was no bridge. But on one day every year--the seventh day of the seventh month--theywere allowed to see each other. The Master of Heaven goes alwayson that day to the Zenh[=o]do, to hear the preaching of the law ofBuddha; and then the magpies and the crows make, with their hoveringbodies and outspread wings, a bridge over the Celestial Stream; andHakuy[=o] crosses that bridge to meet her husband. 

There can be little doubt that the Japanese festival calledTanabata was originally identical with the festival of the ChineseWeaving-Goddess, Tchi-Niu; the Japanese holiday seems to havebeen especially a woman's holiday, from the earliest times; andthe characters with which the word Tanabata is written signify aweaving-girl. But as both of the star-deities were worshiped on theseventh of the seventh month, some Japanese scholars have not beensatisfied with the common explanation of the name, and have statedthat it was originally composed with the word _tané_ (seed, or grain), and the word _hata_ (loom). Those who accept this etymology make theappellation, Tanabata-Sama, plural instead of singular, and renderit as "the deities of grain and of the loom, "--that is to say, thosepresiding over agriculture and weaving. In old Japanese picturesthe star-gods are represented according to this conception of theirrespective attributes;--Hikoboshi being figured as a peasant ladleading an ox to drink of the Heavenly River, on the farther side ofwhich Orihimé (Tanabata) appears, weaving at her loom. The garb ofboth is Chinese; and the first Japanese pictures of these divinitieswere probably copied from some Chinese original. 

In the oldest collection of Japanese poetry extant, --theMany[=o]sh[=u], dating from 760 A. D. , --the male divinity is usuallycalled Hikoboshi, and the female Tanabata-tsumé; but in later timesboth have been called Tanabata. In Izumo the male deity is popularlytermed O-Tanabata Sama, and the female Mé-Tanabata Sama. Both arestill known by many names. The male is called Kaiboshi as well asHikoboshi and Kengy[=u]; while the female is called Asagao-himé("Morning Glory Princess")[1], Ito-ori-himé ("Thread-WeavingPrincess"), Momoko-himé ("Peach-Child Princess"), Takimono-himé("Incense Princess"), and Sasagani-himé ("Spider Princess"). Someof these names are difficult to explain, --especially the last, whichreminds us of the Greek legend of Arachne. Probably the Greek myth andthe Chinese story have nothing whatever in common; but in old Chinesebooks there is recorded a curious fact which might well suggest arelationship. In the time of the Chinese Emperor Ming Hwang (whom theJapanese call Gens[=o]), it was customary for the ladies of the court, on the seventh day of the seventh month, to catch spiders and put theminto an incense-box for purposes of divination. On the morning of theeighth day the box was opened; and if the spiders had spun thick websduring the night the omen was good. But if they had remained idle theomen was bad. 

[Footnote 1: Asagao (lit. , "morning-face") is the Japanese name forthe beautiful climbing plant which we call "morning glory. "]

 * * * * *

There is a story that, many ages ago, a beautiful woman visited thedwelling of a farmer in the mountains of Izumo, and taught to the onlydaughter of the household an art of weaving never before known. Oneevening the beautiful stranger vanished away; and the people knewthat they had seen the Weaving-Lady of Heaven. The daughter of thefarmer became renowned for her skill in weaving. But she would nevermarry, --because she had been the companion of Tanabata-Sama. 

 * * * * *

Then there is a Chinese story--delightfully vague--about a man whoonce made a visit, unawares, to the Heavenly Land. He had observedthat every year, during the eighth month, a raft of precious wood camefloating to the shore on which he lived; and he wanted to know wherethat wood grew. So he loaded a boat with provisions for a two years'voyage, and sailed away in the direction from which the rafts used todrift. For months and months he sailed on, over an always placid sea;and at last he arrived at a pleasant shore, where wonderful treeswere growing. He moored his boat, and proceeded alone into the unknownland, until he came to the bank of a river whose waters were bright assilver. On the opposite shore he saw a pavilion; and in the paviliona beautiful woman sat weaving; she was white like moonshine, and madea radiance all about her. Presently he saw a handsome young peasantapproaching, leading an ox to the water; and he asked the youngpeasant to tell him the name of the place and the country. But theyouth seemed to be displeased by the question, and answered in asevere tone: "If you want to know the name of this place, go backto where you came from, and ask Gen-Kum-Pei. "[2] So the voyager, feeling afraid, hastened to his boat, and returned to China. There hesought out the sage Gen-Kum-Pei, to whom he related the adventure. Gen-Kum-Pei clapped his hands for wonder, and exclaimed, "So it wasyou!. .. On the seventh day of the seventh month I was gazing atthe heavens, and I saw that the Herdsman and the Weaver were aboutto meet;--but between them was a new Star, which I took to be aGuest-Star. Fortunate man! you have been to the River of Heaven, andhave looked upon the face of the Weaving-Lady!. .. "

[Footnote 2: This is the Japanese reading of the Chinese name. ]

 * * * * *

--It is said that the meeting of the Herdsman and the Weaver can beobserved by any one with good eyes; for whenever it occurs those starsburn with five different colors. That is why offerings of five colorsare made to the Tanabata divinities, and why the poems composed intheir praise are written upon paper of five different tints. 

But, as I have said before, the pair can meet only in fair weather. If there be the least rain upon the seventh night, the River of Heavenwill rise, and the lovers must wait another whole year. Therefore therain that happens to fall on Tanabata night is called _Namida no Amé_, "The Rain of Tears. "

When the sky is clear on the seventh night, the lovers are fortunate;and their stars can be seen to sparkle with delight. If the starKengy[=u] then shines very brightly, there will be great rice cropsin the autumn. If the star Shokujo looks brighter than usual, therewill be a prosperous time for weavers, and for every kind of femaleindustry. 

 * * * * *

In old Japan it was generally supposed that the meeting of the pairsignified good fortune to mortals. Even to-day, in many parts of thecountry, children sing a little song on the evening of the Tanabatafestival, --_Tenki ni nari!_ ("O weather, be clear!") In the provinceof Iga the young folks also sing a jesting song at the supposed hourof the lovers' meeting:--

 Tanabata ya! Amari isogaba, Korobubéshi![3]

But in the province of Izumo, which is a very rainy district, thecontrary belief prevails; and it is thought that if the sky be clearon the seventh day of the seventh month, misfortune will follow. Thelocal explanation of this belief is that if the stars can meet, therewill be born from their union many evil deities who will afflict thecountry with drought and other calamities. 

[Footnote 3: "Ho! Tanabata! if you hurry too much, you will tumbledown!"]

 * * * * *

The festival of Tanabata was first celebrated in Japan on the seventhday of the seventh month of Tomby[=o] Sh[=o]h[=o] (A. D. 755). Perhapsthe Chinese origin of the Tanabata divinities accounts for the factthat their public worship was at no time represented by many temples. 

I have been able to find record of only one temple to them, calledTanabata-jinja, which was situated at a village called Hoshiaimura, in the province of Owari, and surrounded by a grove calledTanabata-mori. [4]

[Footnote 4: There is no mention, however, of any such village in anymodern directory. ]

Even before Temby[=o] Sh[=o]h[=o], however, the legend of theWeaving-Maiden seems to have been well known in Japan; for it isrecorded that on the seventh night of the seventh year of Y[=o]r[=o](A. D. 723) the poet Yamagami no Okura composed the song:--

 Amanogawa, Ai-muki tachité, Waga koïshi Kimi kimasu nari-- Himo-toki makina![5]

It would seem that the Tanabata festival was first establishedin Japan eleven hundred and fifty years ago, as an Imperial Courtfestival only, in accordance with Chinese precedent. Subsequentlythe nobility and the military classes everywhere followed imperialexample; and the custom of celebrating the Hoshi-mat-suri, orStar-Festival, --as it was popularly called, --spread graduallydownwards, until at last the seventh day of the seventh month became, in the full sense of the term, a national holiday. But the fashion ofits observance varied considerably at different eras and in differentprovinces. 

[Footnote 5: For a translation and explanation of this song, see_infra_, page 30. ]

The ceremonies at the Imperial Court were of the most elaboratecharacter: a full account of them is given in the _K[=o]jiKongen_, --with explanatory illustrations. On the evening of theseventh day of the seventh month, mattings were laid down on the eastside of that portion of the Imperial Palace called the Seir-y[=o]den;and upon these mattings were placed four tables of offerings to theStar-deities. Besides the customary food-offerings, there were placedupon these tables rice-wine, incense, vases of red lacquer containingflowers, a harp and flute, and a needle with five eyes, threadedwith threads of five different colors. Black-lacquered oil-lamps wereplaced beside the tables, to illuminate the feast. In another part ofthe grounds a tub of water was so placed as to reflect the light ofthe Tanabata-stars; and the ladies of the Imperial Household attemptedto thread a needle by the reflection. She who succeeded was to befortunate during the following year. The court-nobility (_Kugé_) wereobliged to make certain offerings to the Imperial House on the dayof the festival. The character of these offerings, and the manner oftheir presentation, were fixed by decree. They were conveyed to thepalace upon a tray, by a veiled lady of rank, in ceremonial dress. Above her, as she walked, a great red umbrella was borne by anattendant. On the tray were placed seven _tanzaku_ (longilateralslips of fine tinted paper for the writing of poems); seven_kudzu_-leaves;[6] seven inkstones; seven strings of _s[=o]men_(a kind of vermicelli); fourteen writing-brushes; and a bunch ofyam-leaves gathered at night, and thickly sprinkled with dew. In thepalace grounds the ceremony began at the Hour of the Tiger, --4 A. M. Then the inkstones were carefully washed, --prior to preparing the inkfor the writing of poems in praise of the Star-deities, --and each oneset upon a _kudzu_-leaf. One bunch of bedewed yam-leaves was thenlaid upon every inkstone; and with this dew, instead of water, thewriting-ink was prepared. All the ceremonies appear to have beencopied from those in vogue at the Chinese court in the time of theEmperor Ming-Hwang. 

[Footnote 6: _Pueraria Thunbergiana. _]

 * * * * *

It was not until the time of the Tokugawa Sh[=o]gunate that theTanabata festival became really a national holiday; and the popularcustom of attaching _tansaku_ of different colors to freshly-cutbamboos, in celebration of the occasion, dates only from the eraof Bunser (1818). Previously the _tanzaku_ had been made of a verycostly quality of paper; and the old aristocratic ceremonies had beennot less expensive than elaborate. But in the time of the TokugawaSh[=o]gunate a very cheap paper of various colors was manufactured;and the holiday ceremonies were suffered to assume an inexpensiveform, in which even the poorest classes could indulge. 

The popular customs relating to the festival differed according tolocality. Those of Izumo--where all classes of society, _samurai_ orcommon folk, celebrated the holiday in much the same way--used to beparticularly interesting; and a brief account of them will suggestsomething of the happy aspects of life in feudal times. At the Hourof the Tiger, on the seventh night of the seventh month, everybodywas up; and the work of washing the inkstones and writing-brusheswas performed. Then, in the household garden, dew was collected uponyam-leaves. This dew was called _Amanogawa no suzuki_ ("drops from theRiver of Heaven"); and it was used to make fresh ink for writing thepoems which were to be suspended to bamboos planted in the garden. Itwas usual for friends to present each other with new inkstones at thetime of the Tanabata festival; and if there were any new inkstonesin the house, the fresh ink was prepared in these. Each member ofthe family then wrote poems. The adults composed verses, according totheir ability, in praise of the Star-deities; and the children eitherwrote dictation or tried to improvise. Little folk too young to usethe writing-brush without help had their small hands guided, by parentor elder sister or elder brother, so as to shape on a _tanzaku_the character of some single word or phrase relating to thefestival, --such as "Amanogawa, " or "Tanabata, " or "Kasasagi no Hashi"(the Bridge of Magpies). In the garden were planted two freshly-cutbamboos, with branches and leaves entire, --a male bamboo(_otoko-daké_) and a female bamboo (_onna-daké_). They were setup about six feet apart, and to a cord extended between them weresuspended paper-cuttings of five colors, and skeins of dyed thread offive colors. The paper-cuttings represented upper-robes, --_kimono_. To the leaves and branches of the bamboos were tied the _tanzaku_on which poems had been written by the members of the family. And upon a table, set between the bamboos, or immediately beforethem, were placed vessels containing various offerings to theStar-deities, --fruits, _s[=o]men_, rice-wine, and vegetables ofdifferent kinds, such as cucumbers and watermelons. 

But the most curious Izumo custom relating to the festival was the_Nému-nagashi_, or "Sleep-wash-away" ceremony. Before day-break theyoung folks used to go to some stream, carrying with them bunchescomposed of _némuri_-leaves and bean-leaves mixed together. Onreaching the stream, they would fling their bunches of leaves into thecurrent, and sing a little song:--

 Nému wa, nagaré yo! Mamé no ha wa, tomaré!

These verses might be rendered in two ways; because the word _nému_can be taken in the meaning either of _némuri_ (sleep), or of_nemuri-gi_ or _némunoki_, the "sleep-plant" (mimosa), --while thesyllables _mamé_, as written in _kana_, can signify either "bean, " or"activity, " or "strength, " "vigor, " "health, " etc. But the ceremonywas symbolical, and the intended meaning of the song was:--

 Drowsiness, drift away! Leaves of vigor, remain!

After this, all the young folk would jump into the water, to bathe orswim, in token of their resolve to shed all laziness for the comingyear, and to maintain a vigorous spirit of endeavor. 

 * * * * *

Yet it was probably in Yédo (now T[=o]ky[=o]) that the Tanabatafestival assumed its most picturesque aspects. During the two daysthat the celebration lasted, --the sixth and seventh of the seventhmonth, --the city used to present the appearance of one vast bamboogrove; fresh bamboos, with poems attached to them, being erected uponthe roofs of the houses. Peasants were in those days able to do agreat business in bamboos, which were brought into town by hundreds ofwagonloads for holiday use. Another feature of the Yédo festival wasthe children's procession, in which bamboos, with poems attached tothem, were carried about the city. To each such bamboo there was alsofastened a red plaque on which were painted, in Chinese characters, the names of the Tanabata stars. 

But almost everywhere, under the Tokugawa régime, the Tanabatafestival used to be a merry holiday for the young people of allclasses, --a holiday beginning with lantern displays before sunrise, and lasting well into the following night. Boys and girls on that daywere dressed in their best, and paid visits of ceremony to friends andneighbors. 

 * * * * *

--The moon of the seventh month used to be called _Tanabata-tsuki_, or"The Moon of Tanabata. " And it was also called _Fumi-tsuki_, or "TheLiterary Moon, " because during the seventh month poems were everywherecomposed in praise of the Celestial Lovers. 

 * * * * *

I think that my readers ought to be interested in the followingselection of ancient Japanese poems, treating of the Tanabata legend. All are from the _Many[=o]sh[=u]_. The _Many[=o]sh[=u]_, or "Gatheringof a Myriad Leaves, " is a vast collection of poems composed before themiddle of the eighth century. It was compiled by Imperial order, andcompleted early in the ninth century. The number of the poems whichit contains is upwards of four thousand; some being "long poems"(_naga-uta_), but the great majority _tanka_, or compositions limitedto thirty-one syllables; and the authors were courtiers or highofficials. The first eleven _tanka_ hereafter translated were composedby Yamagami no Okura, Governor of the province of Chikuzen more thaneleven hundred years ago. His fame as a poet is well deserved; fornot a little of his work will bear comparison with some of the finerepigrams of the Greek Anthology. The following verses, upon the deathof his little son Furubi, will serve as an example:--

 Wakakeréba Nichi-yuki shiraji: Mahi wa sému, Shitabé no tsukahi Ohité-tohorasé. 

 --[_As he is so young, he cannot know the way. .. . To the messenger of the Underworld I will give a bribe, and entreat him, saying: "Do thou kindly take the little one upon thy back along the road. "_]

Eight hundred years earlier, the Greek poet Diodorus Zonas of Sardishad written:--

 "_Do thou, who rowest the boat of the dead in the water of this reedy lake, for Hades, stretch out thy hand, dark Charon, to the son of Kinyras, as he mounts the ladder by the gang-way, and receive him. For his sandals will cause the lad to slip, and he fears to set his feet naked on the sand of the shore. _"

But the charming epigram of Diodorus was inspired only by a myth, --forthe "son of Kinyras" was no other than Adonis, --whereas the verses ofOkura express for us the yearning of a father's heart. 

 * * * * *

--Though the legend of Tanabata was indeed borrowed from China, thereader will find nothing Chinese in the following compositions. They represent the old classic poetry at its purest, free from alieninfluence; and they offer us many suggestions as to the condition ofJapanese life and thought twelve hundred years ago. Remembering thatthey were written before any modern European literature had yet takenform, one is startled to find how little the Japanese written languagehas changed in the course of so many centuries. Allowing for a fewobsolete words, and sundry slight changes of pronunciation, theordinary Japanese reader to-day can enjoy these early productions ofhis native muse with about as little difficulty as the English readerfinds in studying the poets of the Elizabethan era. Moreover, therefinement and the simple charm of the _Many[=o]sh[=u]_ compositionshave never been surpassed, and seldom equaled, by later Japanesepoets. 

As for the forty-odd _tanka_ which I have translated, their chiefattraction lies, I think, in what they reveal to us of the humannature of their authors. Tanabata-tsumé still represents for us theJapanese wife, worshipfully loving;--Hikoboshi appears to us with noneof the luminosity of the god, but as the young Japanese husband of thesixth or seventh century, before Chinese ethical convention had begunto exercise its restraint upon life and literature. Also these poemsinterest us by their expression of the early feeling for naturalbeauty. In them we find the scenery and the seasons of Japantransported to the Blue Plain of High Heaven;--the Celestial Streamwith its rapids and shallows, its sudden risings and clamouringswithin its stony bed, and its water-grasses bending in the autumnwind, might well be the Kamogawa;--and the mists that haunt its shoresare the very mists of Arashiyama. The boat of Hikoboshi, impelledby a single oar working upon a wooden peg, is not yet obsolete; andat many a country ferry you may still see the _hiki-funé_ in whichTanabata-tsumé prayed her husband to cross in a night of storm, --aflat broad barge pulled over the river by cables. And maids and wivesstill sit at their doors in country villages, on pleasant autumn days, to weave as Tanabata-tsumé wove for the sake of her lord and lover. 

 * * * * *

--It will be observed that, in most of these verses, it is not thewife who dutifully crosses the Celestial River to meet her husband, but the husband who rows over the stream to meet the wife; and thereis no reference to the Bridge of Birds. .. . As for my renderings, thosereaders who know by experience the difficulty of translating Japaneseverse will be the most indulgent, I fancy. The Romaji system ofspelling has been followed (except in one or two cases where I thoughtit better to indicate the ancient syllabication after the methodadopted by Aston); and words or phrases necessarily supplied have beeninclosed in parentheses. 

 Amanogawa Ai-muki tachité, Waga koïshi Kimi kimasu nari Himo-toki makéna!

 [_He is coming, my long-desired lord, whom I have been waiting to meet here, on the banks of the River of Heaven. .. . The moment of loosening my girdle is nigh!_[7]]

[Footnote 7: The last line alludes to a charming custom of whichmention is made in the most ancient Japanese literature. Lovers, ere parting, were wont to tie each other's inner girdle (_himo_) andpledge themselves to leave the knot untouched until the time of theirnext meeting. This poem is said to have been composed in the seventhyear of Y[=o]r[=o], --A. D. 723, --eleven hundred and eighty-two yearsago. ]

 Hisakata no[8] Ama no kawasé ni, Funé ukété, Koyoï ka kimi ga Agari kimasan?

[Footnote 8: _Hisakata-no_ is a "pillow-word" used by the old poets inrelation to celestial objects; and it is often difficult to translate. Mr. Aston thinks that the literal meaning of _hisakata_ is simply"long-hard, " in the sense of long-enduring, --_hisa_ (long), _katai_(hard, or firm), --so that _hisakata-no_ would have the meaning of"firmamental. " Japanese commentators, however, say that the termis composed with the three words, _hi_ (sun), _sasu_ (shine), and_kata_ (side);--and this etymology would justify the renderingof _hisakata-no_ by some such expression as "light-shedding, ""radiance-giving. " On the subject of pillow-words, see Aston's_Grammar of the Japanese Written Language_. ]

 [_Over the Rapids of the Everlasting Heaven, floating in his boat, my lord will doubtless deign to come to me this very night. _]

 Kazé kumo wa Futatsu no kishi ni Kayoëdomo, Waga toho-tsuma no Koto zo kayowanu!

 [_Though winds and clouds to either bank may freely come or go, between myself and my faraway spouse no message whatever may pass. _]

 Tsubuté[9] ni mo Nagé koshitsu-béki, Amanogawa Hédatéréba ka mo, Amata subé-naki!

 [_To the opposite bank one might easily fling a pebble; yet, being separated from him by the River of Heaven, alas! to hope for a meeting (except in autumn) is utterly useless. _]

[Footnote 9: The old text has _tabuté_. ]

 Aki-kazé no Fukinishi hi yori "Itsushika" to--; Waga machi koîshi Kimi zo kimaséru. 

 [_From the day that the autumn wind began to blow (I kept saying to myself), "Ah! when shall we meet?"--but now my beloved, for whom I waited and longed, has come indeed!_]

 Amanogawa Ito kawa-nami wa Tatanédomo, Samorai gatashi-- Chikaki kono sé wo. 

 [_Though the waters of the River of Heaven have not greatly risen, (yet to cross) this near stream and to wait upon (my lord and lover) remains impossible. _]

 Sodé furaba Mi mo kawashitsu-béku Chika-kerédo, Wataru subé nashi, Aki nishi aranéba. 

 [_Though she is so near that the waving of her (long) sleeves can be distinctly seen, yet there is no way to cross the stream before the season of autumn. _]

 Kagéroï no Honoka ni miété Wakarénaba;-- Motonaya koïn Aü-toki madé wa!

 [_When we were separated, I had seen her for a moment only, --and dimly as one sees a flying midge;[10] now I must vainly long for her as before, until time of our next meeting!_]

 Hikoboshi no Tsuma mukaë-buné Kogizurashi, -- Ama-no-Kawara ni Kiri no tatéru wa. 

[Footnote 10: _Kagéroï_ is an obsolete form of _kagér[=o]_, meaning anephemera. ]

 [_Methinks that Hikoboshi must be rowing his boat to meet his wife, --for a mist (as of oar-spray) is rising over the course of the Heavenly Stream. _]

 Kasumi tatsu Ama-no-Kawara ni, Kimi matsu to, -- Ikay[=o] hodo ni Mono-suso nurenu. 

 [_While awaiting my lord on the misty shore of the River of Heaven, the skirts of my robe have somehow become wet. _]

 Amanogawa, Mi-tsu no nami oto Sawagu-nari: Waga matsu-kimi no Funadé-surashi mo. 

 [_On the River of Heaven, at the place of the august ferry, the sound of the water has become loud: perhaps my long-awaited lord will soon be coming in his boat. _]

 Tanabata no Sodé maku yoï no Akatoki wa, Kawasé no tazu wa Nakazu to mo yoshi. 

 [_As Tanabata (slumbers) with her long sleeves rolled up, until the reddening of the dawn, do not, O storks of the river-shallows, awaken her by your cries. _[11]]

[Footnote 11: Lit. , "not to cry out (will be) good"--but a literaltranslation of the poem is scarcely possible. ]

 Amanogawa Kiri-tachi-wataru: Ky[=o], ky[=o], to-- Waga matsu-koïshi Funadé-surashi!

 [_(She sees that) a mist is spreading across the River of Heaven. .. . "To-day, to-day, " she thinks, "my long-awaited lord will probably come over in his boat. "_]

 Amanogawa, Yasu no watari ni, Funé ukété;-- Waga tachi-matsu to Imo ni tsugé koso. 

 [_By the ferry of Yasu, on the River of Heaven, the boat is floating: I pray you tell my younger sister[12] that I stand here and wait. _]

[Footnote 12: That is to say, "wife. " In archaic Japanese the word_imo_ signified both "wife" and "younger sister. " The term might alsobe rendered "darling" or "beloved. "]

 [=O]-sora yo Kay[=o] waré sura, Na ga yué ni, Amanokawa-ji no Nazumité zo koshi. 

 [_Though I (being a Star-god) can pass freely to and fro, through the great sky, --yet to cross over the River of Heaven, for your sake, was weary work indeed!_]

 Yachihoko no Kami no mi-yo yori Tomoshi-zuma;-- Hito-shiri ni keri Tsugitéshi omoëba. 

 [_From the august Age of the God-of-Eight-Thousand-Spears_, [13] _she had been my spouse in secret_[14] _only; yet now, because of my constant longing for her, our relation has become known to men. _]

[Footnote 13: Yachihoko-no-Kami, who has many other names, isthe Great God of Izumo, and is commonly known by his appellationOho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami, or the "Deity-Master-of-the Great-Land. " Heis locally worshiped also as the god of marriage, --for which reason, perhaps, the poet thus refers to him. ]

[Footnote 14: Or, "my seldom-visited spouse. " The word _tsuma_(_zuma_), in ancient Japanese, signified either wife or husband; andthis poem might be rendered so as to express either the wife's or thehusband's thoughts. ]

 Amé tsuchi to Wakaréshi toki yo Onoga tsuma; Shika zo té ni aru Aki matsu aré wa. 

 [_From the time when heaven and earth were parted, she has been my own wife;--yet, to be with her, I must always wait till autumn. _[15]]

[Footnote 15: By the ancient calendar, the seventh day of the seventhmonth would fall in the autumn season. ]

 Waga k[=o]ru Niho no omo wa Koyoï mo ka Ama-no-kawara ni Ishi-makura makan. 

 [_With my beloved, of the ruddy-tinted cheeks_, [16] _this night indeed will I descend into the bed of the River of Heaven, to sleep on a pillow of stone. _]

[Footnote 16: The literal meaning is "_béni_-tinted face, "--that is tosay, a face of which the cheeks and lips have been tinted with _béni_, a kind of rouge. ]

 Amanogawa. Mikomori-gusa no Aki-kazé ni Nabikafu miréba, Toki kitarurashi. 

 [_When I see the water-grasses of the River of Heaven bend in the autumn wind (I think to myself): "The time (for our meeting) seems to have come. "_]

 Waga séko ni Ura-koi oréba, Amanogawa Yo-funé kogi-toyomu Kaji no 'to kikoyu. 

 [_When I feel in my heart a sudden longing for my husband_, [17] _then on the River of Heaven the sound of the rowing of the night-boat is heard, and the plash of the oar resounds. _]

[Footnote 17: In ancient Japanese the word _séko_ signified eitherhusband or elder brother. The beginning of the poem might also berendered thus:--"When I feel a secret longing for my husband, " etc. ]

 T[=o]-zuma to Tamakura kawashi Nétaru yo wa, Tori-gané na naki Akéba aku to mo!

 [_In the night when I am reposing with my (now) far-away spouse, having exchanged jewel-pillows_[18] _with her, let not the cock crow, even though the day should dawn. _]

[Footnote 18: "To exchange jewel-pillows" signifies to use eachother's arms for pillows. This poetical phrase is often used inthe earliest Japanese literature. The word for jewel, _tama_, oftenappears in compounds as an equivalent of "precious, " "dear, " etc. ]

 Yorozu-yo ni Tazusawari ité Ai mi-domo, Omoi-sugu-béki Koi naranaku ni. 

 [_Though for a myriad ages we should remain hand-in-hand and face to face, our exceeding love could never come to an end. (Why then should Heaven deem it necessary to part us?)_]

 Waga tamé to, Tanabata-tsumé no, Sono yado ni, Oreru shirotai Nuït ken kamo?

 [_The white cloth which Tanabata has woven for my sake, in that dwelling of hers, is now, I think, being made into a robe for me. _]

 Shirakumo no I-ho é kakurité T[=o]-kédomo, Yoï-sarazu min Imo ga atari wa. 

 [_Though she be far-away, and hidden from me by five hundred layers of white cloud, still shall I turn my gaze each night toward the dwelling-place of my younger sister (wife). _]

 Aki saréba Kawagiri tatéru Amanogawa, Kawa ni muki-ité Kru[19] yo zo [=o]ki!

[Footnote 19: For _kofuru_. ]

 [_When autumn comes, and the river-mists spread over the Heavenly Stream, I turn toward the river, (and long); and the nights of my longing are many!_]

 Hito-tosé ni Nanuka no yo nomi Aü-hito no-- Koï mo tsuki-néba Sayo zo aké ni keru!

 [_But once in the whole year, and only upon the seventh night (of the seventh month), to meet the beloved person--and lo! The day has dawned before our mutual love could express itself!_[20]]

[Footnote 20: Or "satisfy itself. " A literal rendering is difficult. ]

 Toshi no koï Koyoï tsukushíté, Asu yori wa, Tsuné no gotoku ya Waga koï oran. 

 [_The love-longing of one whole year having ended to-night, every day from to-morrow I must again pine for him as before!_]

 Hikoboshi to Tanabata-tsumé to Koyoï aü;-- Ama-no-Kawa to ni Nami tatsu-na yumé!

 [_Hikoboshi and Tanabata-tsumé are to meet each other to-night;--ye waves of the River of Heaven, take heed that ye do not rise!_]

 Aki-kazé no Fuki tadayowasu Shirakumo wa, Tanabata-tsumé no Amatsu hiré kamo?

 [_Oh! that white cloud driven by the autumn-wind--can it be the heavenly hiré[21] of Tana-bata-tsumé?_]

[Footnote 21: At different times, in the history of Japanese femalecostume, different articles of dress were called by this name. In thepresent instance, the _hiré_ referred to was probably a white scarf, worn about the neck and carried over the shoulders to the breast, where its ends were either allowed to hang loose, or were tied intoan ornamental knot. The _hiré_ was often used to make signals with, much as handkerchiefs are waved to-day for the same purpose;--and thequestion uttered in the poem seems to signify: "Can that be Tanabatawaving her scarf--to call me?" In very early times, the ordinarycostumes worn were white. ]

 Shiba-shiba mo Ai minu kimi wo, Amanogawa Funa-dé haya séyo Yo no fukénu ma ni. 

 [_Because he is my not-often-to-be-met beloved, hasten to row the boat across the River of Heaven ere the night be advanced. _]

 Amanogawa Kiri tachi-watari Hikoboshi no Kaji no 'to kikoyu Yo no fuké-yukéba. 

 [_Late in the night, a mist spreads over_] _the River of Heaven; and the sound of the oar[22] of Hikoboshi is heard. _]

[Footnote 22: Or, "the creaking of the oar. " (The word _kaji_ to-daymeans "helm";--the single oar, or scull, working upon a pivot, andserving at once for rudder and oar, being now called _ro_. ) The mistpassing across the Amanogawa is, according to commentators, the sprayfrom the Star-god's oar. ]

 Amanogawa Kawa 'to sayakéshi: Hikoboshi no Haya kogu funé no Nami no sawagi ka?

 [_On the River of Heaven a sound of plashing can be distinctly heard: is it the sound of the rippling made by Hikoboshi quickly rowing his boat?_]

 Kono y[=u]bé, Furikuru amé wa, Hikoboshi no Haya kogu funé no Kaï no chiri ka mo. 

 [_Perhaps this evening shower is but the spray (flung down) from the oar of Hikoboshi, rowing his boat in haste. _]

 Waga tama-doko wo Asu yori wa Uchi haraï, Kimi to inézuté Hitori ka mo nen!

 [_From to-morrow, alas! after having put my jewel-bed in order, no longer reposing with my lord, I must sleep alone!_]

 Kazé fukité, Kawa-nami tachinu;-- Hiki-funé ni Watari mo kimasé Yo no fukénu ma ni. 

 [_The wind having risen, the waves of the river have become high;--this night cross over in a towboat, [23] I pray thee, before the hour be late!_]

[Footnote 23: Lit. "pull-boat" (_hiki-funé_), --a barge or boat pulledby a rope. ]

 Amanogawa Nami wa tatsutomo, Waga funé wa Iza kogi iden Yo no fukénu ma ni. 

 [_Even though the waves of the River of_ _Heaven run high, I must row over quickly, before it becomes late in the night. _]

 Inishié ni Oritéshi hata wo; Kono y[=u]bé Koromo ni nuïté-- Kimi matsu aré wo!

 [_Long ago I finished weaving the material; and, this evening, having finished sewing the garment for him--(why must) I still wait for my lord?_]

 Amanogawa Sé wo hayami ka mo? Nubatama no Yo wa fuké ni tsutsu, Awanu Hikoboshi!

[_Is it that the current of the River of_ _Heaven (has become too)rapid? The jet-black night[24] advances--and Hikoboshi has not come!_]

[Footnote 24: _Nubatama no yo_ might better be rendered by some suchphrase as "the berry-black night, "--but the intended effect would bethus lost in translation. _Nubatama-no_ (a "pillow-word") is writtenwith characters signifying "like the black fruits of _Karasu-[=O]gi_;"and the ancient phrase "_nubatama no yo_" therefore may be saidto have the same meaning as our expressions "jet-black night, " or"pitch-dark night. "]

 Watashi-mori, Funé haya watasé;-- Hito-tosé ni Futatabi kay[=o] Kimi naranaku ni!

 [_Oh, ferryman, make speed across the stream!--my lord is not one who can come and go twice in a year!_]

 Aki kazé no Fukinishi hi yori, Amanogawa Kawasé ni dédachi;-- Matsu to tsugé koso!

 [_On the very day that the autumn-wind began to blow, I set out for the shallows of the River of Heaven;--I pray you, tell my lord that I am waiting here still!_]

 Tanabata no Funanori surashi, -- Maso-kagami, Kiyoki tsuki-yo ni Kumo tachi-wataru. 

 [_Methinks Tanabata must be coming in her boat; for a cloud is even now passing across the clear face of the moon. _[25]]

[Footnote 25: Composed by the famous poet [=O]tomo no SukunéYakamochi, while gazing at the Milky Way, on the seventh night ofthe seventh month of the tenth year of Tampy[=o] (A. D. 738). Thepillow-word in the third line (_maso-kagami_) is untranslatable. ]

--And yet it has been gravely asserted that the old Japanese poetscould find no beauty in starry skies!. .. 

Perhaps the legend of Tanabata, as it was understood by those oldpoets, can make but a faint appeal to Western minds. Nevertheless, in the silence of transparent nights, before the rising of the moon, the charm of the ancient tale sometimes descends upon me, out of thescintillant sky, --to make me forget the monstrous facts of science, and the stupendous horror of Space. Then I no longer behold the MilkyWay as that awful Ring of the Cosmos, whose hundred million suns arepowerless to lighten the Abyss, but as the very Amanogawa itself, --theRiver Celestial. I see the thrill of its shining stream, and the miststhat hover along its verge, and the water-grasses that bend in thewinds of autumn. White Orihimé I see at her starry loom, and the Oxthat grazes on the farther shore;--and I know that the falling dew isthe spray from the Herdsman's oar. And the heaven seems very near andwarm and human; and the silence about me is filled with the dream ofa love unchanging, immortal, --forever yearning and forever young, andforever left unsatisfied by the paternal wisdom of the gods. 

GOBLIN POETRY

Recently, while groping about an old book shop, I found a collectionof Goblin Poetry in three volumes, containing many pictures ofgoblins. The title of the collection is _Ky[=o]ka Hyaku-Monogatari_, or "The Mad Poetry of the _Hyaku-Monogatari_. " The _Hyaku-Monogatari_, or "Hundred Tales, " is a famous book of ghost stories. On the subjectof each of the stories, poems were composed at different timesby various persons, --poems of the sort called _Ky[=o]ka_, or MadPoetry, --and these were collected and edited to form the three volumesof which I became the fortunate possessor. The collecting was done bya certain Takumi Jingor[=o], who wrote under the literary pseudonym"Temmér Ré[=o]jin" (Ancient of the Temmér Era). Takumi died in thefirst year of Bunky[=u] (1861), at the good age of eighty; and hiscollection seems to have been published in the sixth year of Kaéï(1853). The pictures were made by an artist called Masazumi, whoworked under the pseudonym "Ry[=o]sai Kanjin. "

From a prefatory note it appears that Takumi Jingor[=o] published hiscollection with the hope of reviving interest in a once popular kindof poetry which had fallen into neglect before the middle of thecentury. The word _ky[=o]ka_ is written with a Chinese charactersignifying "insane" or "crazy;" and it means a particular andextraordinary variety of comic poetry. The form is that of the classic_tanka_ of thirty-one syllables (arranged 57577);--but the subjectsare always the extreme reverse of classical; and the artistic effectsdepend upon methods of verbal jugglery which cannot be explainedwithout the help of numerous examples. The collection published byTakumi includes a good deal of matter in which a Western reader candiscover no merit; but the best of it has a distinctly grotesquequality that reminds one of Hood's weird cleverness in playing withgrim subjects. This quality, and the peculiar Japanese method ofmingling the playful with the terrific, can be suggested and explainedonly by reproducing in Romaji the texts of various _ky[=o]ka_, withtranslations and notes. 

The selection which I have made should prove interesting, not merelybecause it will introduce the reader to a class of Japanese poetryabout which little or nothing has yet been written in English, butmuch more because it will afford some glimpses of a supernatural worldwhich still remains for the most part unexplored. Without knowledgeof Far Eastern superstitions and folk-tales, no real understanding ofJapanese fiction or drama or poetry will ever become possible. 

 * * * * *

There are many hundreds of poems in the three volumes of the _Ky[=o]kaHyaku-Monogatari_; but the number of the ghosts and goblins fallsshort of the one hundred suggested by the title. There are justninety-five. I could not expect to interest my readers in the wholeof this goblinry, and my selection includes less than one seventhof the subjects. The Faceless Babe, The Long-Tongued Maiden, The Three-Eyed Monk, The Pillow-Mover, The Thousand Heads, TheAcolyte-with-the-Lantern, The Stone-that-Cries-in-the-Night, The Goblin-Heron, The Goblin-Wind, The Dragon-Lights, and TheMountain-Nurse, did not much impress me. I omitted _ky[=o]ka_ dealingwith fancies too gruesome for Western nerves, --such as that of the_Obumédori_, --also those treating of merely local tradition. The subjects chosen represent national rather than provincialfolklore, --old beliefs (mostly of Chinese origin) once prevalentthroughout the country, and often referred to in its popularliterature. 

I. KITSUNÉ-BI

The Will-o'-the-wisp is called _kitsuné-bi_ ("fox-fire"), becausethe goblin-fox was formerly supposed to create it. In old Japanesepictures it is represented as a tongue of pale red flame, hoveringin darkness, and shedding no radiance upon the surfaces over which itglides. 

To understand some of the following _ky[=o]ka_ on the subject, thereader should know that certain superstitions about the magical powerof the fox have given rise to several queer folk-sayings, --one ofwhich relates to marrying a stranger. Formerly a good citizen wasexpected to marry within his own community, not outside of it; and theman who dared to ignore traditional custom in this regard would havefound it difficult to appease the communal indignation. Even to-daythe villager who, after a long absence from his birthplace, returnswith a strange bride, is likely to hear unpleasant things said, --suchas: "_Wakaranai-mono we hippaté-kita!. .. Doko no uma no honé da ka?_"("Goodness knows what kind of a thing he has dragged here after him!Where did he pick up that old horse-bone?") The expression _uma nohoné_, "old horse-bone, " requires explanation. 

A goblin-fox has the power to assume many shapes; but, for the purposeof deceiving _men_, he usually takes the form of a pretty woman. Whenhe wants to create a charming phantom of this kind, he picks up an oldhorse-bone or cow-bone, and holds it in his mouth. Presently the bonebecomes luminous; and the figure of a woman defines about it, --thefigure of a courtesan or singing-girl. .. . So the village query aboutthe man who marries a strange wife, "What old horse-bone has he pickedup?" signifies really, "What wanton has bewitched him?" It furtherimplies the suspicion that the stranger may be of outcast blood: acertain class of women of pleasure having been chiefly recruited, fromancient time, among the daughters of Éta and other pariah-people. 

 Hi tomoshité Kitsuné no kwaséshi, Asobimé[26] wa-- Izuka no uma no Honé ni ya aruran!

[Footnote 26: _Asobimé_, a courtesan: lit. , "sporting-woman. " The Étaand other pariah classes furnished a large proportion of these women. The whole meaning of the poem is as follows: "See that young wantonwith her lantern! It is a pretty sight--but so is the sight of a fox, when the creature kindles his goblin-fire and assumes the shape ofa girl. And just as your fox-woman will prove to be no more than anold horse-bone, so that young courtesan, whose beauty deludes men tofolly, may be nothing better than an Éta. "]

 [_--Ah the wanton (lighting her lantern)!--so a fox-fire is kindled in the time of fox-transformation!. .. Perhaps she is really nothing more than an old horse-bone from somewhere or other. .. . _]

 Kitsuné-bi no Moyuru ni tsukété, Waga tama no Kiyuru y[=o] nari Kokoro-hoso-michi!

 [_Because of that Fox-fire burning there, the very soul of me is like to be extinguished in this narrow path (or, in this heart-depressing solitude). _[27]]

[Footnote 27: The supposed utterance of a belated traveler frightenedby a will-o'-the-wisp. The last line allows of two readings. _Kokoro-hosoi_ means "timid;" and _hosoi michi_ (_hoso-michi_) means a"narrow path, " and, by implication, a "lonesome path. "]

II. RIKOMBY[=O]

The term _Rikomby[=o]_ is composed with the word _rikon_, signifyinga "shade, " "ghost, " or "spectre, " and the word _by[=o]_, signifying"sickness, " "disease. " An almost literal rendering would be"ghost-sickness. " In Japanese-English dictionaries you will find themeaning of _Rikomby[=o]_ given as "hypochondria;" and doctors reallyuse the term in this modern sense. But the ancient meaning was _adisorder of the mind which produced a Double_; and there is a wholestrange literature about this weird disease. It used to be supposed, both in China and Japan, that under the influence of intense griefor longing, caused by love, the spirit of the suffering person wouldcreate a Double. Thus the victim of _Rikomby[=o]_ would appear to havetwo bodies, exactly alike; and one of these bodies would go to jointhe absent beloved, while the other remained at home. (In my "Exoticsand Retrospectives, " under the title "A Question in the Zen Texts, "the reader will find a typical Chinese story on the subject, --thestory of the girl Ts'ing. ) Some form of the primitive belief indoubles and wraiths probably exists in every part of the world; butthis Far Eastern variety is of peculiar interest because the doubleis supposed to be caused by love, and the subjects of the afflictionto belong to the gentler sex. .. . The term _Rikomby[=o]_ seems to beapplied to the apparition as well as to the mental disorder supposedto produce the apparition: it signifies "doppelgänger" as well as"ghost-disease. "

 * * * * *

--With these necessary explanations, the quality of the following_ky[=o]ka_ can be understood. A picture which appears in the _Ky[=o]kaHyaku-Monogatari_ shows a maid-servant anxious to offer a cup of teato her mistress, --a victim of the "ghost-sickness. " The servant cannotdistinguish between the original and the apparitional shapes beforeher; and the difficulties of the situation are suggested in the firstof the _ky[=o]ka_ which I have translated:--

 Ko-ya, soré to? Ayamé mo wakanu Rikomby[=o]: Izuré we tsuma to Hiku zo wazuraü!

 [_Which one is this?--which one is that? Between the two shapes of the Rikomby[=o] it is not possible to distinguish. To find out which is the real wife--that will be an affliction of spirit indeed!_]

 Futatsu naki Inochi nagara mo Kakégaë no Karada no miyuru-- Kage no wazurai!

 [_Two lives there certainly are not;--nevertheless an extra body is visible, by reason of the Shadow-Sickness. _]

 Naga-tabi no Oto we shitaïté Mi futatsu ni Naru wa onna no S[=a]ru rikomby[=o]. 

 [_Yearning after her far-journeying husband, the woman has thus become two bodies, by reason of her ghostly sickness. _]

 Miru kagé mo Naki wazurai no Rikomby[=o], -- Omoi no hoka ni Futatsu miru kagé!

 [_Though (it was said that), because of her ghostly sickness, there was not even a shadow of her left to be seen, --yet, contrary to expectation, there are two shadows of her to be seen!_[28]]

[Footnote 28: The Japanese say of a person greatly emaciated bysickness, _miru-kagé mo naki_: "Even a visible shadow of him isnot!"--Another rendering is made possible by the fact that the sameexpression is used in the sense of "unfit to be seen, "--"though theface of the person afflicted with this ghostly sickness is unfit to beseen, yet by reason of her secret longing [for another man] there arenow two of her faces to be seen. " The phrase _omoi no hoka_, in thefourth line, means "contrary to expectation;" but it is ingeniouslymade to suggest also the idea of secret longing. ]

 Rikomby[=o] Hito ni kakushité Oku-zashiki, Omoté y dëasanu Kagé no wazurai. 

 [_Afflicted with the Rikomby[=o], she hides away from people in the back room, and never approaches the front of the house, --because of her Shadow-disease. _[29]]

[Footnote 29: There is a curious play on words in the fourth line. The word _omoté_, meaning "the front, " might, in reading, be soundedas _omotté_, "thinking. " The verses therefore might also be thustranslated:--"She keeps her real thoughts hidden in the back partof the house, and never allows them to be seen in the front part ofthe house, --because she is suffering from the 'Shadow-Sickness' [oflove]. "]

 Mi wa koko ni; Tama wa otoko ni Soïné suru;-- Kokoro mo shiraga Haha ga kaih[=o]. 

 [_Here her body lies; but her soul is far away, asleep in the arms of a man;--and the white-haired mother, little knowing her daughter's heart, is nursing (only the body). _[30]]

[Footnote 30: There is a double meaning, suggested rather thanexpressed, in the fourth line. The word _shiraga_, "white-hair, "suggests _shirazu_, "not knowing. "]

 Tamakushigé Futatsu no sugata Misénuru wa, Awasé-kagami no Kagé no wazurai. 

 [_If, when seated before her toilet-stand, she sees two faces reflected in her mirror, --that might be caused by the mirror doubling itself under the influence of the Shadow-Sickness. _[31]]

[Footnote 31: There is in this poem a multiplicity of suggestionimpossible to render in translation. While making her toilet, theJapanese woman uses two mirrors (_awasé-kagami_)--one of which, ahand-mirror, serves to show her the appearance of the back part ofher coiffure, by reflecting it into the larger stationary mirror. Butin this case of Rikomby[=o], the woman sees more than her face andthe back of her head in the larger mirror: she sees her own double. The verses indicate that one of the mirrors may have caught theShadow-Sickness, and doubled itself. And there is a further suggestionof the ghostly sympathy said to exist between a mirror and the soul ofits possessor. ]

III. [=O]-GAMA

In the old Chinese and Japanese literature the toad is credited withsupernatural capacities, --such as the power to call down clouds, thepower to make rain, the power to exhale from its mouth a magicalmist which creates the most beautiful illusions. Some toads are goodspirits, --friends of holy men; and in Japanese art a famous Rishicalled "Gama-Sennin" (Toad Rishi) is usually represented with a whitetoad resting upon his shoulder, or squatting beside him. Some toadsare evil goblins, and create phantasms for the purpose of luring mento destruction. A typical story about a creature of this class will befound in my "Kott[=o], " entitled "The Story of Chug[=o]r[=o]. "

 Mé wa kagami, Kuchi wa tarai no Hodo ni aku: Gama mo késh[=o] no Mono to kos[=o] shiré. 

 [_The eye of it, widely open, like a (round) mirror; the mouth of it opening like a wash-basin--by these things you may know that the Toad is a goblin-thing (or, that the Toad is a toilet article). _[32]]

[Footnote 32: There are two Japanese words, _kesh[=o]_, which in_kana_ are written alike and pronounced alike, though representedby very different Chinese characters. As written in _kana_, theterm _kesh[=o]-no-mono_ may signify either "toilet articles" or "amonstrous being, " "a goblin. "]

IV. SHINKIR[=O]

The term _Shinkir[=o]_ is used in the meaning of "mirage, " and also asanother name for H[=o]rai, the Elf-land of Far Eastern fable. Variousbeings in Japanese myth are credited with power to delude mortalsby creating a mirage of H[=o]rai. In old pictures one may see a toadrepresented in the act of exhaling from its mouth a vapor that shapesthe apparition of H[=o]rai. 

But the creature especially wont to produce this illusion is the_Hamaguri_, --a Japanese mollusk much resembling a clam. Opening itsshell, it sends into the air a purplish misty breath; and that misttakes form and defines, in tints of mother-of-pearl, the luminousvision of H[=o]rai and the palace of the Dragon-King. 

 Hamaguri no Kuchi aku toki ya, Shinkir[=o]! Yo ni shiraré ken Tatsu-no-miya-himé!

 [_When the hamaguri opens its mouth--lo! Shinkir[=o] appears!. .. Then all can clearly see the Maiden-Princess of the Dragon-Palace. _]

 Shinkir[=o]-- Tatsu no miyako no Hinagata[33] wo Shio-hi no oki ni Misuru hamaguri!

 [_Lo! in the offing at ebb-tide, the hamaguri makes visible the miniature image of Shinkir[=o]--the Dragon-Capital!_]

[Footnote 33: _Hinagata_ means especially "a model, " "a miniaturecopy, " "a drawn plan, " etc. ]

V. ROKURO-KUBI

The etymological meaning of _Rokuro-Kubi_ can scarcely be indicatedby any English rendering. The term _rokuro_ is indifferently used todesignate many revolving objects--objects as dissimilar as a pulley, a capstan, a windlass, a turning lathe, and a potter's wheel. Suchrenderings of Rokuro-Kubi as "Whirling-Neck" and "Rotating-Neck" areunsatisfactory;--for the idea which the term suggests to Japanesefancy is that of a neck which revolves, _and lengthens or retractsaccording to the direction of the revolution_. .. . As for the ghostlymeaning of the expression, a Rokuro-Kubi is either (1) a person whoseneck lengthens prodigiously during sleep, so that the head can wanderabout in all directions, seeking what it may devour, or (2) a personable to detach his or her head completely from the body, and to rejoinit to the neck afterwards. (About this last mentioned variety of_Rokuro-Kubi_ there is a curious story in my "Kwaidan, " translatedfrom the Japanese. ) In Chinese mythology the being whose neck is soconstructed as to allow of the head being completely detached belongsto a special class; but in Japanese folk-tale this distinction is notalways maintained. One of the bad habits attributed to the Rokuro-Kubiis that of drinking the oil in night-lamps. In Japanese pictures theRokuro-Kubi is usually depicted as a woman; and old books tell usthat a woman might become a Rokuro-Kubi without knowing it, --much asa somnambulist walks about while asleep, without being aware of thefact. .. . The following verses about the Rokuro-Kubi have been selectedfrom a group of twenty in the _Ky[=o]ka Hyaku-Monogatari_:--

 Nemidaré no Nagaki kami woba Furi-wakété, Chi hiro ni nobasu Rokuro-Kubi kana!

 [_Oh!. .. Shaking loose her long hair disheveled by sleep, the Rokuro-Kubi stretches her neck to the length of a thousand fathoms!_]

 "Atama naki Bakémono nari"--to Rokuro-Kubi, Mité odorokan Onoga karada we. 

 [_Will not the Rokuro-Kubi, viewing with_ _astonishment her own body (left behind) cry out, "Oh, what a headless goblin have you become!_"]

 Tsuka-no-ma ni Hari we tsutawaru, Rokuro-Kubi Kéta-kéta warau-- Kao no kowasa yo!

 [_Swiftly gliding along the roof-beam (and among the props of the roof), the Rokuro-Kubi laughs with the sound of "kéta-kéta"--oh! the fearfulness of her face!_[34]]

[Footnote 34: It is not possible to render all the double meanings inthis composition. _Tsuka-no-ma_ signifies "in a moment" or "quickly";but it may also mean "in the space [_ma_] between the roof-props"[_tsuka_]. "_Kéta_" means a cross-beam, but _kéta-kéta warau_ means tochuckle or laugh in a mocking way. Ghosts are said to laugh with thesound of kéta-kéta. ]

 Roku shaku no By[=o]bu ni nobiru Rokuro-Kubi Mité wa, go shaku no Mi wo chijimi-kéri!

 [_Beholding the Rokuro-Kubi rise up above the six-foot screen, any five-foot person would have become shortened by fear (or, "the stature of any person five feet high would have been diminished"). _[35]]

[Footnote 35: The ordinary height of a full screen is six Japanesefeet. ]

VI. YUKI-ONNA

The Snow-Woman, or Snow-Spectre, assumes various forms; but in mostof the old folk-tales she appears as a beautiful phantom, whoseembrace is death. (A very curious story about her can be found in my"Kwaidan. ")

 Yuki-Onna-- Yos[=o] kushi mo Atsu k[=o]ri; Sasu-k[=o]gai ya K[=o]ri naruran. 

 [_As for the Snow-Woman, --even her best comb, if I mistake not, is made of thick ice; and her hair-pin[36], too, is probably made of ice. _]

[Footnote 36: _K[=o]gai_ is the name now given to a quadrangular barof tortoise-shell passed under the coiffure, which leaves only theends of the bar exposed. The true hair-pin is called _kanzashi_. ]

 Honrai wa K[=u] naru mono ka, Yuki-Onna? Yoku-yoku mireba Ichi-butsu mo nashi!

 [_Was she, then, a delusion from the very first, that Snow-Woman, --a thing that vanishes into empty space? When I look carefully all about me, not one trace of her is to be seen!_]

 Yo-akéréba Kiété yuku é wa Shirayuki[37] no Onna to mishi mo Yanagi nari-keri!

 [_Having vanished at daybreak (that Snow-Woman), none could say whither she had gone. But what had seemed to be a snow-white woman became indeed a willow-tree!_]

[Footnote 37: The term _shirayuki_, as here used, offers an exampleof what Japanese poets call _Keny[=o]gen_, or "double-purpose words. "Joined to the words immediately following, it makes the phrase"white-snow woman" (_shirayuki no onna_);--united with the wordsimmediately preceding, it suggests the reading, "whither-gonenot-knowing" (_yuku é wa shira[zu]_). ]

 Yuki-Onna Mité wa yasathiku, Matsu wo ori Nama-daké hishigu Chikara ari-keri!

 [_Though the Snow-Woman appears to sight slender and gentle, yet, to snap the pine-trees asunder and to crush the live bamboos, she must have had strength. _]

 Samukésa ni Zotto[38] wa surédo Yuki-Onna, -- Yuki oré no naki Yanagi-goshi ka mo!

[_Though the Snow-Woman makes one shiver by her coldness, --ah, thewillowy grace of her form cannot be broken by the snow (i. E. Charms usin spite of the cold). _]

[Footnote 38: _Zotto_ is a difficult word to render literally: perhapsthe nearest English equivalent is "thrilling. " _Zotto suru_ signifies"to cause a thrill" or "to give a shock, " or "to make shiver;"and of a very beautiful person it is said "_Zotto-suru hodo nobijin_, "--meaning! "She is so pretty that it gives one a shock merelyto look at her. " The term _yanagi-goshi_ ("willow-loins") in the lastline is a common expression designating a slender and graceful figure;and the reader should observe that the first half of the term isingeniously made to do double duty here, --suggesting, with thecontext, not only the grace of willow branches weighed down by snow, but also the grace of a human figure that one must stop to admire, inspite of the cold. ]

VII. FUNA-Y[=U]RÉÏ

The spirits of the drowned are said to follow after ships, calling fora bucket or a water-dipper (_hishaku_). To refuse the bucket or thedipper is dangerous; but the bottom of the utensil should be knockedout before the request is complied with, and the spectres must notbe allowed to see this operation performed. If an undamaged bucketor dipper be thrown to the ghosts, it will be used to fill and tosink the ship. These phantoms are commonly called _Funa-Y[=u]réï_("Ship-Ghosts"). 

The spirits of those warriors of the Héïké clan who perished in thegreat sea-fight at Dan-no-ura, in the year 1185, are famous amongFuna-Y[=u]réï. Taïra no Tomomori, one of the chiefs of the clan, iscelebrated in this weird rôle: old pictures represent him, followed bythe ghosts of his warriors, running over the waves to attack passingships. Once he menaced a vessel in which Benkéï, the celebratedretainer of Yoshitsuné, was voyaging; and Benkéï was able to savethe ship only by means of his Buddhist rosary, which frightened thespectres away. .. . 

Tomomori is frequently pictured as walking upon the sea, carryinga ship's anchor on his back. He and his fellow-ghosts are said tohave been in the habit of uprooting and making off with the anchorsof vessels imprudently moored in their particular domain, --theneighborhood of Shimonoséki. 

 Erimoto yé Mizu kakéraruru Kokochi seri, "Hishaku kasé" ch[=o] Funé no kowané ni. 

 [_As if the nape of our necks had been sprinkled with cold water, --so we felt while listening_ _to the voice of the ship-ghost, saying:--"Lend me a dipper!"_[39]]

[Footnote 39: _Hishaku_, a wooden dipper with a long handle, used totransfer water from a bucket to smaller vessels. ]

 Y[=u]rei ni Kasu-hishaku yori Ichi-hayaku Onoré ga koshi mo Nukéru sench[=o]. 

 [_The loins of the captain himself were knocked out very much more quickly than the bottom of the dipper that was to be given to the ghost. _[40]]

[Footnote 40: The common expression _Koshi ga nukéru_ (to have one'sloins taken out) means to be unable to stand up by reason of fear. The suggestion is that while the captain was trying to knock out thebottom of a dipper, before giving it to the ghost, he fell senselessfrom fright. ]

 Benkéï no Zuzu no kuriki ni Tomomori no Sugata mo ukamu-- Funé no y[=u]réï. 

 [_By the virtue of Benkéï's rosary, even_ _the ship-following ghost--even the apparition of Tomomori--is saved. _]

 Y[=u]réï wa Ki naru Izumi no Hito nagara, Aö-umibara ni Nadoté itsuran?

 [_Since any ghost must be an inhabitant of the Yellow Springs, how should a ghost appear on the Blue Sea-Plain?_[41]]

[Footnote 41: The Underworld of the Dead--_Yomi_ or K[=o]sen--iscalled "The Yellow Springs;" these names being written with twoChinese characters respectively signifying "yellow" and "fountain. " Avery ancient term for the ocean, frequently used in the old Shint[=o]rituals, is "The Blue Sea-Plain. "]

 Sono sugata, Ikari wo [=o]té, Tsuki-matoü Funé no hésaki ya Tomomori no réï!

 [_That Shape, carrying the anchor on its back, and following after the ship--now at the bow and now at the stern--ah, the ghost of Tomomori. _[42]]

[Footnote 42: There is an untranslatable play upon words in the lasttwo lines. The above rendering includes two possible readings. ]

 Tsumi fukaki Umi ni shidzumishi, Y[=u]réï no "Ukaman" toté ya! Funé ni sugaréru. 

 [_Crying, "Now perchance I shall be saved!" The ghost that sank into the deep Sea of Sin clings to the passing ship!_[43]]

[Footnote 43: There is more weirdness in this poem than the aboverendering suggests. The word _ukaman_ in the fourth line can berendered as "shall perhaps float, " or as "shall perhaps be saved" (inthe Buddhist sense of salvation), --as there are two verbs _ukami_. According to an old superstition, the spirits of the drowned mustcontinue to dwell in the waters _until such time as they can lure theliving to destruction_. When the ghost of any drowned person succeedsin drowning somebody, it may be able to obtain rebirth, and to leavethe sea forever. The exclamation of the ghost in this poem reallymeans, "Now perhaps I shall be able to drown somebody. " (A verysimilar superstition is said to exist on the Breton coast. ) A commonJapanese saying about a child or any person who follows anothertoo closely and persistently is: _Kawa de shinda-y[=u]réï no yonatsuré-hoshigaru!_--"Wants to follow you everywhere like the ghost ofa drowned person. "]

 Ukaman to Funé we shitaëru Yuréï wa, Shidzumishi híto no Omoï naruran. 

 [_The ghosts following after our ship in their efforts to rise again (or, "to be saved") might perhaps be the (last vengeful) thoughts of drowned men. [44]]

[Footnote 44: Here I cannot attempt to render the various plays uponwords; but the term "_omoï_" needs explanation. It means "thought"or "thoughts;" but in colloquial phraseology it is often used as aeuphemism for a dying person's last desire of vengeance. In variousdramas it has been used in the signification of "avenging ghost. " Thusthe exclamation, "His _thought_ has come back!"--in reference to adead man--really means: "His angry ghost appears!"]

 Uraméshiki Sugata wa sugoki Yuréï no, Kaji we jama suru Funé no Tomomori. 

 [_With vengeful aspect, the grisly ghost of Tomomori (rises) at the stern of the ship to hinder the play of her rudder. _[45]]

[Footnote 45: There is a double meaning given by the use of the name_Tomomori_ in the last line. _Tomo_ means "the stern" of a ship;_mori_ means "to leak. " So the poem suggests that the ghost ofTomomori not only interferes with the ship's rudder, but causes herto leak. ]

 Ochi-irité, Uwo no éjiki to Nari ni ken;-- Funa-y[=u]réï mo Nama-kusaki kazé. 

 [_Having perished in the sea, (those Héïké) would probably have become food for fishes. (Anyhow, whenever) the ship-following ghosts (appear), the wind has a smell of raw fish!_[46]]

[Footnote 46: _Namakusaki-kaze_ really means a wind having a "rawstench;" but the smell of bait is suggested by the second line of thepoem. A literal rendering is not possible in this case; the art of thecomposition being altogether suggestive. ]

VIII. HÉÏKÉGANÌ

Readers can find in my "Kott[=o]" a paper about the Héïké-Crabs, which have on their upper shells various wrinklings that resemble theoutlines of an angry face. At Shimono-séki dried specimens of thesecurious creatures are offered for sale. .. . The Héïké-Crabs are said tobe the transformed angry spirits of the Héïké warriors who perished atDan-no-ura. 

 Shiwo-hi ni wa Séïzoroë shité, Héïkégani Ukiyo no sama we Yoko ni niramitsu. 

 [_Marshaled (on the beach) at the ebb of the tide, the Héïké-crabs obliquely glare at the apparition of this miserable world. _[47]]

[Footnote 47: _Hi_, the third syllable of the first line of the poem, does duty for _hi_, signifying "ebb, " and for _hikata_, "dry beach. "_Séïzoroë_ is a noun signifying "battle-array"--in the sense ofthe Roman term _acies_;--and _séïzoroé shité_ means "drawn up inbattle-array. "]

 Saikai ni Shizumi-nurédomo, Héïkégani K[=o]ra no iro mo Yahari aka-hata. 

 [_Though (the Héïké) long ago sank and perished in the Western Sea, the Héïké-crabs still display_ _upon their upper shells the color of the Red Standard. _[48]]

[Footnote 48: The ensign of the Héïké, or Taïra clan was red; whilethat of their rivals, the Genji or Minamot[=o], was white. ]

 Maké-ikusa Munen to muné ni Hasami ken;-- Kao mo makka ni Naru Héïkégani. 

 [_Because of the pain of defeat, claws have grown on their breasts, I think;--even the faces of the Héïké-crabs have become crimson (with anger and shame). _]

 Mikata mina Oshi-tsubusaréshi Héïkégani Ikon we muné ni Hasami mochikéri. 

 [_All the (Héïké) party having been utterly crushed, claws have grown upon the breasts of the Héïké-crabs because of the resentment in their hearts. _[49]]

[Footnote 49: The use of the word _hasami_ in the fifth line is avery good example of _keny[=o]gen_. There is a noun _hasami_, meaningthe nippers of a crab, or a pair of scissors; and there is a verb_hasami_, meaning to harbor, to cherish, or to entertain. (_Ikon wohasamu_ means "to harbor resentment against. ") Reading the word onlyin connection with those which follow it, we have the phrase _hasamimochikéri_, "got claws;" but, reading it with the words preceding, we have the expression _ikon wo muné ni hasami_, "resentment in theirbreasts nourishing. "]

IX. YANARI

Modern dictionaries ignore the uncanny significations of the word_Yanari_, --only telling us that it means the sound of the shaking ofa house during an earthquake. But the word used to mean the noise ofthe shaking of a house moved by a goblin; and the invisible shaker wasalso called _Yanari_. When, without apparent cause, some house wouldshudder and creak and groan in the night, folk used to suppose that itwas being shaken from without by supernatural malevolence. 

 Tokonoma ni Ikéshi tachiki mo Taoré-keri; Yanari ni yama no Ugoku kakémono!

 [_Even the live tree set in the alcove has fallen down; and the mountains in the hanging picture tremble to the quaking made by the Yanari!_[50]]

[Footnote 50: The _tokonoma_ in a Japanese room is a sort ofornamental recess or alcove, in which a picture is usually hung, andvases of flowers, or a dwarf tree, are placed. ]

X. SAKASA-BASHIRA

The term _Sakasa-bashira_ (in these _ky[=o]ka_ often shortened into_saka-bashira_) literally means "upside-down post. " A wooden post orpillar, especially a house-post, should be set up according to theoriginal position of the tree from which it was hewn, --that is to say, with the part nearest to the roots downward. To erect a house-post inthe contrary way is thought to be unlucky;--formerly such a blunderwas believed to involve unpleasant consequences of a ghostly kind, because an "upside-down" pillar would do malignant things. It wouldmoan and groan in the night, and move all its cracks like mouths, andopen all its knots like eyes. Moreover, the spirit of it (for everyhouse-post has a spirit) would detach its long body from the timber, and wander about the rooms, head-downwards, making faces at people. Nor was this all. A _Sakasa-bashira_ knew how to make all the affairsof a household go wrong, --how to foment domestic quarrels, --how tocontrive misfortune for each of the family and the servants, --howto render existence almost insupportable until such time as thecarpenter's blunder should be discovered and remedied. 

 Saka-bashira Tatéshi wa tazo ya? Kokoro ni mo Fushi aru hito no Shiwaza naruran. 

 [_Who set the house-pillar upside-down? Surely that must have been the work of a man with a knot in his heart. _]

 Hidayama we Kiri-kité tatéshi Saka-bashira-- Nanno takumi[51] no Shiwaza naruran?

 [_That house-pillar hewn in the mountains of Hida, and thence brought here and erected upside-down--what carpenter's work can it be? (or, "for what evil design can this deed have been done?")_]

[Footnote 51: The word _takumi_, as written in _kana_, may signifyeither "carpenter" or "intrigue, " "evil plot, " "wicked device. " Thustwo readings are possible. According to one reading, the post wasfixed upside-down through inadvertence; according to the other, it wasso fixed with malice prepense. ]

 Uë shita wo Chigaëté tatéshi Hashira ni wa Sakasama-goto no Uréï aranan. 

 [_As for that house-pillar mistakenly planted upside-down, it will certainly cause adversity and sorrow. _[52]]

[Footnote 52: Lit. , "upside-down-matter-sorrow. " _Sakasama-goto_, "up-side-down affair, " is a common expression for calamity, contrariety, adversity, vexation. ]

 Kabé ni mimi Arité, kiké to ka? Sakashima ni Tateshi hashira ni Yanari suru oto!

 [_O Ears that be in the wall![53] listen, will ye? to the groaning and the creaking of the house-post that was planted upside-down!_]

[Footnote 53: Alluding to the proverb, _Kabé ni mimi ari_ ("There areears in the wall"), which signifies: "Be careful how you talk aboutother people, even in private. "]

 Uri-iyé no Aruji we toëba, Oto arité: Waré mé ga kuchi wo Aku saka-bashira. 

 [_When I inquired for the master of the house that was for sale, there came to me only a strange sound by way of reply, --the sound of the upside-down house-post opening its eyes and mouth![54] (i. E. Its cracks). _]

[Footnote 54: There is a pun in the fourth line which suggests morethan even a free translation can express. _Waré_ means "I, " or "mine, "or "one's own, " etc. , according to circumstances; and _waré mé_(written separately) might be rendered "its own eyes. " But _warémé_(one word) means a crack, rent, split, or fissure. The reader shouldremember that the term _saka-bashira_ means not only "upside-downpost, " but also the goblin or spectre of the upside-down post. ]

 Omoïkiya! Sakasa-bashira no Hashira-kaké Kakinishit uta mo Yamai ari to wa!

 [_Who could have thought it!--even the poem inscribed upon the pillar-tablet, attached to the pillar which was planted upside-down, has taken the same (ghostly) sickness. _[55]]

[Footnote 55: That is to say, "Even the poem on the tablet isup-side-down, "--all wrong. _Hashira-kaké_ ("pillar-suspended thing")is the name given to a thin tablet of fine wood, inscribed or painted, which is hung to a post by way of ornament. ]

XI. BAKÉ-JIZÖ

The figure of the Bodhi-sattva Jizö, the savior of children's ghosts, is one of the most beautiful and humane in Japanese Buddhism. Statuesof this divinity may be seen in almost every village and by everyroadside. But some statues of Jizö are said to do uncanny things--suchas to walk about at night in various disguises. A statue of this kindis called a _Baké-Jiz[=o]_[56], --meaning a Jiz[=o]; that undergoestransformation. A conventional picture shows a little boy about toplace the customary child's-offering of rice-cakes before the stoneimage of Jiz[=o], --not suspecting that the statue moves, and is slowlybending down towards him. 

[Footnote 56: Perhaps the term might be rendered "Shape-changingJiz[=o]. " The verb _bakéru_ means to change shape, to undergometamorphosis, to haunt, and many other supernatural things. ]

 Nanigé naki Ishi no Jiz[=o] no Sugata saë, Yo wa osoroshiki Mikagé to zo naki. 

 [_Though the stone Jiz[=o] looks as if nothing were the matter with it, they say that at night it assumes an awful aspect (or, "Though this image appears to be a common stone Jiz[=o], they say that at night it becomes an awful Jiz[=o]; of granite. "_[57])]

[Footnote 57: The Japanese word for granite is _mikagé_; and there isalso an honorific term _mikagé_, applied to divinities and emperors, which signifies "august aspect, " "sacred presence, " etc. .. . No literalrendering can suggest the effect, in the fifth line, of the latterreading. _Kagé_ signifies "shadow, " "aspect, " and "power"--especiallyoccult power; the honorific prefix _mi_, attached to names andattributes of divinities, may be rendered "august. "]

XII. UMI-B[=O]ZU

Place a large cuttlefish on a table, body upwards and tentaclesdownwards--and you will have before you the grotesque reality thatfirst suggested the fancy of the _Umi-B[=o]zu_, or Priest of the Sea. For the great bald body in this position, with the staring eyes below, bears a distorted resemblance to the shaven head of a priest; whilethe crawling tentacles underneath (which are in some species unitedby a dark web) suggests the wavering motion of the priest's upperrobe. .. . The Umi-B[=o]zu figures a good deal in the literature ofJapanese goblinry, and in the old-fashioned picture-books. He risesfrom the deep in foul weather to seize his prey. 

 Ita hitoë Shita wa Jigoku ni, Sumizomé no B[=o]zu no umi ni Déru mo ayashina!

 [_Since there is but the thickness of a single plank (between the voyager and the sea), and underneath is Hell, 'tis indeed a weird thing that a black-robed priest should rise from the sea (or, "'tis surely a marvelous happening that, " etc. !_[58])]

[Footnote 58: The puns are too much for me. .. . _Ayashii_ means"suspicious, " "marvelous, " "supernatural, " "weird, " "doubtful. "--Inthe first two lines there is a reference to the Buddhist proverb:_Funa-ita ichi-mai shita wa Jigoku_ ("under the thickness of a singleship's-plank is Hell"). (See my _Gleanings in Buddha-Fields_, p. 206, for another reference to this saying. )]

XIII. FUDA-HÉGASHI[59]

Homes are protected from evil spirits by holy texts and charms. In anyJapanese village, or any city by-street, you can see these texts whenthe sliding-doors are closed at night: they are not visible by day, when the sliding-doors have been pushed back into the _tobukuro_. Such texts are called _o-fuda_ (august scripts): they are written inChinese characters upon strips of white paper, which are attachedto the door with rice-paste; and there are many kinds of them. Someare texts selected from sutras--such as the Sûtra of TranscendentWisdom (Pragña-Pâramitâ-Hridaya-Sûtra), or the Sûtra of the Lotos ofthe Good Law (Saddharma-Pundarikâ-Sûtra). Some are texts from thedhâranîs, --which are magical. Some are invocations only, indicatingthe Buddhist sect of the household. .. . Besides these you may seevarious smaller texts, or little prints, pasted above or besidewindows or apertures, --some being names of Shinto gods; others, symbolical pictures only, or pictures of Buddhas and Bodhi-sattvas. All are holy charms, --_o-fuda_: they protect the houses; and no goblinor ghost can enter by night into a dwelling so protected, unless the_o-fuda_ be removed. 

[Footnote 59: _Hégashi_ is the causative form of the verb _hégu_, "to pull off, " "peel off, " "strip off, " "split off. " The term_Fuda-hégashi_ signifies "Make-peel-off-august-charm Ghost. " In my_Ghostly Japan_ the reader can find a good Japanese story about a_Fuda-hégashi_. ]

Vengeful ghosts cannot themselves remove an _o-fuda_; but they willendeavor by threats or promises or bribes to make some person removeit for them. A ghost that wants to have the _o-fuda_ pulled off a dooris called a _Fuda-hégashi_. 

 Hégasan to Rokuji-no-fuda wo, Yuréï mo Nam'mai d[=a] to Kazoëté zo mini. 

 [_Even the ghost that would remove the charms written with six characters actually tries to count them, repeating: "How many sheets are there?" (or, repeating, "Hail to thee, O Buddha Amitábha!"[60])_]

[Footnote 60: The fourth line gives these two readings:--

_Nam'mai da?_--"How many sheets are there?"

_Nam[u] A[m]ida!_--"Hail, O Amitâbha!"

The invocation, _Namu Amida Butsu_, is chiefly used by members of thegreat Shin sect; but it is also used by other sects, and especially inpraying for the dead. While repeating it, the person praying numbersthe utterances upon his Buddhist rosary; and this custom is suggestedby the use of the word _kazoëté_, "counting. "]

 Tada ichi no Kami no o-fuda wa Sasuga ni mo Noriké naku to mo Hégashi kanékéri. 

 [_Of the august written-charms of the god (which were pasted upon the walls of the house), not even one could by any effort be pulled off, though the rice-paste with which they had been fastened was all gone. _]

XIV. FURU-TSUBAKI

The old Japanese, like the old Greeks, had their flower-spirits andtheir hamadryads, concerning whom some charming stories are told. Theyalso believed in trees inhabited by malevolent beings, --goblin trees. Among other weird trees, the beautiful _tsubaki_ (_Camellia Japonica_)was said to be an unlucky tree;--this was said, at least, of thered-flowering variety, the white-flowering kind having a betterreputation and being prized as a rarity. The large fleshy crimsonflowers have this curious habit: they detach themselves bodily fromthe stem, when they begin to fade; and they fall with an audible thud. To old Japanese fancy the falling of these heavy red flowers was likethe falling of human heads under the sword; and the dull sound oftheir dropping was said to be like the thud made by a severed headstriking the ground. Nevertheless the tsubaki seems to have beena favorite in Japanese gardens because of the beauty of its glossyfoliage; and its flowers were used for the decoration of alcoves. Butin samurai homes it was a rule never to place tsubaki-flowers in analcove _during war-time_. 

The reader will notice that in the following _ky[=o]ka_--which, asgrotesques, seem to me the best in the collection--the goblin-tsubakiis called _furu-tsubaki_, "old tsubaki. " The young tree was notsupposed to have goblin-propensities, --these being developed onlyafter many years. Other uncanny trees--such as the willow and the_énoki_--were likewise said to become dangerous only as they becameold; and a similar belief prevailed on the subject of uncanny animals, such as the cat--innocent in kittenhood, but devilish in age. 

 Yo-arashi ni Chishiho itadaku Furu tsubaki, Hota-hota ochiru Hana no nama-kubi. 

 [_When by the night-storm is shaken the blood-crowned and ancient tsubaki-tree, then one by one fall the gory heads of the flowers, (with the sound of) hota-hota!_[61]]

[Footnote 61: The word _furu_ in the third line is made to do doubleduty, --as the adjective, _furu[i]_, "ancient"; and as the verb _furu_, "to shake. " The old term _nama-kuhi_ (lit. , "raw head") means a humanhead, freshly-severed, from which the blood is still oozing. ]

 Kusa mo ki mo Némuréru koro no Sayo kazé ni, Méhana no ugoku Furu-tsubaki kana!

 [_When even the grass and the trees are sleeping under the faint wind of the night, --then do the eyes and the noses of the old tsubaki-tree (or "the buds and the flowers of the old tsubaki-tree") move!_[62]]

[Footnote 62: Two Japanese words are written, in _kana_, as "mé"--onemeaning "a bud;" the other "eye. " The syllables "hana" in likefashion, may signify either "flower" or "nose. " As a grotesque, thislittle poem is decidedly successful. ]

 Tomoshibi no Kagé ayashigé ni Miyénuru wa Abura shiborishi Furu-tsubaki ka-mo?

 [_As for (the reason why) the light of that lamp appears to be a Weirdness, [63]--perhaps the oil was expressed from (the nuts of) the ancient tsu-baki?_]

[Footnote 63: _Ayashigé_ is a noun formed from the adjective _ayashi_, "suspicious, " "strange, " "supernatural, " "doubtful. " The word _kagé_signifies both "light" and "shadow, "--and is here used with doublesuggestiveness. The vegetable oil used in the old Japanese lampsused to be obtained from the nuts of the _tsubaki_. The reader shouldremember that the expression "ancient tsubaki" is equivalent to theexpression "goblin-tsubaki, "--the tsubaki being supposed to turn intoa goblin-tree only when it becomes old. ]

 * * * * *

--Nearly all the stories and folk-beliefs about which these _ky[=o]ka_were written seem to have come from China; and most of the Japanesetales of tree-spirits appear to have had a Chinese origin. As theflower-spirits and hamadryads of the Far East are as yet littleknown to Western readers, the following Chinese story may be foundinteresting. 

 * * * * *

There was a Chinese scholar--called, in Japanese books, T[=o] noBusanshi--who was famous for his love of flowers. He was particularlyfond of peonies, and cultivated them with great skill andpatience. [64]

[Footnote 64: The tree-peony (_botan_) is here referred to, --a flowermuch esteemed in Japan. It is said to have been introduced from Chinaduring the eighth century; and no less than five hundred varieties ofit are now cultivated by Japanese gardeners. ]

One day a very comely girl came to the house of Busanshi, and beggedto be taken into his service. She said that circumstances obligedher to seek humble employment, but that she had received a literaryeducation, and therefore wished to enter, if possible, into theservice of a scholar. Busanshi was charmed by her beauty, and took herinto his household without further questioning. She proved to be muchmore than a good domestic: indeed, the nature of her accomplishmentsmade Busanshi suspect that she had been brought up in the court ofsome prince, or in the palace of some great lord. She displayeda perfect knowledge of the etiquette and the polite arts whichare taught only to ladies of the highest rank; and she possessedastonishing skill in calligraphy, in painting, and in every kind ofpoetical composition. Busanshi presently fell in love with her, andthought only of how to please her. When scholar-friends or othervisitors of importance came to the house, he would send for the newmaid that she might entertain and wait upon his guests; and all whosaw her were amazed by her grace and charm. 

One day Busanshi received a visit from the great Teki-Shin-Ketsu, afamous teacher of moral doctrine; and the maid did not respond to hermaster's call. Busanshi went himself to seek her, being desirous thatTeki-Shin-Ketsu should see her and admire her; but she was nowhere tobe found. After having searched the whole house in vain, Busanshi wasreturning to the guest-room when he suddenly caught sight of the maid, gliding soundlessly before him along a corridor. He called to her, andhurried after her. Then she turned half-round, and flattened herselfagainst the wall like a spider; and as he reached her she sankbackwards into the wall, so that there remained of her nothing visiblebut a colored shadow, --level like a picture painted on the plaster. But the shadow moved its lips and eyes, and spoke to him in a whisper, saying:--

"Pardon me that I did not obey your august call!. .. I am not amankind-person;--I am only the Soul of a Peony. Because you lovedpeonies so much, I was able to take human shape, and to serve you. But now this Teki-Shin-Ketsu has come, --and he is a person of dreadfulpropriety, --and I dare not keep this form any longer. .. . I must returnto the place from which I came. "

Then she sank back into the wall, and vanished altogether: there wasnothing where she had been except the naked plaster. And Busanshinever saw her again. 

This story is written in a Chinese book which the Japanese call"Kai-ten-i-ji. "

"ULTIMATE QUESTIONS"

A memory of long ago. .. . I am walking upon a granite pavement thatrings like iron, between buildings of granite bathed in the light ofa cloudless noon. Shadows are short and sharp: there is no stir in thehot bright air; and the sound of my footsteps, strangely loud, is theonly sound in the street. .. . Suddenly an odd feeling comes to me, with a sort of tingling shock, --a feeling, or suspicion, of universalillusion. The pavement, the bulks of hewn stone, the iron rails, and all things visible, are dreams! Light, color, form, weight, solidity--all sensed existences--are but phantoms of being, manifestations only of one infinite ghostliness for which the languageof man has not any word. .. . 

This experience had been produced by study of the first volume ofthe Synthetic Philosophy, which an American friend had taught mehow to read. I did not find it easy reading; partly because I am aslow thinker, but chiefly because my mind had never been trained tosustained effort in such directions. To learn the "First Principles"occupied me many months: no other volume of the series gave me equaltrouble. I would read one section at a time, --rarely two, --neverventuring upon a fresh section until I thought that I had made sureof the preceding. Very cautious and slow my progress was, like thatof a man mounting, for the first time, a long series of ladders indarkness. Reaching the light at last, I caught a sudden new vision ofthings, --a momentary perception of the illusion of surfaces, --and fromthat time the world never again appeared to me quite the same as ithad appeared before. 

 * * * * *

--This memory of more than twenty years ago, and the extraordinarythrill of the moment, were recently revived for me by the reading ofthe essay "Ultimate Questions, " in the last and not least preciousvolume bequeathed us by the world's greatest thinker. The essaycontains his final utterance about the riddle of life and death, as that riddle presented itself to his vast mind in the dusk of alifetime of intellectual toil. Certainly the substance of what he hadto tell us might have been inferred from the Synthetic Philosophy;but the particular interest of this last essay is made by the writer'sexpression of personal sentiment regarding the problem that troublesall deep thinkers. Perhaps few of us could have remained satisfiedwith his purely scientific position. Even while fully accepting hisdeclaration of the identity of the power that "wells up in us underthe form of consciousness" with that Power Unknowable which shapesall things, most disciples of the master must have longed for somechance to ask him directly, "But how do _you_ feel in regard to theprospect of personal dissolution?" And this merely emotional questionhe has answered as frankly and as fully as any of us could havedesired, --perhaps even more frankly. "Old people, " he remarksapologetically, "must have many reflections in common. Doubtlessone which I have now in mind is very familiar. For years past, whenwatching the unfolding buds in the spring, there has arisen thethought, 'Shall I ever again see the buds unfold? Shall I ever againbe awakened at dawn by the song of the thrush?' Now that the end isnot likely to be long postponed, there results an increasing tendencyto meditate upon ultimate questions. ". .. Then he tells us that theseultimate questions--"of the How and the Why, of the Whence and theWhither"--occupy much more space in the minds of those who cannotaccept the creed of Christendom, than the current conception fillsin the minds of the majority of men. The enormity of the problem ofexistence becomes manifest only to those who have permitted themselvesto think freely and widely and deeply, with all such aids to thoughtas exact science can furnish; and the larger the knowledge of thethinker, the more pressing and tremendous the problem appears, and themore hopelessly unanswerable. To Herbert Spencer himself it must haveassumed a vastness beyond the apprehension of the average mind; andit weighed upon him more and more inexorably the nearer he approachedto death. He could not avoid the conviction--plainly suggested in hismagnificent Psychology and in other volumes of his great work--thatthere exists no rational evidence for any belief in the continuance ofconscious personality after death:--

 "After studying primitive beliefs, and finding that there is no origin for the idea of an after-life, save the conclusion which the savage draws, from the notion suggested by dreams, of a wandering double which comes back on awaking, and which goes away for an indefinite time at death;--and after contemplating the inscrutable relation between brain and consciousness, and finding that we can get no evidence of the existence of the last without the activity of the first, --we seem obliged to relinquish the thought that consciousness continues after physical organization has become inactive. "

In this measured utterance there is no word of hope; but there isat least a carefully stated doubt, which those who will may tryto develop into the germ of a hope. The guarded phrase, "we _seem_obliged to relinquish, " certainly suggests that, although in thepresent state of human knowledge we have no reason to believe in theperpetuity of consciousness, some larger future knowledge might helpus to a less forlorn prospect. From the prospect as it now appearseven this mightiest of thinkers recoiled:--

 . .. "But it seems a strange and repugnant conclusion that with the cessation of consciousness at death there ceases to be any knowledge of having existed. With his last breath it becomes to each the same thing as though he had never lived. 

 "And then the consciousness itself--what is it during the time that it continues? And what becomes of it when it ends? We can only infer that it is a specialized and individualized form of that Infinite and Eternal Energy which transcends both our knowledge and our imagination; and that at death its elements lapse into that Infinite and Eternal Energy whence they were derived. "

 * * * * *

--_With his last breath it becomes to each the same thing as thoughhe had never lived?_ To the individual, perhaps--surely not to thehumanity made wiser and better by his labors. .. . But the world mustpass away: will it thereafter be the same for the universe as ifhumanity had never existed? That might depend upon the possibilitiesof future inter-planetary communication. .. . But the whole universeof suns and planets must also perish: thereafter will it be the sameas if no intelligent life had ever toiled and suffered upon thosecountless worlds? We have at least the certainty that the energiesof life cannot be destroyed, and the strong probability thatthey will help to form another life and thought in universesyet to be evolved. .. . Nevertheless, allowing for all imaginedpossibilities, --granting even the likelihood of some inapprehensiblerelation between all past and all future conditioned-being, --thetremendous question remains: What signifies the whole of apparitionalexistence to the Unconditioned? As flickers of sheet-lightning leaveno record in the night, so in that Darkness a million billion trillionuniverses might come and go, and leave no trace of their having been. 

 * * * * *

To every aspect of the problem Herbert Spencer must have giventhought; but he has plainly declared that the human intellect, as atpresent constituted, can offer no solution. The greatest mind thatthis world has yet produced--the mind that systematized all humanknowledge, that revolutionized modern science, that dissipatedmaterialism forever, that revealed to us the ghostly unity of allexistence, that reestablished all ethics upon an immutable and eternalfoundation, --the mind that could expound with equal lucidity, and bythe same universal formula, the history of a gnat or the history of asun--confessed itself, before the Riddle of Existence, scarcely lesshelpless than the mind of a child. 

But for me the supreme value of this last essay is made by the factthat in its pathetic statement of uncertainties and probabilities onecan discern something very much resembling a declaration of faith. Though assured that we have yet no foundation for any belief in thepersistence of consciousness after the death of the brain, we arebidden to remember that the ultimate nature of consciousness remainsinscrutable. Though we cannot surmise the relation of consciousnessto the unseen, we are reminded that it must be considered as amanifestation of the Infinite Energy, and that its elements, ifdissociated by death, will return to the timeless and measurelessSource of Life. .. . Science to-day also assures us that whateverexistence has been--all individual life that ever moved in animalor plant, --all feeling and thought that ever stirred in humanconsciousness--must have flashed self-record beyond the sphere ofsentiency; and though we cannot know, we cannot help imagining thatthe best of such registration may be destined to perpetuity. On thislatter subject, for obvious reasons, Herbert Spencer has remainedsilent; but the reader may ponder a remarkable paragraph in the finalsixth edition of the "First Principles, "--a paragraph dealing withthe hypothesis that consciousness may belong to the cosmic ether. This hypothesis has not been lightly dismissed by him; and even whileproving its inadequacy, he seems to intimate that it may representimperfectly some truth yet inapprehensible by the human mind:--

 "The only supposition having consistency is that that in which consciousness inheres is the all-pervading ether. This we know can be affected by molecules of matter in motion, and conversely can affect the motions of molecules;--as witness the action of light on the retina. In pursuance of this supposition we may assume that the ether, which pervades not only all space but all matter, is, under special conditions in certain parts of the nervous system, capable of being affected by the nervous changes in such way as to result in feeling, and is reciprocally capable under these conditions of affecting the nervous changes. But if we accept this explanation, we must assume that the potentiality of feeling is universal, and that the evolution of feeling in the ether takes place only under the extremely complex conditions occurring in certain nervous centres. This, however, is but a semblance of an explanation, since we know not what the ether is, and since, by confession of those most capable of judging, no hypothesis that has been framed accounts for all its powers. Such an explanation may be said to do no more than symbolize the phenomena by symbols of unknown natures. "--["First Principles, " § 71 _c_, definitive edition of 1900. ]

 --"Inscrutable is this complex consciousness which has slowly evolved out of infantine vacuity--consciousness which, in other shapes, is manifested by animate beings at large--consciousness which, during the development of every creature, makes its appearance out of what seems unconscious matter; _suggesting the thought that consciousness, in some rudimentary form, is omnipresent. _"[65]

[Footnote 65: _Autobiography_, vol. Ii, p. 470. ]

--Of all modern thinkers, Spencer was perhaps the most careful toavoid giving encouragement to any hypothesis unsupported by powerfulevidence. Even the simple sum of his own creed is uttered only, with due reservation, as a statement of three probabilities: thatconsciousness represents a specialized and individualized form of theinfinite Energy; that it is dissolved by death; and that its elementsthen return to the source of all being. As for our mental attitudetoward the infinite Mystery, his advice is plain. We must resignourselves to the eternal law, and endeavor to vanquish our ancientinheritance of superstitious terrors, remembering that, "merciless asis the Cosmic process worked out by an Unknown Power, yet vengeance isnowhere to be found in it. "[66]

[Footnote 66: _Facts and Comments_, p. 201. ]

 * * * * *

In the same brief essay there is another confession of singularinterest, --an acknowledgment of the terror of Space. To even theordinary mind, the notion of infinite Space, as forced upon us bythose monstrous facts of astronomy which require no serious studyto apprehend, is terrifying;--I mean the mere vague idea of thateverlasting Night into which the blazing of millions of suns can bringneither light nor warmth. But to the intellect of Herbert Spencer theidea of Space must have presented itself after a manner incomparablymore mysterious and stupendous. The mathematician alone willcomprehend the full significance of the paragraph dealing with theGeometry of Position and the mystery of space-relations, --or thestartling declaration that "even could we penetrate the mysteries ofexistence, there would remain still more transcendent mysteries. "But Herbert Spencer tells us that, apart from the conception of thesegeometrical mysteries, the problem of naked Space itself became forhim, in the twilight of his age, an obsession and a dismay:--

 . .. "And then comes the thought of this universal matrix itself, anteceding alike creation or evolution, whichever be assumed, and infinitely transcending both, alike in extent and duration; since both, if conceived at all, must be conceived as having had beginnings, while Space had no beginning. The thought of this blank form of existence which, explored in all directions as far as imagination can reach, has, beyond that, an unexplored region compared with which the part which imagination has traversed is but infinitesimal, --the thought of a Space compared with which our immeasurable sidereal system dwindles to a point is a thought too overwhelming to be dwelt upon. Of late years the consciousness that without origin or cause infinite Space has ever existed and must ever exist, produces in me a feeling from which I shrink. "

 * * * * *

How the idea of infinite Space may affect a mind incomparably morepowerful than my own, I cannot know;--neither can I divine the natureof certain problems which the laws of space-relation present to thegeometrician. But when I try to determine the cause of the horrorwhich that idea evokes within my own feeble imagination, I am ableto distinguish different elements of the emotion, --particular formsof terror responding to particular ideas (rational and irrational)suggested by the revelations of science. One feeling--perhaps themain element of the horror--is made by the thought of being _prisoned_forever and ever within that unutterable Viewlessness which occupiesinfinite Space. 

Behind this feeling there is more than the thought of eternalcircumscription;--there is also the idea of being perpetuallypenetrated, traversed, thrilled by the Nameless;--there is likewisethe certainty that no least particle of innermost secret Self couldshun the eternal touch of It;--there is furthermore the tremendousconviction that could the Self of me rush with the swiftness oflight, --with more than the swiftness of light, --beyond all galaxies, beyond durations of time so vast that Science knows no sign by whichtheir magnitudes might be indicated, --and still flee onward, onward, downward, upward, --always, always, --never could that Self of me reachnearer to any verge, never speed farther from any centre. For, in thatSilence, all vastitude and height and depth and time and direction areswallowed up: relation therein could have no meaning but for the speckof my fleeting consciousness, --atom of terror pulsating alone throughatomless, soundless, nameless, illimitable potentiality. 

And the idea of that potentiality awakens another quality ofhorror, --the horror of infinite Possibility. For this Inscrutable thatpulses through substance as if substance were not at all, --so subtlythat none can feel the flowing of its tides, yet so swiftly that nolife-time would suffice to count the number of the oscillations whichit makes within the fraction of one second, --thrills to us out ofendlessness;--and the force of infinity dwells in its lightest tremor;the weight of eternity presses behind its faintest shudder. To thatphantom-Touch, the tinting of a blossom or the dissipation of auniverse were equally facile: here it caresses the eye with the charmand illusion of color; there it bestirs into being a cluster of giantsuns. All that human mind is capable of conceiving as possible(and how much also that human mind must forever remain incapable ofconceiving?) may be wrought anywhere, everywhere, by a single tremorof that Abyss. .. . 

 * * * * *

Is it true, as some would have us believe, that the fear of theextinction of self is the terror supreme?. .. For the thought ofpersonal perpetuity in the infinite vortex is enough to evoke suddentrepidations that no tongue can utter, --fugitive instants of a horrortoo vast to enter wholly into consciousness: a horror that can beendured in swift black glimpsings only. And the trust that we are onewith the Absolute--dim points of thrilling in the abyss of It--canprove a consoling faith only to those who find themselves obliged tothink that consciousness dissolves with the crumbling of the brain. .. . It seems to me that few (or none) dare to utter frankly thosestupendous doubts and fears which force mortal intelligence torecoil upon itself at every fresh attempt to pass the barrier of theKnowable. Were that barrier unexpectedly pushed back, --were knowledgeto be suddenly and vastly expanded beyond its present limits, --perhapswe should find ourselves unable to endure the revelation. .. . 

 * * * * *

Mr. Percival Lowell's astonishing book, "Mars, " sets one to thinkingabout the results of being able to hold communication with thehabitants of an older and a wiser world, --some race of beings morehighly evolved than we, both intellectually and morally, and able tointerpret a thousand mysteries that still baffle our science. Perhaps, in such event, we should not find ourselves able to comprehend themethods, even could we borrow the results, of wisdom older than allour civilization by myriads or hundreds of myriads of years. But wouldnot the sudden advent of larger knowledge from some elder planet provefor us, by reason, of the present moral condition of mankind, nothingless than a catastrophe?--might it not even result in the extinctionof the human species?. .. 

The rule seems to be that the dissemination of dangerous higherknowledge, before the masses of a people are ethically prepared toreceive it, will always be prevented by the conservative instinct; andwe have reason to suppose (allowing for individual exceptions) thatthe power to gain higher knowledge is developed only as the moralability to profit by such knowledge is evolved. I fancy that if thepower of holding intellectual converse with other worlds could nowserve us, we should presently obtain it. But if, by some astonishingchance, --as by the discovery, let us suppose, of some method ofether-telegraphy, --this power were prematurely acquired, its exercisewould in all probability be prohibited. .. . Imagine, for example, whatwould have happened during the Middle Ages to the person guilty ofdiscovering means to communicate with the people of a neighboringplanet! Assuredly that inventor and his apparatus and his recordswould have been burned; every trace and memory of his labors wouldhave been extirpated. Even to-day the sudden discovery of truthsunsupported by human experience, the sudden revelation of factstotally opposed to existing convictions, might evoke some franticrevival of superstitious terrors, --some religious panic-fury thatwould strangle science, and replunge the world in mental darknessfor a thousand years. 

THE MIRROR MAIDEN

In the period of the Ashikaga Sh[=o]gunate the shrine ofOgawachi-My[=o]jin, at Minami-Isé, fell into decay; and the daimy[=o]of the district, the Lord Kitahataké, found himself unable, by reasonof war and other circumstances, to provide for the reparation of thebuilding. Then the Shint[=o] priest in charge, Matsumura Hy[=o]go, sought help at Ky[=o]to from the great daimy[=o] Hosokawa, who wasknown to have influence with the Sh[=o]gun. The Lord Hosokawa receivedthe priest kindly, and promised to speak to the Sh[=o]gun about thecondition of Ogawachi-My[=o]jin. But he said that, in any event, agrant for the restoration of the temple could not be made withoutdue investigation and considerable delay; and he advised Matsumura toremain in the capital while the matter was being arranged. Matsumuratherefore brought his family to Ky[=o]to, and rented a house in theold Ky[=o]goku quarter. 

This house, although handsome and spacious, had been long unoccupied. It was said to be an unlucky house. On the northeast side of it therewas a well; and several former tenants had drowned themselves inthat well, without any known cause. But Matsumura, being a Shint[=o]priest, had no fear of evil spirits; and he soon made himself verycomfortable in his new home. 

 * * * * *

In the summer of that year there was a great drought. For months norain had fallen in the Five Home-Provinces; the river-beds driedup, the wells failed; and even in the capital there was a dearth ofwater. But the well in Matsumura's garden remained nearly full; andthe water--which was very cold and clear, with a faint bluishtinge--seemed to be supplied by a spring. During the hot season manypeople came from all parts of the city to beg for water; and Matsumuraallowed them to draw as much as they pleased. Nevertheless the supplydid not appear to be diminished. 

But one morning the dead body of a young servant, who had been sentfrom a neighboring residence to fetch water, was found floating inthe well. No cause for a suicide could be imagined; and Matsumura, remembering many unpleasant stories about the well, began to suspectsome invisible malevolence. He went to examine the well, with theintention of having a fence built around it; and while standing therealone he was startled by a sudden motion in the water, as of somethingalive. The motion soon ceased; and then he perceived, clearlyreflected in the still surface, the figure of a young woman, apparently about nineteen or twenty years of age. She seemed to beoccupied with her toilet: he distinctly saw her touching her lipswith _béni_[67] At first her face was visible in profile only; butpresently she turned towards him and smiled. Immediately he felt astrange shock at his heart, and a dizziness came upon him like thedizziness of wine, and everything became dark, except that smilingface, --white and beautiful as moonlight, and always seeming to growmore beautiful, and to be drawing him down--down--down into thedarkness. But with a desperate effort he recovered his will and closedhis eyes. When he opened them again, the face was gone, and the lighthad returned; and he found himself leaning down over the curb of thewell. A moment more of that dizziness, --a moment more of that dazzlinglure, --and he would never again have looked upon the sun. .. 

[Footnote 67: A kind of rouge, now used only to color the lips. ]

Returning to the house, he gave orders to his people not to approachthe well under any circumstances, or allow any person to draw waterfrom it. And the next day he had a strong fence built round the well. 

 * * * * *

About a week after the fence had been built, the long drought wasbroken by a great rain-storm, accompanied by wind and lightning andthunder, --thunder so tremendous that the whole city shook to therolling of it, as if shaken by an earthquake. For three days and threenights the downpour and the lightnings and the thunder continued; andthe Kamogawa rose as it had never risen before, carrying away manybridges. During the third night of the storm, at the Hour of the Ox, there was heard a knocking at the door of the priest's dwelling, andthe voice of a woman pleading for admittance. But Matsumura, warned byhis experience at the well, forbade his servants to answer the appeal. He went himself to the entrance, and asked, --

"Who calls?"

A feminine voice responded:--

"Pardon! it is I, --Yayoi![68]. .. I have something to say to MatsumuraSama, --something of great moment. Please open!". .. 

[Footnote 68: This name, though uncommon, is still in use. ]

Matsumura half opened the door, very cautiously; and he saw the samebeautiful face that had smiled upon him from the well. But it was notsmiling now: it had a very sad look. 

"Into my house you shall not come, " the priest exclaimed. "You are nota human being, but a Well-Person. .. . Why do you thus wickedly try todelude and destroy people?"

The Well-Person made answer in a voice musical as a tinkling of jewels(_tama-wo-korogasu-koë_. ):--

"It is of that very matter that I want to speak. .. . I have neverwished to injure human beings. But from ancient time a Poison-Dragondwelt in that well. He was the Master of the Well; and because of himthe well was always full. Long ago I fell into the water there, andso became subject to him; and he had power to make me lure people todeath, in order that he might drink their blood. But now the HeavenlyRuler has commanded the Dragon to dwell hereafter in the lake calledTorii-no-Iké, in the Province of Shinsh[=u]; and the gods have decidedthat he shall never be allowed to return to this city. So to-night, after he had gone away, I was able to come out, to beg for your kindlyhelp. There is now very little water in the well, because of theDragon's departure; and if you will order search to be made, my bodywill be found there. I pray you to save my body from the well withoutdelay; and I shall certainly return your benevolence. ". .. 

So saying, she vanished into the night. 

 * * * * *

Before dawn the tempest had passed; and when the sun arose there wasno trace of cloud in the pure blue sky. Matsumura sent at an earlyhour for well-cleaners to search the well. Then, to everybody'ssurprise, the well proved to be almost dry. It was easily cleaned; andat the bottom of it were found some hair-ornaments of a very ancientfashion, and a metal mirror of curious form--but no trace of any body, animal or human. 

Matusmura imagined, however, that the mirror might yield someexplanation of the mystery; for every such mirror is a weird thing, having a soul of its own, --and the soul of a mirror is feminine. Thismirror, which seemed to be very old, was deeply crusted with scurf. But when it had been carefully cleaned, by the priest's order, itproved to be of rare and costly workmanship; and there were wonderfuldesigns upon the back of it, --also several characters. Some of thecharacters had become indistinguishable; but there could still bediscerned part of a date, and ideographs signifying, "_third month, the third day_. " Now the third month used to be termed _Yayoi_(meaning, the Month of Increase); and the third day of the thirdmonth, which is a festival day, is still called _Yayoi-no-sekku_. Remembering that the Well-Person called herself "Yayoi, " Matsumurafelt almost sure that his ghostly visitant had been none other thanthe Soul of the Mirror. 

He therefore resolved to treat the mirror with all the considerationdue to a Spirit. After having caused it to be carefully repolishedand resilvered, he had a case of precious wood made for it, and aparticular room in the house prepared to receive it. On the eveningof the same day that it had been respectfully deposited in that room, Yayoi herself unexpectedly appeared before the priest as he sat alonein his study. She looked even more lovely than before; but the lightof her beauty was now soft as the light of a summer moon shiningthrough pure white clouds. After having humbly saluted Matsumura, shesaid in her sweetly tinkling voice:--

"Now that you have saved me from solitude and sorrow, I have come tothank you. .. . I am indeed, as you supposed, the Spirit of the Mirror. It was in the time of the Emperor Saimei that I was first brought herefrom Kudara; and I dwelt in the august residence until the time ofthe Emperor Saga, when I was augustly bestowed upon the Lady Kamo, Naishinn[=o] of the Imperial Court. [69] Thereafter I became anheirloom in the House of Fuji-wara, and so remained until the periodof H[=o]gen, when I was dropped into the well. There I was left andforgotten during the years of the great war. [70] The Master of theWell[71] was a venomous Dragon, who used to live in a lake that oncecovered a great part of this district. After the lake had been filledin, by government order, in order that houses might be built uponthe place of it, the Dragon took possession of the well; and when Ifell into the well I became subject to him; and he compelled me tolure many people to their deaths. But the gods have banished himforever. .. . Now I have one more favor to beseech: I entreat that youwill cause me to be offered up to the Sh[=o]gun, the Lord Yoshimasa, who by descent is related to my former possessors. Do me but this lastgreat kindness, and it will bring you good-fortune. .. . But I have alsoto warn you of a danger. In this house, after to-morrow, you mustnot stay, because it will be destroyed. ". .. And with these words ofwarning Yayoi disappeared. 

[Footnote 69: The Emperor Saimei reigned from 655 to 662 (A. D. );the Emperor Saga from 810 to 842. --Kudara was an ancient kingdom insouthwestern Korea, frequently mentioned in early Japanese history. --A_Naishinn[=o]_ was of Imperial blood. In the ancient court-hierarchythere were twenty-five ranks or grades of noble ladies;--that of_Naishinno_ was seventh in order of precedence. ]

[Footnote 70: For centuries the wives of the emperors and the ladiesof the Imperial Court were chosen from the Fujiwara clan--The periodcalled H[=o]gen lasted from 1156 to 1159: the war referred to is thefamous war between the Taira and Minamoto clans. ]

[Footnote 71: In old-time belief every lake or spring had itsinvisible guardian, supposed to sometimes take the form of a serpentor dragon. The spirit of a lake or pond was commonly spoken ofas _Iké-no-Mushi_, the Master of the Lake. Here we find the title"Master" given to a dragon living in a well; but the guardian of wellsis really the god Suijin. ]

 * * * * *

Matsumura was able to profit by this premonition. He removed hispeople and his belongings to another district the next day; and almostimmediately afterwards another storm arose, even more violent than thefirst, causing a flood which swept away the house in which he had beenresiding. 

Some time later, by favor of the Lord Hosokawa, Matsumura was enabledto obtain an audience of the Sh[=o]gun Yoshimasa, to whom he presentedthe mirror, together with a written account of its wonderful history. Then the prediction of the Spirit of the Mirror was fulfilled; for theSh[=o]gun, greatly pleased with this strange gift, not only bestowedcostly presents upon Matsumura, but also made an ample grant of moneyfor the rebuilding of the Temple of Ogawachi-My[=o]jin. 

THE STORY OF IT[=O] NORISUKÉ

In the town of Uji, in the province of Yamashiro, there lived, aboutsix hundred years ago, a young samurai named It[=o] Tatéwaki Norisuké, whose ancestors were of the Héïké clan. It[=o] was of handsome personand amiable character, a good scholar and apt at arms. But his familywere poor; and he had no patron among the military nobility, --sothat his prospects were small. He lived in a very quiet way, devotinghimself to the study of literature, and having (says the Japanesestory-teller) "only the Moon and the Wind for friends. "

One autumn evening, as he was taking a solitary walk in theneighborhood of the hill called Kotobikiyama, he happened to overtakea young girl who was following the same path. She was richly dressed, and seemed to be about eleven or twelve years old. It[=o] greeted her, and said, "The sun will soon be setting, damsel, and this is rather alonesome place. May I ask if you have lost your way?" She looked upat him with a bright smile, and answered deprecatingly: "Nay! I ama _miya-dzukai_, [72] serving in this neighborhood; and I have only alittle way to go. "

[Footnote 72: August-residence servant. ]

By her use of the term _miya-dzukai_, It[=o] knew that the girl mustbe in the service of persons of rank; and her statement surprised him, because he had never heard of any family of distinction residing inthat vicinity. But he only said: "I am returning to Uji, where my homeis. Perhaps you will allow me to accompany you on the way, as this isa very lonesome place. " She thanked him gracefully, seeming pleasedby his offer; and they walked on together, chatting as they went. Shetalked about the weather, the flowers, the butterflies, and the birds;about a visit that she had once made to Uji, about the famous sightsof the capital, where she had been born;--and the moments passedpleasantly for It[=o], as he listened to her fresh prattle. Presently, at a turn in the road, they entered a hamlet, densely shadowed by agrove of young trees. 

 * * * * *

[Here I must interrupt the story to tell you that, without havingactually seen them, you cannot imagine how dark some Japanese countryvillages remain even in the brightest and hottest weather. In theneighborhood of T[=o]ky[=o] itself there are many villages of thiskind. At a short distance from such a settlement you see no houses:nothing is visible but a dense grove of evergreen trees. The grove, which is usually composed of young cedars and bamboos, serves toshelter the village from storms, and also to supply timber for variouspurposes. So closely are the trees planted that there is no room topass between the trunks of them: they stand straight as masts, andmingle their crests so as to form a roof that excludes the sun. Eachthatched cottage occupies a clear space in the plantation, the treesforming a fence about it, double the height of the building. Underthe trees it is always twilight, even at high noon; and the houses, morning or evening, are half in shadow. What makes the firstimpression of such a village almost disquieting is, not thetransparent gloom, which has a certain weird charm of its own, butthe stillness. There may be fifty or a hundred dwellings; but you seenobody; and you hear no sound but the twitter of invisible birds, theoccasional crowing of cocks, and the shrilling of cicadæ. Even thecicadæ, however, find these groves too dim, and sing faintly; beingsun-lovers, they prefer the trees outside the village. I forgot tosay that you may sometimes hear a viewless shuttle--_chaka-ton, chaka-ton_;--but that familiar sound, in the great green silence, seems an elfish happening. The reason of the hush is simply that thepeople are not at home. All the adults, excepting some feeble elders, have gone to the neighboring fields, the women carrying their babieson their backs; and most of the children have gone to the nearestschool, perhaps not less than a mile away. Verily, in these dimhushed villages, one seems to behold the mysterious perpetuation ofconditions recorded in the texts of Kwang-Tze:--

 "_The ancients who had the nourishment of the world wished for nothing, and the world had enough:--they did nothing, and all things were transformed:--their stillness was abysmal, and the people were all composed. _"]

 * * * * *

. .. The village was very dark when It[=o] reached it; for the sunhad set, and the after-glow made no twilight in the shadowing of thetrees. "Now, kind sir, " the child said, pointing to a narrow laneopening upon the main road, "I have to go this way. " "Permit me, then, to see you home, " It[=o] responded; and he turned into the lane withher, feeling rather than seeing his way. But the girl soon stoppedbefore a small gate, dimly visible in the gloom, --a gate oftrelliswork, beyond which the lights of a dwelling could be seen. "Here, " she said, "is the honorable residence in which I serve. As youhave come thus far out of your way, kind sir, will you not deign toenter and to rest a while?" It[=o] assented. He was pleased by theinformal invitation; and he wished to learn what persons of superiorcondition had chosen to reside in so lonesome a village. He knew thatsometimes a family of rank would retire in this manner from publiclife, by reason of government displeasure or political trouble; andhe imagined that such might be the history of the occupants of thedwelling before him. Passing the gate, which his young guide openedfor him, he found himself in a large quaint garden. A miniaturelandscape, traversed by a winding stream, was faintly distinguishable. "Deign for one little moment to wait, " the child said; "I go toannounce the honorable coming;" and hurried toward the house. It wasa spacious house, but seemed very old, and built in the fashion ofanother time. The sliding doors were not closed; but the lightedinterior was concealed by a beautiful bamboo curtain extendingalong the gallery front. Behind it shadows were moving--shadows ofwomen;--and suddenly the music of a _koto_ rippled into the night. Solight and sweet was the playing that It[=o] could scarcely believe theevidence of his senses. A slumbrous feeling of delight stole over himas he listened, --a delight strangely mingled with sadness. He wonderedhow any woman could have learned to play thus, --wondered whether theplayer could be a woman, --wondered even whether he was hearing earthlymusic; for enchantment seemed to have entered into his blood with thesound of it. 

 * * * * *

The soft music ceased; and almost at the same moment It[=o] found thelittle _miya-dzukai_ beside him. "Sir, " she said, "it is requestedthat you will honorably enter. " She conducted him to the entrance, where he removed his sandals; and an aged woman, whom he thought to bethe _R[=o]jo_, or matron of the household, came to welcome him at thethreshold. The old woman then led him through many apartments to alarge and well-lighted room in the rear of the house, and with manyrespectful salutations requested him to take the place of honoraccorded to guests of distinction. He was surprised by the statelinessof the chamber, and the curious beauty of its decorations. Presentlysome maid-servants brought refreshments; and he noticed that the cupsand other vessels set before him were of rare and costly workmanship, and ornamented with a design indicating the high rank of thepossessor. More and more he wondered what noble person had chosenthis lonely retreat, and what happening could have inspired the wishfor such solitude. But the aged attendant suddenly interrupted hisreflections with the question:

"Am I wrong in supposing that you are It[=o] Sama, of Uji, --It[=o]Tatéwaki Norisuké?"

It[=o] bowed in assent. He had not told his name to the little_miya-dzukai_, and the manner of the inquiry startled him. 

"Please do not think my question rude, " continued the attendant. "Anold woman like myself may ask questions without improper curiosity. When you came to the house, I thought that I knew your face; and Iasked your name only to clear away all doubt, before speaking ofother matters. I have some thing of moment to tell you. You often passthrough this village, and our young Himégimi-Sama[73] happened onemorning to see you going by; and ever since that moment she has beenthinking about you, day and night. Indeed, she thought so much thatshe became ill; and we have been very uneasy about her. For thatreason I took means to find out your name and residence; and I was onthe point of sending you a letter when--so unexpectedly!--you came toour gate with the little attendant. Now, to say how happy I am to seeyou is not possible; it seems almost too fortunate a happening to betrue! Really I think that this meeting must have been brought about bythe favor of Enmusubi-no-Kami, --that great God of Izumo who ties theknots of fortunate union. And now that so lucky a destiny has led youhither, perhaps you will not refuse--if there be no obstacle in theway of such a union--to make happy the heart of our Himégimi-Sama?"

[Footnote 73: A scarcely translatable honorific title compounded ofthe word _himé_ (princess) and _kimi_ (sovereign, master or mistress, lord or lady, etc. ). ]

For the moment It[=o] did not know how to reply. If the old woman hadspoken the truth, an extraordinary chance was being offered to him. Only a great passion could impel the daughter of a noble house toseek, of her own will, the affection of an obscure and masterlesssamurai, possessing neither wealth nor any sort of prospects. On theother hand, it was not in the honorable nature of the man to furtherhis own interests by taking advantage of a feminine weakness. Moreover, the circumstances were disquietingly mysterious. Yet how todecline the proposal, so unexpectedly made, troubled him not a little. After a short silence, he replied:--

"There would be no obstacle, as I have no wife, and no betrothed, andno relation with any woman. Until now I have lived with my parents;and the matter of my marriage was never discussed by them. You mustknow that I am a poor samurai, without any patron among persons ofrank; and I did not wish to marry until I could find some chance toimprove my condition. As to the proposal which you have done methe very great honor to make, I can only say that I know myself yetunworthy of the notice of any noble maiden. "

The old woman smiled as if pleased by these words, and responded:--

"Until you have seen our Himégimi-Sama, it were better that you makeno decision. Perhaps you will feel no hesitation after you have seenher. Deign now to come with me, that I may present you to her. "

She conducted him to another larger guest-room, where preparations fora feast had been made, and having shown him the place of honor, lefthim for a moment alone. She returned accompanied by the Himégimi-Sama;and, at the first sight of the young mistress, It[=o] felt againthe strange thrill of wonder and delight that had come to him inthe garden, as he listened to the music of the _koto_. Never had hedreamed of so beautiful a being. Light seemed to radiate from herpresence, and to shine through her garments, as the light of the moonthrough flossy clouds; her loosely flowing hair swayed about heras she moved, like the boughs of the drooping willow bestirred bythe breezes of spring; her lips were like flowers of the peachbesprinkled with morning dew. It[=o] was bewildered by the vision. He asked himself whether he was not looking upon the person ofAmano-kawara-no-Ori-Himé herself, --the Weaving-Maiden who dwells bythe shining River of Heaven. 

Smiling, the aged woman turned to the fair one, who remainedspeechless, with downcast eyes and flushing cheeks, and said to her:--

"See, my child!--at the moment when we could least have hoped for sucha thing, the very person whom you wished to meet has come of his ownaccord. So fortunate a happening could have been brought about only bythe will of the high gods. To think of it makes me weep for joy. " Andshe sobbed aloud. "But now, " she continued, wiping away her tearswith her sleeve, "it only remains for you both--unless either proveunwilling, which I doubt--to pledge yourselves to each other, and topartake of your wedding feast. "

 * * * * *

It[=o] answered by no word: the incomparable vision before him hadnumbed his will and tied his tongue. Maid-servants entered, bearingdishes and wine: the wedding feast was spread before the pair; and thepledges were given. It[=o] nevertheless remained as in a trance: themarvel of the adventure, and the wonder of the beauty of the bride, still bewildered him. A gladness, beyond aught that he had ever knownbefore, filled his heart--like a great silence. But gradually herecovered his wonted calm; and thereafter he found himself able toconverse without embarrassment. Of the wine he partook freely; andhe ventured to speak, in a self-depreciating but merry way, about thedoubts and fears that had oppressed him. Meanwhile the bride remainedstill as moonlight, never lifting her eyes, and replying only by ablush or a smile when he addressed her. 

It[=o] said to the aged attendant:--

"Many times, in my solitary walks, I have passed through this villagewithout knowing of the existence of this honorable dwelling. And eversince entering here, I have been wondering why this noble householdshould have chosen so lonesome a place of sojourn. .. . Now that yourHimégimi-Sama and I have become pledged to each other, it seems to mea strange thing that I do not yet know the name of her august family. "

At this utterance, a shadow passed over the kindly face of the oldwoman; and the bride, who had yet hardly spoken, turned pale, andappeared to become painfully anxious. After some moments of silence, the aged woman responded:--

"To keep our secret from you much longer would be difficult; and Ithink that, under any circumstances, you should be made aware of thefacts, now that you are one of us. Know then, Sir It[=o], that yourbride is the daughter of Shigéhira-Ky[=o], the great and unfortunateSan-mi Chüj[=o]. "

At those words--"Shigéhira-Ky[=o], San-mi Chüj[=o]"--the youngsamurai felt a chill, as of ice, strike through all his veins. Shigéhira-Ky[=o], the great Héïké general and statesman, had been dustfor centuries. And It[=o] suddenly understood that everything aroundhim--the chamber and the lights and the banquet--was a dream of thepast; that the forms before him were not people, but shadows of peopledead. 

But in another instant the icy chill had passed; and the charmreturned, and seemed to deepen about him; and he felt no fear. Thoughhis bride had come to him out of Yomi, --out of the place of the YellowSprings of death, --his heart had been wholly won. Who weds a ghostmust become a ghost;--yet he knew himself ready to die, not once, butmany times, rather than betray by word or look one thought that mightbring a shadow of pain to the brow of the beautiful illusion beforehim. Of the affection proffered he had no misgiving: the truth hadbeen told him when any unloving purpose might better have been servedby deception. But these thoughts and emotions passed in a flash, leaving him resolved to accept the strange situation as it hadpresented itself, and to act just as he would have done if chosen, inthe years of Jü-ei, by Shigéhira's daughter. 

"Ah, the pity of it!" he exclaimed; "I have heard of the cruel fate ofthe august Lord Shigéhira. "

"Ay, " responded the aged woman, sobbing as she spoke;--"it was indeeda cruel fate. His horse, you know, was killed by an arrow, and fellupon him; and when he called for help, those who had lived upon hisbounty deserted him in his need. Then he was taken prisoner, and sentto Kamakura, where they treated him shamefully, and at last put himto death. [74] His wife and child--this dear maid here--were then inhiding; for everywhere the Héïké were being sought out and killed. When the news of the Lord Shigéhira's death reached us, the painproved too great for the mother to bear, so the child was left withno one to care for her but me, --since her kindred had all perished ordisappeared. She was only five years old. I had been her milk-nurse, and I did what I could for her. Year after year we wandered from placeto place, traveling in pilgrim-garb. .. . But these tales of grief areill-timed, " exclaimed the nurse, wiping away her tears;--"pardonthe foolish heart of an old woman who cannot forget the past. See!the little maid whom I fostered has now become a Himégimi-Samaindeed!--were we living in the good days of the Emperor Takakura, whata destiny might be reserved for her! However, she has obtained thehusband whom she desired; that is the greatest happiness. .. . But thehour is late. The bridal-chamber has been prepared; and I must nowleave you to care for each other until morning. "

[Footnote 74: Shigéhira, after a brave fight in defense of thecapital, --then held by the Taïra (or Héïké) party, --was surprised androuted by Yoshitsuné, leader of the Minamoto forces. A soldier namedIyénaga, who was a skilled archer, shot down Shigéhira's horse; andShigéhira fell under the struggling animal. He cried to an attendantto bring another horse; but the man fled. Shigéhira was thencaptured by Iyénaga, and eventually given up to Yoritomo, head ofthe Minamoto clan, who caused him to be sent in a cage to Kamakura. There, after sundry humiliations, he was treated for a time withconsideration, --having been able, by a Chinese poem, to touch even thecruel heart of Yoritomo. But in the following year he was executed byrequest of the Buddhist priests of Nanto, against whom he had formerlywaged war by order of Kiyomori. ]

She rose, and sliding back the screens parting the guest-room fromthe adjoining chamber, ushered them to their sleeping apartment. Then, with many words of joy and congratulation, she withdrew; and It[=o]was left alone with his bride. 

As they reposed together, It[=o] said:--

"Tell me, my loved one, when was it that you first wished to have mefor your husband. "

(For everything appeared so real that he had almost ceased to think ofthe illusion woven around him. )

She answered, in a voice like a dove's voice:--

"My august lord and husband, it was at the temple of Ishiyama, whereI went with my foster-mother, that I saw you for the first time. Andbecause of seeing you, the world became changed to me from that hourand moment. But you do not remember, because our meeting was not inthis, your present life: it was very, very long ago. Since that timeyou have passed through many deaths and births, and have had manycomely bodies. But I have remained always that which you see me now:I could not obtain another body, nor enter into another state ofexistence, because of my great wish for you. My dear lord and husband, I have waited for you through many ages of men. "

And the bridegroom felt nowise afraid at hearing these strange words, but desired nothing more in life, or in all his lives to come, than tofeel her arms about him, and to hear the caress of her voice. 

 * * * * *

But the pealing of a temple-bell proclaimed the coming of dawn. Birdsbegan to twitter; a morning breeze set all the trees a-whispering. Suddenly the old nurse pushed apart the sliding screens of thebridal-chamber, and exclaimed:--

"My children, it is time to separate! By daylight you must not betogether, even for an instant: that were fatal! You must bid eachother good-by. "

Without a word, It[=o] made ready to depart. He vaguely understoodthe warning uttered, and resigned himself wholly to destiny. His willbelonged to him no more; he desired only to please his shadowy bride. 

She placed in his hands a little _suzuri_, or ink-stone, curiouslycarved, and said:--

"My young lord and husband is a scholar; therefore this small giftwill probably not be despised by him. It is of strange fashion becauseit is old, having been augustly bestowed upon my father by the favorof the Emperor Takakura. For that reason only, I thought it to be aprecious thing. "

It[=o], in return, besought her to accept for a remembrance the_k[=o]gai_[75] of his sword, which were decorated with inlaid work ofsilver and gold, representing plum-flowers and nightingales. 

[Footnote 75: This was the name given to a pair of metal rods attachedto a sword-sheath, and used like chop-sticks. They were sometimesexquisitely ornamented. ]

Then the little _miya-dzukai_ came to guide him through the garden, and his bride with her foster-mother accompanied him to the threshold. 

As he turned at the foot of the steps to make his parting salute, theold woman said:--

"We shall meet again the next Year of the Boar, at the same hour ofthe same day of the same month that you came here. This being the Yearof the Tiger, you will have to wait ten years. But, for reasons whichI must not say, we shall not be able to meet again in this place;we are going to the neighborhood of Ky[=o]to, where the good EmperorTakakura and our fathers and many of our people are dwelling. All theHéïké will be rejoiced by your coming. We shall send a _kago_[76] foryou on the appointed day. "

[Footnote 76: A kind of palanquin. ]

 * * * * *

Above the village the stars were burning as It[=o] passed the gate;but on reaching the open road he saw the dawn brightening beyondleagues of silent fields. In his bosom he carried the gift of hisbride. The charm of her voice lingered in his ears, --and nevertheless, had it not been for the memento which he touched with questioningfingers, he could have persuaded himself that the memories of thenight were memories of sleep, and that his life still belonged to him. 

But the certainty that he had doomed himself evoked no least regret:he was troubled only by the pain of separation, and the thought of theseasons that would have to pass before the illusion could be renewedfor him. Ten years!--and every day of those years would seem how long!The mystery of the delay he could not hope to solve; the secret waysof the dead are known to the gods alone. 

 * * * * *

Often and often, in his solitary walks, It[=o] revisited the villageat Kotobikiyama, vaguely hoping to obtain another glimpse of the past. But never again, by night or by day, was he able to find the rusticgate in the shadowed lane; never again could he perceive the figure ofthe little _miya-dzukai_, walking alone in the sunset-glow. 

The village people, whom he questioned carefully, thought himbewitched. No person of rank, they said, had ever dwelt in thesettlement; and there had never been, in the neighborhood, any suchgarden as he described. But there had once been a great Buddhisttemple near the place of which he spoke; and some gravestones of thetemple-cemetery were still to be seen. It[=o] discovered the monumentsin the middle of a dense thicket. They were of an ancient Chineseform, and were covered with moss and lichens. The characters that hadbeen cut upon them could no longer be deciphered. 

 * * * * *

Of his adventure It[=o] spoke to no one. But friends and kindred soonperceived a great change in his appearance and manner. Day by day heseemed to become more pale and thin, though physicians declared thathe had no bodily ailment; he looked like a ghost, and moved likea shadow. Thoughtful and solitary he had always been, but now heappeared indifferent to everything which had formerly given himpleasure, --even to those literary studies by means of which hemight have hoped to win distinction. To his mother--who thought thatmarriage might quicken his former ambition, and revive his interest inlife--he said that he had made a vow to marry no living woman. And themonths dragged by. 

At last came the Year of the Boar, and the season of autumn; but I tocould no longer take the solitary walks that he loved. He could noteven rise from his bed. His life was ebbing, though none could divinethe cause; and he slept so deeply and so long that his sleep was oftenmistaken for death. 

Out of such a sleep he was startled, one bright evening, by the voiceof a child; and he saw at his bedside the little _miya-dsukai_ who hadguided him, ten years before, to the gate of the vanished garden. Shesaluted him, and smiled, and said: "I am bidden to tell you that youwill be received to-night at Öhara, near Ky[=o]to, where the new homeis, and that a _kago_ has been sent for you. " Then she disappeared. 

It[=o] knew that he was being summoned away from the light of the sun;but the message so rejoiced him that he found strength to sit up andcall his mother. To her he then for the first time related the storyof his bridal, and he showed her the ink-stone which had been givenhim. He asked that it should be placed in his coffin, --and then hedied. 

 * * * * *

The ink-stone was buried with him. But before the funeral ceremoniesit was examined by experts, who said that it had been made in theperiod of _J[=o]-an_(1169 A. D. ), and that it bore the seal-mark of anartist who had lived in the time of the Emperor Takakura. 

STRANGER THAN FICTION

It was a perfect West Indian day. My friend the notary and I werecrossing the island by a wonderful road which wound up through tropicforest to the clouds, and thence looped down again, through gold-greenslopes of cane, and scenery amazing of violet and blue and ghost-graypeaks, to the roaring coast of the trade winds. All the morning we hadbeen ascending, --walking after our carriage, most of the time, for thesake of the brave little mule;--and the sea had been climbing behindus till it looked like a monstrous wall of blue, pansy-blue, under theever heightening horizon. The heat was like the heat of a vapor-bath, but the air was good to breathe with its tropical odor, --an odor madeup of smells of strange saps, queer spicy scents of mould, exhalationsof aromatic decay. Moreover, the views were glimpses of Paradise; andit was a joy to watch the torrents roaring down their gorges undershadows of tree-fern and bamboo. 

My friend stopped the carriage before a gateway set into a hedge fullof flowers that looked like pink-and-white butterflies. "I have tomake a call here, " he said;--"come in with me. " We dismounted, and heknocked on the gate with the butt of his whip. Within, at the end ofa shady garden, I could see the porch of a planter's house; beyondwere rows of cocoa palms, and glimpses of yellowing cane. Presentlya negro, wearing only a pair of canvas trousers and a great strawhat, came hobbling to open the gate, --followed by a multitude, anastonishing multitude, of chippering chickens. Under the shadow ofthat huge straw hat I could not see the negro's face; but I noticedthat his limbs and body were strangely shrunken, --looked as ifwithered to the bone. A weirder creature I had never beheld; and Iwondered at his following of chickens. 

"Eh!" exclaimed the notary, "your chickens are as lively as ever!. .. Iwant to see Madame Floran. "

"_Moin ké di_, " the goblin responded huskily, in his patois; and helimped on before us, all the chickens hopping and cheeping at hiswithered heels. 

"That fellow, " my friend observed, "was bitten by a _fer-de-lance_about eight or nine years ago. He got cured, or at least half-cured, in some extraordinary way; but ever since then he has been a skeleton. See how he limps!"

The skeleton passed out of sight behind the house, and we waited awhile at the front porch. Then a métisse--turbaned in wasp colors, androbed in iris colors, and wonderful to behold--came to tell us thatMadame hoped we would rest ourselves in the garden, as the house wasvery warm. Chairs and a little table were then set for us in a shadyplace, and the métisse brought out lemons, sugar-syrup, a bottle ofthe clear plantation rum that smells like apple juice, and ice-coldwater in a _dobanne_ of thick red clay. My friend prepared therefreshments; and then our hostess came to greet us, and to sit withus, --a nice old lady with hair like newly minted silver. I had neverseen a smile sweeter than that with which she bade us welcome; and Iwondered whether she could ever have been more charming in her Creolegirlhood than she now appeared, --with her kindly wrinkles, and argenthair, and frank, black, sparkling eyes. .. . 

 * * * * *

In the conversation that followed I was not able to take part, asit related only to some question of title. The notary soon arrangedwhatever there was to arrange; and, after some charmingly spoken wordsof farewell from the gentle lady, we took our departure. Again themummified negro hobbled before us, to open the gate, --followed byall his callow rabble of chickens. As we resumed our places in thecarriage we could still hear the chippering of the creatures, pursuingafter that ancient scarecrow. 

"Is it African sorcery?" I queried. .. . "How does he bewitch thosechickens?"

"Queer--is it not?" the notary responded as we drove away. "That negromust now be at least eighty years old; and he may live for twentyyears more, --the wretch!"

The tone in which my friend uttered this epithet--_lemiserable!_--somewhat surprised me, as I knew him to be one of thekindliest men in the world, and singularly free from prejudice. Isuspected that a story was coming, and I waited for it in silence. 

"Listen, " said the notary, after a pause, during which we left theplantation well behind us; "that old sorcerer, as you call him, wasborn upon the estate, a slave. The estate belonged to M. Floran, --thehusband of the lady whom we visited; and she was a cousin, and themarriage was a love-match. They had been married about two years whenthe revolt occurred (fortunately there were no children), --the blackrevolt of eighteen hundred and forty-eight. Several planters weremurdered; and M. Floran was one of the first to be killed. And the oldnegro whom we saw to-day--the old sorcerer, as you call him--left theplantation, and joined the rising: do you understand?"

"Yes, " I said; "but he might have done that through fear of the mob. "

"Certainly: the other hands did the same. But it was he that killed M. Floran, --for no reason whatever, --cut him up with a cutlass. M. Floranwas riding home when the attack was made, --about a mile below theplantation. .. . Sober, that negro would not have dared to face M. Floran: the scoundrel was drunk, of course, --raving drunk. Most ofthe blacks had been drinking tafia, with dead wasps in it, to givethemselves courage. "

"But, " I interrupted, "how does it happen that the fellow is still onthe Floran plantation?"

"Wait a moment!. .. When the military got control of the mob, searchwas made everywhere for the murderer of M. Floran; but he could notbe found. He was lying out in the cane, --in M. Floran's cane!--like afield-rat, like a snake. One morning, while the gendarmes were stilllooking for him, he rushed into the house, and threw himself down infront of Madame, weeping and screaming, '_Aïe-yaïe-yaïe-yaïe!--mointé tchoué y! moin té tchoué y!--aïe-yaïe-yaïe!_' Those were his verywords:--'I killed him! I killed him!' And he begged for mercy. Whenhe was asked why he killed M. Floran, he cried out that it was thedevil--_diabe-à_--that had made him do it!. .. Well, Madame forgavehim!"

"But how could she?" I queried. 

"Oh, she had always been very religious, " my friendresponded, --"sincerely religious. She only said, 'May God pardon meas I now pardon you!' She made her servants hide the creature and feedhim; and they kept him hidden until the excitement was over. Then shesent him back to work; and he has been working for her ever since. Ofcourse he is now too old to be of any use in the field;--he only takescare of the chickens. "

"But how, " I persisted, "could the relatives allow Madame to forgivehim?"

"Well, Madame insisted that he was not mentally responsible, --that hewas only a poor fool who had killed without knowing what he was doing;and she argued that if _she_ could forgive him, others could moreeasily do the same. There was a consultation; and the relativesdecided so to arrange matters that Madame could have her own way. "

"But why?"

"Because they knew that she found a sort of religious consolation--akind of religious comfort--in forgiving the wretch. She imaginedthat it was her duty as a Christian, not only to forgive him, but totake care of him. We thought that she was mistaken, --but we couldunderstand. .. . Well, there is an example of what religion can do. ". .. 

 * * * * *

The surprise of a new fact, or the sudden perception of somethingnever before imagined, may cause an involuntary smile. UnconsciouslyI smiled, while my friend was yet speaking; and the good notary's browdarkened. 

"Ah, you laugh!" he exclaimed, --"you laugh! That is wrong!--that is amistake!. .. But you do not believe: you do not know what it is, --thetrue religion, --the real Christianity!"

Earnestly I made answer:--

"Pardon me! I do believe every word of what you have told me. If Ilaughed unthinkingly, it was only because I could not help wondering". .. 

"At what?" he questioned gravely. 

"At the marvelous instinct of that negro. "

"Ah, yes!" he returned approvingly. "Yes, the cunning of the animalit was, --the instinct of the brute!. .. She was the only person in theworld who could have saved him. "

"And he knew it, " I ventured to add. 

"No--no--no!" my friend emphatically dissented, --"he never could haveknown it! He only _felt_ it!. .. Find me an instinct like that, and Iwill show you a brain incapable of any knowledge, any thinking, anyunderstanding: not the mind of a man, but the brain of a beast!"

A LETTER FROM JAPAN

Tokyo, August 1, 1904. 

Here, in this quiet suburb, where the green peace is broken only bythe voices of children at play and the shrilling of cicadæ, it isdifficult to imagine that, a few hundred miles away, there is beingcarried on one of the most tremendous wars of modern times, betweenarmies aggregating more than half a million of men, or that, on theintervening sea, a hundred ships of war have been battling. Thiscontest, between the mightiest of Western powers and a people thatbegan to study Western science only within the recollection of manypersons still in vigorous life, is, on one side at least, a strugglefor national existence. It was inevitable, this struggle, --mightperhaps have been delayed, but certainly not averted. Japan hasboldly challenged an empire capable of threatening simultaneouslythe civilizations of the East and the West, --a mediæval power that, unless vigorously checked, seems destined to absorb Scandinavia andto dominate China. For all industrial civilization the contest is oneof vast moment;--for Japan it is probably the supreme crisis in hernational life. As to what her fleets and her armies have been doing, the world is fully informed; but as to what her people are doing athome, little has been written. 

To inexperienced observation they would appear to be doing nothingunusual; and this strange calm is worthy of record. At thebeginning of hostilities an Imperial mandate was issued, bidding allnon-combatants to pursue their avocations as usual, and to troublethemselves as little as possible about exterior events;--and thiscommand has been obeyed to the letter. It would be natural to supposethat all the sacrifices, tragedies, and uncertainties of the contesthad thrown their gloom over the life of the capital in especial; butthere is really nothing whatever to indicate a condition of anxiety ordepression. On the contrary, one is astonished by the joyous tone ofpublic confidence, and the admirably restrained pride of the nationin its victories. Western tides have strewn the coast with Japanesecorpses; regiments have been blown out of existence in the storming ofpositions defended by wire-entanglements; battleships have been lost:yet at no moment has there been the least public excitement. Thepeople are following their daily occupations just as they did beforethe war; the cheery aspect of things is just the same; the theatresand flower displays are not less well patronized. The life ofT[=o]ky[=o] has been, to outward seeming, hardly more affected by theevents of the war than the life of nature beyond it, where the flowersare blooming and the butterflies hovering as in other summers. Exceptafter the news of some great victory, --celebrated with fireworks andlantern processions, --there are no signs of public emotion; and butfor the frequent distribution of newspaper extras, by runners ringingbells, you could almost persuade yourself that the whole story of thewar is an evil dream. 

Yet there has been, of necessity, a vast amount of suffering--viewlessand voiceless suffering--repressed by that sense of social andpatriotic duty which is Japanese religion. As a seventeen-syllablepoem of the hour tells us, the news of every victory must bring painas well as joy:--

 G[=o]gwai no Tabi teki mikata Goké ga fuè. 

 [_Each time that an extra is circulated the widows of foes and friends have increased in multitude. _]

The great quiet and the smiling tearlessness testify to the more thanSpartan discipline of the race. Anciently the people were trained, notonly to conceal their emotions, but to speak in a cheerful voice andto show a pleasant face under any stress of moral suffering; and theyare obedient to that teaching to-day. It would still be thought ashame to betray personal sorrow for the loss of those who die forEmperor and fatherland. The public seem to view the events of the waras they would watch the scenes of a popular play. They are interestedwithout being excited; and their extraordinary self-control isparticularly shown in various manifestations of the "Play-impulse. "Everywhere the theatres are producing war dramas (based upon actualfact); the newspapers and magazines are publishing war stories andnovels; the cinematograph exhibits the monstrous methods of modernwarfare; and numberless industries are turning out objects of art orutility designed to commemorate the Japanese triumphs. 

But the present psychological condition, the cheerful and even playfultone of public feeling, can be indicated less by any general statementthan by the mention of ordinary facts, --every-day matters recorded inthe writer's diary. 

 * * * * *

Never before were the photographers so busy; it is said that theyhave not been able to fulfill half of the demands made upon them. The hundreds of thousands of men sent to the war wished to leavephotographs with their families, and also to take with them portraitsof parents, children, and other beloved persons. The nation was beingphotographed during the past six months. 

A fact of sociological interest is that photography has addedsomething new to the poetry of the domestic faith. From the time ofits first introduction, photography became popular in Japan; and noneof those superstitions, which inspire fear of the camera among lesscivilized races, offered any obstacle to the rapid development of anew industry. It is true that there exists some queer-folk beliefsabout photographs, --ideas of mysterious relation between thesun-picture and the person imaged. For example: if, in the photographof a group, one figure appear indistinct or blurred, that is thoughtto be an omen of sickness or death. But this superstition has itsindustrial value: it has compelled photographers to be careful abouttheir work, --especially in these days of war, when everybody wants tohave a good clear portrait, because the portrait might be needed foranother purpose than preservation in an album. 

During the last twenty years there has gradually come into existencethe custom of placing the photograph of a dead parent, brother, husband, or child, beside the mortuary tablet kept in the Buddhisthousehold shrine. For this reason, also, the departing soldier wishesto leave at home a good likeness of himself. 

The rites of domestic affection, in old samurai families, are notconfined to the cult of the dead. On certain occasions, the pictureof the absent parent, husband, brother, or betrothed, is placed inthe alcove of the guest-room, and a feast laid out before it. Thephotograph, in such cases, is fixed upon a little stand (_dai_); andthe feast is served as if the person were present. This pretty customof preparing a meal for the absent is probably more ancient than anyart of portraiture; but the modern photograph adds to the human poetryof the rite. In feudal time it was the rule to set the repast facingthe direction in which the absent person had gone--north, south, east, or west. After a brief interval the covers of the vessels containingthe cooked food were lifted and examined. If the lacquered innersurface was thickly beaded with vapor, all was well; but ifthe surface was dry, that was an omen of death, a sign that thedisembodied spirit had returned to absorb the essence of theofferings. 

 * * * * *

As might have been expected, in a country where the "play-impulse" isstronger, perhaps, than in any other part of the world, the Zeitgeistfound manifestation in the flower displays of the year. I visitedthose in my neighborhood, which is the Quarter of the Gardeners. Thisquarter is famous for its azaleas (_tsutsuji_); and every springthe azalea gardens attract thousands of visitors, --not only by thewonderful exhibition then made of shrubs which look like solid massesof blossom (ranging up from snowy white, through all shades of pink, to a flamboyant purple) but also by displays of effigies: groupsof figures ingeniously formed with living leaves and flowers. Thesefigures, life-size, usually represent famous incidents of history ordrama. In many cases--though not in all--the bodies and the costumesare composed of foliage and flowers trained to grow about a framework;while the faces, feet, and hands are represented by some kind offlesh-colored composition. 

This year, however, a majority of the displays represented scenesof the war, --such as an engagement between Japanese infantry andmounted Cossacks, a night attack by torpedo boats, the sinking ofa battleship. In the last-mentioned display, Russian bluejacketsappeared, swimming for their lives in a rough sea;--the pasteboardwaves and the swimming figures being made to rise and fall by thepulling of a string; while the crackling of quick-firing guns wasimitated by a mechanism contrived with sheets of zinc. 

It is said that Admiral T[=o]g[=o] sent to T[=o]ky[=o] for someflowering-trees in pots--inasmuch as his responsibilities allowed himno chance of seeing the cherry-flowers and the plum-blossoms in theirseason, --and that the gardeners responded even too generously. 

 * * * * *

Almost immediately after the beginning of hostilities, thousands of"war pictures"--mostly cheap lithographs--were published. The drawingand coloring were better than those of the prints issued at thetime of the war with China; but the details were to a great extentimaginary, --altogether imaginary as to the appearance of Russiantroops. Pictures of the engagements with the Russian fleet wereeffective, despite some lurid exaggeration. The most startling thingswere pictures of Russian defeats in Korea, published before a singlemilitary engagement had taken place;--the artist had "flushed toanticipate the scene. " In these prints the Russians were depictedas fleeing in utter rout, leaving their officers--very fine-lookingofficers--dead upon the field; while the Japanese infantry, withdreadfully determined faces, were coming up at a double. The proprietyand the wisdom of thus pictorially predicting victory, and easyvictory to boot, may be questioned. But I am told that the custom ofso doing is an old one; and it is thought that to realize the commonhope thus imaginatively is lucky. At all events, there is no attemptat deception in these pictorial undertakings;--they help to keep upthe public courage, and they ought to be pleasing to the gods. 

Some of the earlier pictures have now been realized in grim fact. The victories in China had been similarly foreshadowed: they amplyjustified the faith of the artist. .. . To-day the war pictures continueto multiply; but they have changed character. The inexorable truthof the photograph, and the sketches of the war correspondent, nowbring all the vividness and violence of fact to help the artist'simagination. There was something naïve and theatrical in the drawingsof anticipation; but the pictures of the hour represent the mosttragic reality, --always becoming more terrible. At this writing, Japanhas yet lost no single battle; but not a few of her victories havebeen dearly won. 

To enumerate even a tenth of the various articles ornamented withdesigns inspired by the war--articles such as combs, clasps, fans, brooches, card-cases, purses--would require a volume. Even cakes andconfectionery are stamped with naval or military designs; and theglass or paper windows of shops--not to mention the signboards--havepictures of Japanese victories painted upon them. At night the shoplanterns proclaim the pride of the nation in its fleets and armies;and a whole chapter might easily be written about the new designs intransparencies and toy lanterns. A new revolving lantern--turned bythe air-current which its own flame creates--has become very popular. It represents a charge of Japanese infantry upon Russian defenses;and holes pierced in the colored paper, so as to produce a continuousvivid flashing while the transparency revolves, suggest the explodingof shells and the volleying of machine guns. 

Some displays of the art-impulse, as inspired by the war, have beenmade in directions entirely unfamiliar to Western experience, --inthe manufacture, for example, of women's hair ornaments and dressmaterials. Dress goods decorated with war pictures have actuallybecome a fashion, --especially crêpe silks for underwear, and figuredsilk linings for cloaks and sleeves. More remarkable than theseare the new hairpins;--by hairpins I mean those long double-prongedornaments of flexible metal which are called _kanzashi_, and are moreor less ornamented according to the age of the wearer. (The _kanzashi_made for young girls are highly decorative; those worn by older folkare plain, or adorned only with a ball of coral or polished stone. )The new hairpins might be called commemorative: one, of which thedecoration represents a British and a Japanese flag intercrossed, celebrates the Anglo-Japanese alliance; another represents anofficer's cap and sword; and the best of all is surmounted by atiny metal model of a battleship. The battleship-pin is not merelyfantastic: it is actually pretty!

As might have been expected, military and naval subjects occupy alarge place among the year's designs for toweling. The towel designscelebrating naval victories have been particularly successful: theyare mostly in white, on a blue ground; or in black, on a white ground. One of the best--blue and white--represented only a flock of gullswheeling about the masthead of a sunken iron-clad, and, far away, thesilhouettes of Japanese battleships passing to the horizon. .. . Whatespecially struck me in this, and in several other designs, was theoriginal manner in which the Japanese artist had seized upon thetraits of the modern battleship, --the powerful and sinister lines ofits shape, --just as he would have caught for us the typical characterof a beetle or a lobster. The lines have been just enough exaggeratedto convey, at one glance, the real impression made by the aspect ofthese iron monsters, --vague impression of bulk and force and menace, very difficult to express by ordinary methods of drawing. 

Besides towels decorated with artistic sketches of this sort, therehave been placed upon the market many kinds of towels bearing comicwar pictures, --caricatures or cartoons which are amusing without beingmalignant. It will be remembered that at the time of the first attackmade upon the Port Arthur squadron, several of the Russian officerswere in the Dalny theatre, --never dreaming that the Japanese woulddare to strike the first blow. This incident has been made the subjectof a towel design. At one end of the towel is a comic study of thefaces of the Russians, delightedly watching the gyrations of aballet dancer. At the other end is a study of the faces of the samecommanders when they find, on returning to the port, only the mastsof their battleships above water. Another towel shows a processionof fish in front of a surgeon's office--waiting their turns to berelieved of sundry bayonets, swords, revolvers, and rifles, which havestuck in their throats. A third towel picture represents a Russiandiver examining, with a prodigious magnifying-glass, the holes made bytorpedoes in the hull of a sunken cruiser. Comic verses or legends, incursive text, are printed beside these pictures. 

The great house of Mitsui, which placed the best of these designs onthe market, also produced some beautiful souvenirs of the war, inthe shape of _fukusa_. (A _fukusa_ is an ornamental silk covering, or wrapper, put over presents sent to friends on certain occasions, and returned after the present has been received. ) These are made ofthe heaviest and costliest silk, and inclosed within appropriatelydecorated covers. Upon one _fukusa_ is a colored picture of thecruisers Nisshin and Kasuga, under full steam; and upon another hasbeen printed, in beautiful Chinese characters, the full text of theImperial Declaration of war. 

But the strangest things that I have seen in this line of productionwere silk dresses for baby girls, --figured stuffs which, when lookedat from a little distance, appeared incomparably pretty, owing to themasterly juxtaposition of tints and colors. On closer inspection thecharming design proved to be composed entirely of war pictures, --or, rather, fragments of pictures, blended into one astonishingcombination: naval battles; burning warships; submarine minesexploding; torpedo boats attacking; charges of Cossacks repulsed byJapanese infantry; artillery rushing into position; storming of forts;long lines of soldiery advancing through mist. Here were colors ofblood and fire, tints of morning haze and evening glow, noon-blueand starred night-purple, sea-gray and field-green, --most wonderfulthing!. .. I suppose that the child of a military or naval officermight, without impropriety, be clad in such a robe. But then--theunspeakable pity of things!

 * * * * *

The war toys are innumerable: I can attempt to mention only a few ofthe more remarkable kinds. 

Japanese children play many sorts of card games, some of which areold, others quite new. There are poetical card games, for example, played with a pack of which each card bears the text of a poem, orpart of a poem; and the player should be able to remember the name ofthe author of any quotation in the set. Then there are geographicalcard games, in which each of the cards used bears the name, andperhaps a little picture, of some famous site, town, or temple; andthe player should be able to remember the district and province inwhich the mentioned place is situated. The latest novelty in this lineis a pack of cards with pictures upon them of the Russian war vessels;and the player should be able to state what has become of every vesselnamed, --whether sunk, disabled, or confined in Port Arthur. 

There is another card game in which the battleships, cruisers, andtorpedo craft of both Japan and Russia are represented. The winner inthis game destroys his "captures" by tearing the cards taken. But theshops keep packages of each class of warship cards in stock; and whenall the destroyers or cruisers of one country have been put _horsde combat_, the defeated party can purchase new vessels abroad. Onetorpedo boat costs about one farthing; but five torpedo boats can bebought for a penny. 

The toy-shops are crammed with models of battleships, --in wood, clay, porcelain, lead, and tin, --of many sizes and prices. Some of thelarger ones, moved by clockwork, are named after Japanese battleships:Shikishima, Fuji, Mikasa. One mechanical toy represents the sinking ofa Russian vessel by a Japanese torpedo boat. Among cheaper things ofthis class is a box of colored sand, for the representation of navalengagements. Children arrange the sand so as to resemble waves; andwith each box of sand are sold two fleets of tiny leaden vessels. TheJapanese ships are white, and the Russian black; and explosions oftorpedoes are to be figured by small cuttings of vermilion paper, planted in the sand. 

 * * * * *

The children of the poorest classes make their own war toys; and Ihave been wondering whether those ancient feudal laws (translatedby Professor Wigmore), which fixed the cost and quality of toys tobe given to children, did not help to develop that ingenuity whichthe little folk display. Recently I saw a group of children inour neighborhood playing at the siege of Port Arthur, with fleetsimprovised out of scraps of wood and some rusty nails. A tub of waterrepresented Port Arthur. Battleships were figured by bits of plank, into which chop-sticks had been fixed to represent masts, and rolls ofpaper to represent funnels. Little flags, appropriately colored, werefastened to the masts with rice paste. Torpedo boats were imaged bysplinters, into each of which a short thick nail had been planted toindicate a smokestack. Stationary submarine mines were representedby small squares of wood, each having one long nail driven into it;and these little things, when dropped into water with the nail-headdownwards, would keep up a curious bobbing motion for a long time. Other squares of wood, having clusters of short nails driven intothem, represented floating mines: and the mimic battleships were madeto drag for these, with lines of thread. The pictures in the Japanesepapers had doubtless helped the children to imagine the events of thewar with tolerable accuracy. 

Naval caps for children have become, of course, more in vogue thanever before. Some of the caps bear, in Chinese characters of burnishedmetal, the name of a battleship, or the words _Nippon Teikoku_(Empire of Japan), --disposed like the characters upon the cap of ablue-jacket. On some caps, however, the ship's name appears in Englishletters, --Yashima, Fuji, etc. 

 * * * * *

The play-impulse, I had almost forgotten to say, is shared by thesoldiers themselves, --though most of those called to the front do notexpect to return in the body. They ask only to be remembered at theSpirit-Invoking Shrine (_Sh[=o]konsha_), where the shades of all whodie for Emperor and country are believed to gather. The men of theregiments temporarily quartered in our suburb, on their way to thewar, found time to play at mimic war with the small folk of theneighborhood. (At all times Japanese soldiers are very kind tochildren; and the children here march with them, join in theirmilitary songs, and correctly salute their officers, feeling surethat the gravest officer will return the salute of a little child. )When the last regiment went away, the men distributed toys amongthe children assembled at the station to give them a partingcheer, --hairpins, with military symbols for ornament, to the girls;wooden infantry and tin cavalry to the boys. The oddest present wasa small clay model of a Russian soldier's head, presented with thejocose promise: "If we come back, we shall bring you some real ones. "In the top of the head there is a small wire loop, to which a rubberstring can be attached. At the time of the war with China, little claymodels of Chinese heads, with very long queues, were favorite toys. 

 * * * * *

The war has also suggested a variety of new designs for that charmingobject, the _toko-niwa_. Few of my readers know what a _toko-niwa_, or"alcove-garden, " is. It is a miniature garden--perhaps less than twofeet square--contrived within an ornamental shallow basin of porcelainor other material, and placed in the alcove of a guest-room by wayof decoration. You may see there a tiny pond; a streamlet crossed byhumped bridges of Chinese pattern; dwarf trees forming a grove, andshading the model of a Shinto temple; imitations in baked clay ofstone lanterns, --perhaps even the appearance of a hamlet of thatchedcottages. If the _toko-niwa_ be not too small, you may see real fishswimming in the pond, or a pet tortoise crawling among the rockwork. Sometimes the miniature garden represents H[=o]rai, and the palace ofthe Dragon-King. 

Two new varieties have come into fashion. One is a model of PortArthur, showing the harbor and the forts; and with the materials forthe display there is sold a little map, showing how to place certaintiny battle-ships, representing the imprisoned and the investingfleets. The other _toko-niwa_ represents a Korean or Chineselandscape, with hill ranges and rivers and woods; and the appearanceof a battle is created by masses of toy soldiers--cavalry, infantry, and artillery--in all positions of attack and defense. Minute forts ofbaked clay, bristling with cannon about the size of small pins, occupyelevated positions. When properly arranged the effect is panoramic. The soldiers in the foreground are about an inch long; those a littlefarther away about half as long; and those upon the hills are nolarger than flies. 

But the most remarkable novelty of this sort yet produced is a kindof _toko-niwa_ recently on display at a famous shop in Ginza. A labelbearing the inscription, _Kaï-téï no Ikken_ (View of the Ocean-Bed)sufficiently explained the design. The _suïbon_, or "water-tray, "containing the display was half filled with rocks and sand so as toresemble a sea-bottom; and little fishes appeared swarming in thefore-ground. A little farther back, upon an elevation, stood Otohimé, the Dragon-King's daughter, surrounded by her maiden attendants, andgazing, with just the shadow of a smile, at two men in naval uniformwho were shaking hands, --dead heroes of the war: Admiral Makaroff andCommander Hirosé!. .. These had esteemed each other in life; and it wasa happy thought thus to represent their friendly meeting in the worldof Spirits. 

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Though his name is perhaps unfamiliar to English readers, CommanderTakeo Hirosé has become, deservedly, one of Japan's national heroes. On the 27th of March, during the second attempt made to block theentrance to Port Arthur, he was killed while endeavoring to help acomrade, --a comrade who had formerly saved him from death. For fiveyears Hirosé had been a naval attaché at St. Petersburg, and had mademany friends in Russian naval and military circles. From boyhood hislife had been devoted to study and duty; and it was commonly said ofhim that he had no particle of selfishness in his nature. Unlike mostof his brother officers, he remained unmarried, --holding that no manwho might be called on at any moment to lay down his life for hiscountry had a moral right to marry. The only amusements in whichhe was ever known to indulge were physical exercises; and he wasacknowledged one of the best _j[=u]jutsu_ (wrestlers) in the empire. The heroism of his death, at the age of thirty-six, had much less todo with the honors paid to his memory than the self-denying heroism ofhis life. 

Now his picture is in thousands of homes, and his name is celebratedin every village. It is celebrated also by the manufacture ofvarious souvenirs, which are sold by myriads. For example, thereis a new fashion in sleeve-buttons, called _Kinen-botan_, or"Commemoration-buttons. " Each button bears a miniature portrait ofthe commander, with the inscription, _Shichi-sh[=o] h[=o]koku_, "Evenin seven successive lives--for love of country. " It is recorded thatHirosé often cited, to friends who criticised his ascetic devotion toduty, the famous utterance of Kusunoki Masashigé, who declared, erelaying down his life for the Emperor Go-Daigo, that he desired to diefor his sovereign in seven successive existences. 

But the highest honor paid to the memory of Hirosé is of a sort nowpossible only in the East, though once possible also in the West, whenthe Greek or Roman patriot-hero might be raised, by the common love ofhis people, to the place of the Immortals. .. . Wine-cups of porcelainhave been made, decorated with his portrait; and beneath the portraitappears, in ideographs of gold, the inscription, _Gunshin HiroséCh[=u]sa_. The character "gun" signifies war; the character "_shin_"a god, --either in the sense of _divus_ or _deus_, according tocircumstances; and the Chinese text, read in the Japanese way, is_Ikusa no Kami_. Whether that stern and valiant spirit is reallyinvoked by the millions who believe that no brave soul is doomed toextinction, no well-spent life laid down in vain, no heroism castaway, I do not know. But, in any event, human affection and gratitudecan go no farther than this; and it must be confessed that Old Japanis still able to confer honors worth dying for. 

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Boys and girls in all the children's schools are now singing the Songof Hirosé Ch[=u]sa, which is a marching song. The words and themusic are published in a little booklet, with a portrait of the latecommander upon the cover. Everywhere, and at all hours of the day, onehears this song being sung:--

 _He whose every word and deed gave to men an example of what the war-folk of the_ _Empire of Nippon should be, --Commander Hirosé: is he really dead?_

 _Though the body die, the spirit dies not. He who wished to be reborn seven times into this world, for the sake of serving his country, for the sake of requiting the Imperial favor, --Commander Hirosé: has he really died?_

 _"Since I am a son of the Country of the Gods, the fire of the evil-hearted Russians cannot touch me!"--The sturdy Takeo who spoke thus: can he really be dead?. .. _

 _Nay! that glorious war-death meant undying fame;--beyond a thousand years the valiant heart shall live;--as to a god of war shall reverence be paid to him. .. . _

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Observing the playful confidence of this wonderful people in theirstruggle for existence against the mightiest power of the West, --theirperfect trust in the wisdom of their leaders and the valor of theirarmies, --the good humor of their irony when mocking the enemy'sblunders, --their strange capacity to find, in the world-stirringevents of the hour, the same amusement that they would find inwatching a melodrama, --one is tempted to ask: "What would be themoral consequence of a national defeat?". .. It would depend, I think, upon circumstances. Were Kuropatkin able to fulfill his rash threatof invading Japan, the nation would probably rise as one man. Butotherwise the knowledge of any great disaster would be bravely borne. From time unknown Japan has been a land of cataclysms, --earth-quakesthat ruin cities in the space of a moment; tidal waves, two hundredmiles long, sweeping whole coast populations out of existence; floodssubmerging hundreds of leagues of well-tilled fields; eruptionsburying provinces. Calamities like this have disciplined the race inresignation and in patience; and it has been well trained also to bearwith courage all the misfortunes of war. Even by the foreign peoplesthat have been most closely in contact with her, the capacities ofJapan remained unguessed. Perhaps her power to resist aggression isfar surpassed by her power to endure.