{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_29337/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_29337","id":"gutenberg_29337","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29337","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Folklore -- Japan"],"text":"Produced by Delphine Lettau, Jen Haines and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJAPANESE FAIRY WORLD - TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES - MACRONS\n\nThe use of the macron above the letter \"O\" in names throughout the\nbook is inconsistent. The same name may appear either with or without\na macron or the macron may appear above different letters when the\nsame name is printed in different places through the book. This has\nbeen left as printed in the original book.\n\nIn the plain text version, macrons are indicated by [=o] in place of\nthe letter \"O\" with the macron above it. Macrons do not appear above\nany letter other than \"O\".\n\nFor further transcriber's notes, please see the end of the text.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: HOW THE SUN-GODDESS WAS ENTICED OUT OF HER CAVE.]\n\n\n\n\nJAPANESE\n\nFAIRY WORLD.\n\nSTORIES FROM THE WONDER-LORE OF JAPAN.\n\n\nBY\n\nWILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS,\n\nAUTHOR OF \"THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE.\"\n\n\nILLUSTRATED BY OZAWA, OF TOKIO.\n\n\nLONDON:\n\nTRUeBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL.\n\n1887.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\n    The thirty-four stories included within this volume do\n    not illustrate the bloody, revengeful or licentious\n    elements, with which Japanese popular, and juvenile\n    literature is saturated. These have been carefully\n    avoided.\n\n    It is also rather with a view to the artistic, than to\n    the literary, products of the imagination of Japan, that\n    the selection has been made. From my first acquaintance,\n    twelve years ago, with Japanese youth, I became an eager\n    listener to their folk lore and fireside stories. When\n    later, during a residence of nearly four years among the\n    people, my eyes were opened to behold the wondrous\n    fertility of invention, the wealth of literary, historic\n    and classic allusion, of pun, myth and riddle, of\n    heroic, wonder, and legendary lore in Japanese art, I at\n    once set myself to find the source of the ideas\n    expressed in bronze and porcelain, on lacquered\n    cabinets, fans, and even crape paper napkins and tidies.\n    Sometimes I discovered the originals of the artist's\n    fancy in books, sometimes only in the mouths of the\n    people and professional story-tellers. Some of these\n    stories I first read on the tattooed limbs and bodies of\n    the native foot-runners, others I first saw in\n    flower-tableaux at the street floral shows of Tokio.\n    Within this book the reader will find translations,\n    condensations of whole books, of interminable romances,\n    and a few sketches by the author embodying Japanese\n    ideas, beliefs and superstitions. I have taken no more\n    liberty, I think, with the native originals, than a\n    modern story-teller of Tokio would himself take, were he\n    talking in an American parlor, instead of at his\n    bamboo-curtained stand in Yanagi Cho, (Willow Street,)\n    in the mikado's capital.\n\n    Some of the stories have appeared in English before, but\n    most of them are printed for the first time. A few\n    reappear from _The Independent_ and other periodicals.\n\n    The illustrations and cover-stamp, though engraved in\n    New York by Mr. Henry W. Troy, were, with one exception,\n    drawn especially for this work, by my artist-friend,\n    Ozawa Nankoku, of Tokio. The picture of Yorimasa, the\n    Archer, was made for me by one of my students in Tokio.\n\n    Hoping that these harmless stories that have tickled the\n    imagination of Japanese children during untold\n    generations, may amuse the big and little folks of\n    America, the writer invites his readers, in the language\n    of the native host as he points to the chopsticks and\n    spread table, _O agari nasai_\n                                                W.E.G.\n    SCHENECTADY, N.Y., Sept. 28th, 1880.\n\n\n\n\n              CONTENTS.\n\n\n           I. The Meeting of the Star Lovers.\n\n          II. The Travels of Two Frogs.\n\n         III. The Child of the Thunder.\n\n          IV. The Tongue-cut Sparrow.\n\n           V. The Fire-fly's Lovers.\n\n          VI. The Battle of the Ape and the Crab.\n\n         VII. The Wonderful Tea-Kettle.\n\n        VIII. Peach-Prince and the Treasure Island.\n\n          IX. The Fox and the Badger.\n\n           X. The Seven Patrons of Happiness.\n\n          XI. Daikoku and the Oni.\n\n         XII. Benkei and the Bell.\n\n        XIII. Little Silver's Dream of the Shoji.\n\n         XIV. The Tengus, or the Elves with Long Noses.\n\n          XV. Kintaro, or the Wild Baby.\n\n         XVI. Jiraiya, or the Magic Frog.\n\n        XVII. How the Jelly-Fish Lost its Shell.\n\n       XVIII. Lord Cuttle-Fish Gives a Concert.\n\n         XIX. Yorimasa, the Brave Archer.\n\n          XX. Watanabe cuts off the Oni's Arm.\n\n         XXI. Watanabe Kills the Great Spider.\n\n        XXII. Raiko and the Shi Ten Doji.\n\n       XXIII. The Sazaye and the Tai.\n\n        XXIV. Smells and Jingles.\n\n         XXV. The Lake of the Lute and the Matchless Mountain.\n\n              The Waterfall of Yoro, or the Fountain of Youth.\n\n        XXVI. The Earthquake Fish.\n\n       XXVII. The Dream Story of Gojiro.\n\n      XXVIII. The Procession of Lord Long-Legs.\n\n        XXIX. Kiyohime, or the Power of Love.\n\n         XXX. The Fisherman and the Moon-Maiden.\n\n        XXXI. The Jewels of the Ebbing and the Flowing Tide.\n\n       XXXII. Kai Riu O, or the Dragon King of the World Under the Sea.\n\n      XXXIII. The Creation of Heaven and Earth.\n\n       XXXIV. How the Sun Goddess was Enticed out of her Cave.\n\n\n\n\n      LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\n       1. Kaname holding down the great Earthquake\n              Fish,                                 _Stamp on cover_.\n\n       2. How the Sun-goddess was enticed\n              out of her Cave,                        _Frontispiece_.\n\n       3. The Star-lovers Meeting on the\n              Bridge of Birds,                     Faces page      6.\n\n       4. The Egg, Wasp and Mortar attack\n              the Monkey,                             \"   \"       54.\n\n       5. The Oni submitting to Peach Prince          \"   \"       70.\n\n       6. The Monkeys in Grief,                       \"   \"      150.\n\n       7. Yorimasa and the Night-beast,               \"   \"      176.\n\n       8. The Fish Stall in Tokio,                    \"   \"      204.\n\n       9. A Jingle for a Sniff,                       \"   \"      206.\n\n      10. The Ascent of the Dragon's Gate,            \"   \"      234.\n\n      11. The Sorceress Melting the Bell,             \"   \"      262.\n\n      12. The Dragon King's Gift of the\n              Tide Jewels,                            \"   \"      288.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MEETING OF THE STAR-LOVERS.\n\n\nOne of the greatest days in the calendar of old Japan was the seventh of\nJuly; or, as the Japanese people put it, \"the seventh day of the seventh\nmonth.\" It was a vermilion day in the almanacs, to which every child\nlooked forward with eyes sparkling, hands clapping, and fingers counting,\nas each night rolled the time nearer. All manner of fruits and other\neatable vegetables were prepared, and cakes baked, in the household. The\nboys plucked bamboo stalks, and strung on their branches bright-colored\nribbons, tinkling bells, and long streamers of paper, on which poetry\nwas written. On this night, mothers hoped for wealth, happiness, good\nchildren, and wisdom. The girls made a wish that they might become\nskilled in needlework. Only one wish a year, however, could be made. So,\nif any one wanted several things--health, wealth, skill in needlework,\nwisdom, etc.--they must wait many years before all the favors could be\ngranted. Above all things, rainy weather was not desired. It was a \"good\nsign\" when a spider spun his web over a melon, or, if put in a square box\nhe should weave a circular web. Now, the cause of all this preparation\nwas that on the seventh of July the Herd-boy star and the Spinning Maiden\nstar cross the Milky Way to meet each other. These are the stars which we\ncall Capricornus and Alpha Lyra. These stars that shine and glitter so\nfar up in the zenith, are the boy with an ox and the girl with a\nshuttle, about whom the story runs as follows:\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOn the banks of the Silver River of Heaven (which we call the Milky Way)\nthere lived a beautiful maiden, who was the daughter of the sun. Her name\nwas Shokujo. She did not care for games or play, like her companions,\nand, thinking nothing of vain display, wore only the simplest of dress.\nYet she was very diligent, and made many garments for others. Indeed, so\nbusy was she that all called her the Weaving or Spinning Princess.\n\nThe sun-king noticed the serious disposition and close habits of his\ndaughter, and tried in various ways to get her to be more lively. At last\nhe thought to marry her. As marriages in the star-land are usually\nplanned by the parents, and not by the foolish lover-boys and girls, he\narranged the union without consulting his daughter. The young man on whom\nthe sun-king thus bestowed his daughter's hand was Kingin, who kept a\nherd of cows on the banks of the celestial stream. He had always been a\ngood neighbor, and, living on the same side of the river, the father\nthought he would get a nice son-in-law, and at the same time improve his\ndaughter's habits and disposition.\n\nNo sooner did the maiden become wife than her habits and character\nutterly changed for the worse, and the father had a very vexatious case\nof _tadashiku suguru_ (\"too much of a good thing\") on his hands. The wife\nbecame not only very merry and lively, but utterly forsook loom and\nneedle. She gave up her nights and days to play and idleness, and no\nsilly lover could have been more foolish than she.\n\nThe sun-king became very much offended at all this, and thinking that the\nhusband was the cause of it, he determined to separate the couple. So he\nordered the husband to remove to the other side of the river of stars,\nand told him that hereafter they should meet only once a year, on the\nseventh night of the seventh month. To make a bridge over the flood of\nstars, the sun-king called myriads of magpies, which thereupon flew\ntogether, and, making a bridge, supported him on their wings and backs as\nif it were a roadway of solid land. So, bidding his weeping wife\nfarewell, the lover-husband sorrowfully crossed the River of Heaven. No\nsooner had he set foot on the opposite side than the magpies flew away,\nfilling all the heavens with their chatter. The weeping wife and\nlover-husband stood for a long time wistfully gazing at each other from\nafar. Then they separated, the one to lead his ox, the other to ply her\nshuttle during the long hours of the day with diligent toil. Thus they\nfilled the hours, and the sun-king again rejoiced in his daughter's\nindustry.\n\nBut when night fell, and all the lamps of heaven were lighted, the lovers\nwould come and stand by the banks of the starry river, and gaze longingly\nat each other, waiting for the seventh night of the seventh month.\n\nAt last the time drew near, and only one fear possessed the loving wife.\nEvery time she thought of it her heart played pit-a-pat faster. What if\nit should rain? For the River of Heaven is always full to the brim, and\none extra drop of rain causes a flood which sweeps away even the\nbird-bridge.\n\n[Illustration: THE STAR-LOVERS MEETING ON THE BRIDGE OF BIRDS.]\n\nBut not a drop fell. The seventh month, seventh night, came, and all the\nheavens were clear. The magpies flew joyfully in myriads, making one way\nfor the tiny feet of the little lady. Trembling with joy, and with heart\nfluttering more than the bridge of wings, she crossed the River of\nHeaven, and was in the arms of her husband. This she did every year. The\nlover-husband stayed on his side of the river, and the wife came to him\non the magpie bridge, save on the sad occasion when it rained. So every\nyear the people hope for clear weather, and the happy festival is\ncelebrated alike by old and young.\n\n\n\n\nTHE TRAVELS OF TWO FROGS.\n\n\nForty miles apart, as the cranes fly, stand the great cities of Ozaka and\nKioto. The one is the city of canals and bridges. Its streets are full of\nbustling trade, and its waterways are ever alive with gondolas, shooting\nhither and thither like the wooden shuttles in a loom. The other is the\nsacred city of the Mikado's empire, girdled with green hills and a\nnine-fold circle of flowers. In its quiet, clean streets, laid out like a\nchessboard, walk the shaven monks and gowned scholars. And very beautiful\nis Kioto, with pretty girls, and temple gardens, and castle walls, and\ntowers, and moats in which the white lotus blooms.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLong, long ago, in the good old days before the hairy-faced and\npale-cheeked men from over the Sea of Great Peace (Pacific Ocean) came to\nJapan; before the black coal-smoke and snorting engine scared the white\nheron from the rice-fields; before black crows and fighting sparrows,\nwhich fear not man, perched on telegraph wires, or ever a railway was\nthought of, there lived two frogs--one in a well in Kioto, the other in a\nlotus-pond in Ozaka.\n\nNow it is a common proverb in the Land of the Gods (Japan) that \"the frog\nin the well knows not the great ocean,\" and the Kioto frog had so often\nheard this scornful sneer from the maids who came to draw out water, with\ntheir long bamboo-handled buckets that he resolved to travel abroad and\nsee the world, and especially the _tai kai_ (the great ocean).\n\n\"I'll see for myself,\" said Mr. Frog, as he packed his wallet and wiped\nhis spectacles, \"what this great ocean is that they talk about. I'll\nwager it isn't half as deep or wide as well, where I can see the stars\neven at daylight.\"\n\nNow the truth was, a recent earthquake had greatly reduced the depth of\nthe well and the water was getting very shallow. Mr. Frog informed his\nfamily of his intentions. Mrs. Frog wept a great deal; but, drying her\neyes with her paper handkerchief, she declared she would count the hours\non her fingers till he came back, and at every morning and evening meal\nwould set out his table with food on it, just as if he were home. She\ntied up a little lacquered box full of boiled rice and snails for his\njourney, wrapped it around with a silk napkin, and, putting his extra\nclothes in a bundle, swung it on his back. Tying it over his neck, he\nseized his staff and was ready to go.\n\n\"_Sayonara_\" (\"Good-bye\") cried he, as, with a tear in his eye, he walked\naway.\n\n\"_Sayonara. Oshidzukani_\" (\"Good-bye. Walk slowly\"), croaked Mrs. Frog\nand the whole family of young frogs in a chorus.\n\nTwo of the froggies were still babies, that is, they were yet polywogs,\nwith a half inch of tail still on them; and, of course, were carried\nabout by being strapped on the back of their older brothers.\n\nMr. Frog being now on land, out of his well, noticed that the other\nanimals did not leap, but walked on their legs. And, not wishing to be\neccentric, he likewise began briskly walking upright on his hind legs or\nwaddling on all fours.\n\nNow it happened that about the same time the Ozaka father frog had become\nrestless and dissatisfied with life on the edges of his lotus-ditch. He\nhad made up his mind to \"cast the lion's cub into the valley.\"\n\n\"Why! that _is_ tall talk for a frog, I must say,\" exclaims the reader.\n\"What did he mean?\"\n\nI must tell you that the Ozaka frog was a philosopher. Right at the edge\nof his lotus-pond was a monastery, full of Buddhist monks, who every day\nstudied their sacred rolls and droned over the books of Confucius, to\nlearn them by heart. Our frog had heard them so often that he could (in\nfrog language, of course) repeat many of their wise sentences and intone\nresponses to their evening prayers put up by the great idol Amida.\nIndeed, our frog had so often listened to their debates on texts from the\nclassics that he had himself become a sage and a philosopher. Yet, as\nthe proverb says, \"the sage is not happy.\"\n\nWhy not? In spite of a soft mud-bank, plenty of green scum, stagnant\nwater, and shady lotus leaves, a fat wife and a numerous family; in\nshort, everything to make a frog happy, his forehead, or rather gullet,\nwas wrinkled with care from long pondering of knotty problems, such as\nthe following:\n\nThe monks often come down to the edge of the pond to look at the pink and\nwhite lotus. One summer day, as a little frog, hardly out of his tadpole\nstate, with a small fragment of tail still left, sat basking on a huge\nround leaf, one monk said to the other:\n\n\"Of what does that remind you?\"\n\n\"The babies of frogs will become but frogs,\" said one shaven pate,\nlaughing.\n\n\"What think you?\"\n\n\"The white lotus flower springs out of the black mud,\" said the other,\nsolemnly, as both walked away.\n\nThe old frog, sitting near by, overheard them and began to philosophize:\n\"Humph! The babies of frogs will become but frogs, hey? If mud becomes\nlotus, why shouldn't a frog become a man? Why not? If my pet son should\ntravel abroad and see the world--go to Kioto, for instance--why shouldn't\nhe be as wise as those shining-headed men, I wonder? I shall try it,\nanyhow. I'll send my son on a journey to Kioto. I'll 'cast the lion's cub\ninto the valley' (send the pet son abroad in the world, to see and study)\nat once. I'll deny myself for the sake of my offspring.\"\n\nFlump! splash! sounded the water, as a pair of webby feet disappeared.\nThe \"lion's cub\" was soon ready, after much paternal advice, and much\ncounsel to beware of being gobbled up by long-legged storks, and trod on\nby impolite men, and struck at by bad boys. \"_Kio ni no inaka_\" (\"Even in\nthe capital there are boors\") said Father Frog.\n\nNow it so happened that the old frog from Kioto and the \"lion's cub\" from\nOzaka started each from his home at the same time. Nothing of importance\noccurred to either of them until, as luck would have it, they met on a\nhill near Hashimoto, which is half way between the two cities. Both were\nfootsore, and websore, and very tired, especially about the hips, on\naccount of the unfroglike manner of walking, instead of hopping, as they\nhad been used to.\n\n\"_Ohio gozarimasu_\" (\"Good-morning\") said the \"lion's cub\" to the old\nfrog, as he fell on all fours and bowed his head to the ground three\ntimes, squinting up over his left eye, to see if the other frog was\npaying equal deference in return.\n\n\"_He, konnichi wa_\" (\"Yes, good-day\") replied the Kioto frog.\n\n\"_O tenki_\" (\"It is rather fine weather to-day\") said the \"cub.\"\n\n\"_He, yoi tenki gozence_\" (\"Yes, it is very fine\") replied the old\nfellow.\n\n\"I am Gamataro, from Ozaka, the oldest son of Hiki Dono, Sensui no Kami\"\n(Lord Bullfrog, Prince of the Lotus-Ditch).\n\n\"Your Lordship must be weary with your journey. I am Kayeru San of\nIdomidzu (Sir Frog of the Well) in Kioto. I started out to see the 'great\nocean' from Ozaka; but, I declare, my hips are so dreadfully tired that I\nbelieve that I'll give up my plan and content myself with a look from\nthis hill.\"\n\nThe truth must be owned that the old frog was not only on his hind legs,\nbut also on his last legs, when he stood up to look at Ozaka; while the\n\"cub\" was tired enough to believe anything. The old fellow, wiping his\nface, spoke up:\n\n\"Suppose we save ourselves the trouble of the journey. This hill is half\nway between the two cities, and while I see Ozaka and the sea you can get\na good look of the Kio\" (Capital, or Kioto).\n\n\"Happy thought!\" said the Ozaka frog.\n\nThen both reared themselves upon their hind-legs, and stretching upon\ntheir toes, body to body, and neck to neck, propped each other up, rolled\ntheir goggles and looked steadily, as they supposed, on the places which\nthey each wished to see. Now everyone knows that a frog has eyes mounted\nin that part of his head which is FRONT WHEN HE IS DOWN AND BACK WHEN HE\nSTANDS UP. They are set like a compass on gimbals.\n\nLong and steadily they gazed, until, at last, their toes being tired,\nthey fell down on all fours.\n\n\"I declare!\" said the old _yaze_ (daddy) \"Ozaka looks just like Kioto;\nand as for 'the great ocean' those stupid maids talked about, I don't see\nany at all, unless they mean that strip of river that looks for all the\nworld like the Yodo. I don't believe there is any 'great ocean'!\"\n\n\"As for my part,\" said the 'cub', \"I am satisfied that it's all folly to\ngo further; for Kioto is as like Ozaka as one grain of rice is like\nanother.\" Then he said to himself: \"Old Totsu San (my father) is a fool,\nwith all his philosophy.\"\n\nThereupon both congratulated themselves upon the happy labor-saving\nexpedient by which they had spared themselves a long journey, much\nleg-weariness, and some danger. They departed, after exchanging many\ncompliments; and, dropping again into a frog's hop, they leaped back in\nhalf the time--the one to his well and the other to his pond. There each\ntold the story of both cities looking exactly alike; thus demonstrating\nthe folly of those foolish folks called men. As for the old gentleman in\nthe lotus-pond, he was so glad to get the \"cub\" back again that he never\nagain tried to reason out the problems of philosophy. And to this day the\nfrog in the well knows not and believes not in the \"great ocean.\" Still\ndo the babies of frogs become but frogs. Still is it vain to teach the\nreptiles philosophy; for all such labor is \"like pouring water in a\nfrog's face.\" Still out of the black mud springs the glorious white lotus\nin celestial purity, unfolding its stainless petals to the smiling\nheavens, the emblem of life and resurrection.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHILD OF THE THUNDER.\n\n\nIn among the hills of Echizen, within sight of the snowy mountain called\nHakuzan, lived a farmer named Bimbo. He was very poor, but frugal and\nindustrious. He was very fond of children though he had none himself. He\nlonged to adopt a son to bear his name, and often talked the matter over\nwith his old dame. But being so dreadfully poor both thought it best not\nto adopt, until they had bettered their condition and increased the area\nof their land. For all the property Bimbo owned was the earth in a little\ngully, which he himself was reclaiming. A tiny rivulet, flowing from a\nspring in the crevice of the rocks above, after trickling over the\nboulders, rolled down the gully to join a brook in the larger valley\nbelow. Bimbo had with great labor, after many years, made dams or\nterraces of stone, inside which he had thrown soil, partly got from the\nmountain sides, but mainly carried in baskets on the backs of himself and\nhis wife, from the valley below. By such weary toil, continued year in\nand year out, small beds of soil were formed, in which rice could be\nplanted and grown. The little rivulet supplied the needful water; for\nrice, the daily food of laborer and farmer, must be planted and\ncultivated in soft mud under water. So the little rivulet, which once\nleaped over the rock and cut its way singing to the valley, now spread\nitself quietly over each terrace, making more than a dozen descents\nbefore it reached the fields below.\n\nYet after all his toil for a score of years, working every day from the\nfirst croak of the raven, until the stars came out, Bimbo and his wife\nowned only three _tan_ (3/4 acre) of terrace land. Sometimes a summer\nwould pass, and little or no rain fall. Then the rivulet dried up and\ncrops failed. It seemed all in vain that their backs were bent and their\nforeheads seamed and wrinkled with care. Many a time did Bimbo have hard\nwork of it even to pay his taxes, which sometimes amounted to half his\ncrop. Many a time did he shake his head, muttering the discouraged\nfarmer's proverb \"A new field gives a scant crop,\" the words of which\nmean also, \"Human life is but fifty years.\"\n\nOne summer day after a long drought, when the young rice sprouts, just\ntransplanted were turning yellow at the tips, the clouds began to gather\nand roll, and soon a smart shower fell, the lightning glittered, and the\nhills echoed with claps of thunder. But Bimbo, hoe in hand, was so glad\nto see the rain fall, and the pattering drops felt so cool and\nrefreshing, that he worked on, strengthening the terrace to resist the\nlittle flood about to come.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPretty soon the storm rattled very near him, and he thought he had better\nseek shelter, lest the thunder should strike and kill him. For Bimbo,\nlike all his neighbors, had often heard stories of Kaijin, the god of the\nthunder-drums, who lives in the skies and rides on the storm, and\nsometimes kills people by throwing out of the clouds at them a terrible\ncreature like a cat, with iron-like claws and a hairy body.\n\nJust as Bimbo threw his hoe over his shoulder and started to move, a\nterrible blinding flash of lightning dazzled his eyes. It was immediately\nfollowed by a deafening crash, and the thunder fell just in front of him.\nHe covered his eyes with his hands, but finding himself unhurt, uttered a\nprayer of thanks to Buddha for safety. Then he uncovered his eyes and\nlooked down at his feet.\n\nThere lay a little boy, rosy and warm, and crowing in the most lively\nmanner, and never minding the rain in the least. The farmer's eyes opened\nvery wide, but happy and nearly surprised out of his senses, he picked up\nthe child tenderly in his arms, and took him home to his old wife.\n\n\"Here's a gift from Raijin,\" said Bimbo. \"We'll adopt him as our own son\nand call him Rai-taro,\" (the first-born darling of the thunder).\n\nSo the boy grew up and became a very dutiful and loving child. He was as\nkind and obedient to his foster-parents as though he had been born in\ntheir house. He never liked to play with other children, but kept all day\nin the fields with his father, sporting with the rivulet and looking at\nthe clouds and sky. Even when the strolling players of the Dai Kagura\n(the comedy which makes the gods laugh) and the \"Lion of Corea\" came into\nthe village, and every boy and girl and nurse and woman was sure to be\nout in great glee, the child of the thunder stayed up in the field, or\nclimbed on the high rocks to watch the sailing of the birds and the\nflowing of the water and the river far away.\n\nGreat prosperity seemed to come to the farmer, and he laid it all to the\nsweet child that fell to him from the clouds. It was very curious that\nrain often fell on Bimbo's field when none fell elsewhere; so that Bimbo\ngrew rich and changed his name to Kanemochi. He believed that the boy\nRaitaro beckoned to the clouds, and they shed their rain for him.\n\nA good many summers passed by, and Raitaro had grown to be a tall and\nhandsome lad, almost a man and eighteen years old. On his birthday the\nold farmer and the good wife made a little feast for their foster-child.\nThey ate and drank and talked of the thunder-storm, out of which Raitaro\nwas born.\n\nFinally the young man said solemnly:\n\n\"My dear parents, I thank you very much for your kindness to me, but I\nmust now say farewell. I hope you will always be happy.\"\n\nThen, in a moment, all trace of a human form disappeared, and floating\nin the air, they saw a tiny white dragon, which hovered for a moment\nabove them, and then flew away. The old couple went out of doors to watch\nit, when it grew bigger and bigger, taking its course to the hills above,\nwhere the piled-up white clouds, which form on a summer's afternoon,\nseemed built up like towers and castles of silver. Towards one of these\nthe dragon moved, until, as they watched his form, now grown to a mighty\nsize, it disappeared from view.\n\nAfter this Kanemochi and his wife, who were now old and white-headed,\nceased from their toil and lived in comfort all their days. When they\ndied and their bodies were reduced to a heap of white cinders in the\nstone furnace of the village cremation-house, their ashes were mixed, and\nbeing put into one urn, were laid away in the cemetery of the temple\nyard. Their tomb was carved in the form of a white dragon, which to this\nday, in spite of mosses and lichens, may still be seen among the ancient\nmonuments of the little hamlet.\n\n\n\n\nTHE TONGUE-CUT SPARROW.\n\n\nThere was once an old man who had a wife with a very bad temper. She had\nnever borne him any children, and would not take the trouble to adopt a\nson. So for a little pet he kept a tiny sparrow, and fed it with great\ncare. The old dame not satisfied with scolding her husband hated the\nsparrow.\n\nNow the old woman's temper was especially bad on wash days, when her old\nback and knees were well strained over the low tub, which rested on the\nground.\n\nIt happened once that she had made some starch, and set it in a red\nwooden bowl to cool. While her back was turned, the sparrow hopped down\non the edge of the bowl, and pecked at some of the starch. In a rage the\nold hag seized a pair of scissors and cut the sparrow's tongue out.\nFlinging the bird in the air she cried out, \"Now be off.\" So the poor\nsparrow, all bleeding, flew away.\n\nWhen the old man came back and found his pet gone, he made a great ado.\nHe asked his wife, and she told him what she had done and why. The\nsorrowful old man grieved sorely for his pet, and after looking in every\nplace and calling it by name, gave it up as lost.\n\nLong after this, old man while wandering on the mountains met his old\nfriend the sparrow. They both cried \"Ohio!\" (good morning,) to each\nother, and bowing low offered many mutual congratulations and inquiries\nas to health, etc. Then the sparrow begged the old man to visit his\nhumble abode, promising to introduce his wife and two daughters.\n\nThe old man went in and found a nice little house with a bamboo garden,\ntiny waterfall, stepping stone and everything complete. Then Mrs. Sparrow\nbrought in slices of sugar-jelly, rock-candy, sweet potato custard, and a\nbowl of hot starch sprinkled with sugar, and a pair of chopsticks on a\ntray. Miss Suzumi, the elder daughter brought the tea caddy and tea-pot,\nand in a snap of the fingers had a good cup of tea ready, which she\noffered on a tray, kneeling.\n\n\"Please take up and help yourself. The refreshments are very poor, but I\nhope you will excuse our plainness,\" said Mother Sparrow. The delighted\nold man, wondering in himself at such a polite family of sparrows, ate\nheartily, and drank several cups of tea. Finally, on being pressed he\nremained all night.\n\nFor several days the old man enjoyed himself at the sparrow's home. He\nlooked at the landscapes and the moonlight, feasted to his heart's\ncontent, and played _go_ (the game of 360 checkers) with Ko-suzumi the\nlittle daughter. In the evening Mrs. Sparrow would bring out the\nrefreshments and the wine, and seat the old man on a silken cushion,\nwhile she played the guitar. Mr. Sparrow and his two daughters danced,\nsung and made merry. The delighted old man leaning on the velvet arm-rest\nforgot his cares, his old limbs and his wife's tongue, and felt like a\nyouth again.\n\nOn the fifth day the old man said he must go home. Then the sparrow\nbrought out two baskets made of plaited rattan, such as are used in\ntraveling and carried on men's shoulders. Placing them before their\nguest, the sparrow said, \"Please accept a parting gift.\"\n\nNow one basket was very heavy, and the other very light. The old man, not\nbeing greedy, said he would take the lighter one. So with many thanks and\nbows and good-byes, he set off homewards.\n\nHe reached his hut safely, but instead of a kind welcome the old hag\nbegan to scold him for being away so long. He begged her to be quiet, and\ntelling of his visit to the sparrows, opened the basket, while the\nscowling old woman held her tongue, out of sheer curiosity.\n\nOh, what a splendid sight! There were gold and silver coin, and gems, and\ncoral, and crystal, and amber, and the never-failing bag of money, and\nthe invisible coat and hat, and rolls of books, and all manner of\nprecious things.\n\nAt the sight of so much wealth, the old hag's scowl changed to a smile of\ngreedy joy. \"I'll go right off and get a present from the sparrows,\" said\nshe.\n\nSo binding on her straw sandals, and tucking up her skirts, and adjusting\nher girdle, tying the bow in front, she seized her staff and set off on\nthe road. Arriving at the sparrow's house she began to flatter Mr.\nSparrow by soft speeches. Of course the polite sparrow invited her into\nhis house, but nothing but a cup of tea was offered her, and wife and\ndaughters kept away. Seeing she was not going to get any good-bye gift,\nthe brazen hussy asked for one. The sparrow then brought out and set\nbefore her two baskets, one heavy and the other light. Taking the heavier\none without so much as saying \"thank you,\" she carried it back with her.\nThen she opened it, expecting all kinds of riches.\n\nShe took off the lid, when a horrible cuttle-fish rushed at her, and a\nhorned _oni_ snapped his tusks at her, a skeleton poked his bony fingers\nin her face, and finally a long, hairy serpent, with a big head and\nlolling tongue, sprang out and coiled around her, cracking her bones, and\nsqueezing out her breath, till she died.\n\nAfter the good old man had buried his wife, he adopted a son to comfort\nhis old age, and with his treasures lived at ease all his days.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIRE-FLY'S LOVERS.\n\n\nIn Japan the night-flies emit so brilliant a light and are so beautiful\nthat ladies go out in the evenings and catch the insects for amusement,\nas may be seen represented on Japanese fans. They imprison them in tiny\ncages made of bamboo threads, and hang them up in their rooms or suspend\nthem from the eaves of their houses. At their picnic parties, the people\nlove to sit on August evenings, fan in hand, looking over the lovely\nlandscape, spangled by ten thousand brilliant spots of golden light. Each\nflash seems like a tiny blaze of harmless lightning.\n\nOne of the species of night-flies, the most beautiful of all, is a source\nof much amusement to the ladies. Hanging the cage of glittering insects\non their verandahs, they sit and watch the crowd of winged visitors\nattracted by the fire-fly's light. What brings them there, and why the\nfire-fly's parlor is filled with suitors as a queen's court with\ncourtiers, let this love story tell.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOn the southern and sunny side of the castle moats of the Fukui castle,\nin Echizen, the water had long ago become shallow so that lotus lilies\ngrew luxuriantly. Deep in the heart of one of the great flowers whose\npetals were as pink as the lining of a sea-shell, lived the King of the\nFire-flies, Hi-[=o], whose only daughter was the lovely princess\nHotaru-hime. While still a child the hime (princess) was carefully kept\nat home within the pink petals of the lily, never going even to the\nedges except to see her father fly off on his journey. Dutifully she\nwaited until of age, when the fire glowed in her own body, and shone,\nbeautifully illuminating the lotus, until its light at night was like a\nlamp within a globe of coral.\n\nEvery night her light grew brighter and brighter, until at last it was as\nmellow as gold. Then her father said:\n\n\"My daughter is now of age, she may fly abroad with me sometimes, and\nwhen the proper suitor comes she may marry whom she will.\"\n\nSo Hotaru-hime flew forth in and out among the lotus lilies of the moat,\nthen into rich rice fields, and at last far off to the indigo meadows.\n\nWhenever she went a crowd of suitors followed her, for she had the\nsingular power of attracting all the night-flying insects to herself.\nBut she cared for none of their attentions, and though she spoke politely\nto them all she gave encouragement to none. Yet some of the sheeny-winged\ngallants called her a coquette.\n\nOne night she said to her mother, the queen:\n\n\"I have met many admirers, but I don't wish a husband from any of them.\nTonight I shall stay at home, and if any of them love me truly they will\ncome and pay me court here. Then I shall lay an impossible duty on them.\nIf they are wise they will not try to perform it; and if they love their\nlives more than they love me, I do not want any of them. Whoever succeeds\nmay have me for his bride.\"\n\n\"As you will my child,\" said the queen mother, who arrayed her daughter\nin her most resplendent robes, and set her on her throne in the heart of\nthe lotus.\n\nThen she gave orders to her body-guard to keep all suitors at a\nrespectful distance lest some stupid gallant, a horn-bug or a cockchafer\ndazzled by the light should approach too near and hurt the princess or\nshake her throne.\n\nNo sooner had twilight faded away, than forth came the golden beetle, who\nstood on a stamen and making obeisance, said:--\n\n\"I am Lord Green-Gold, I offer my house, my fortune and my love to\nPrincess Hotaru.\"\n\n\"Go and bring me fire and I will be your bride\" said Hotaru-hime.\n\nWith a bow of the head the beetle opened his wings and departed with a\nstately whirr.\n\nNext came a shining bug with wings and body as black as lamp-smoke, who\nsolemnly professed his passion.\n\n\"Bring me fire and you may have me for your wife.\"\n\nOff flew the bug with a buzz.\n\nPretty soon came the scarlet dragon-fly, expecting so to dazzle the\nprincess by his gorgeous colors that she would accept him at once.\n\n\"I decline your offer\" said the princess, \"but if you bring me a flash of\nfire, I'll become your bride.\"\n\nSwift was the flight of the dragon-fly on his errand, and in came the\nBeetle with a tremendous buzz, and ardently plead his suit.\n\n\"I'll say 'yes' if you bring me fire\" said the glittering princess.\n\nSuitor after suitor appeared to woo the daughter of the King of the\nFire-flies until every petal was dotted with them. One after another in a\nlong troop they appeared. Each in his own way, proudly, humbly, boldly,\nmildly, with flattery, with boasting, even with tears, each proffered his\nlove, told his rank or expatiated on his fortune or vowed his constancy,\nsang his tune or played his music. To every one of her lovers the\nprincess in modest voice returned the same answer:\n\n\"Bring me fire and I'll be your bride.\"\n\nSo without telling his rivals, each one thinking he had the secret alone\nsped away after fire.\n\nBut none ever came back to wed the princess. Alas for the poor suitors!\nThe beetle whizzed off to a house near by through the paper windows of\nwhich light glimmered. So full was he of his passion that thinking\nnothing of wood or iron, he dashed his head against a nail, and fell dead\non the ground.\n\nThe black bug flew into a room where a poor student was reading. His lamp\nwas only a dish of earthenware full of rape seed oil with a wick made of\npith. Knowing nothing of oil the love-lorn bug crawled into the dish to\nreach the flame and in a few seconds was drowned in the oil.\n\n\"Nan jaro?\" (What's that?) said a thrifty housewife, sitting with needle\nin hand, as her lamp flared up for a moment, smoking the chimney, and\nthen cracking it; while picking out the scorched bits she found a roasted\ndragon-fly, whose scarlet wings were all burned off.\n\nMad with love the brilliant hawk-moth, afraid of the flame yet determined\nto win the fire for the princess, hovered round and round the candle\nflame, coming nearer and nearer each time. \"Now or never, the princess or\ndeath,\" he buzzed, as he darted forward to snatch a flash of flame, but\nsingeing his wings, he fell helplessly down, and died in agony.\n\n\"What a fool he was, to be sure,\" said the ugly clothes moth, coming on\nthe spot, \"I'll get the fire. I'll crawl up _inside_ the candle.\" So he\nclimbed up the hollow paper wick, and was nearly to the top, and inside\nthe hollow blue part of the flame, when the man, snuffing the wick,\ncrushed him to death.\n\nSad indeed was the fate of the lovers of Hi-[=o]'s daughter. Some hovered\naround the beacons on the headland, some fluttered about the great wax\ncandles which stood eight feet high in their brass sockets in Buddhist\ntemples; some burned their noses at the top of incense sticks, or were\nnearly choked by the smoke; some danced all night around the lanterns in\nthe shrines; some sought the sepulchral lamps in the graveyard; one\nvisited the cremation furnace; another the kitchen, where a feast was\ngoing on; another chased the sparks that flew out of the chimney; but\nnone brought fire to the princess, or won the lover's prize. Many lost\ntheir feelers, had their shining bodies scorched or their wings singed,\nbut most of them alas! lay dead, black and cold next morning.\n\nAs the priests trimmed the lamps in the shrines, and the servant maids\nthe lanterns, each said alike:\n\n\"The Princess Hotaru must have had many lovers last night.\"\n\nAlas! alas! poor suitors. Some tried to snatch a streak of green fire\nfrom the cat's eyes, and were snapped up for their pains. One attempted\nto get a mouthful of bird's breath, but was swallowed alive. A carrion\nbeetle (the ugly lover) crawled off to the sea shore, and found some fish\nscales that emitted light. The stag-beetle climbed a mountain, and in a\nrotten tree stump found some bits of glowing wood like fire, but the\ndistance was so great that long before they reached the castle moat it\nwas daylight, and the fire had gone out; so they threw their fish scales\nand old wood away.\n\nThe next day was one of great mourning and there were so many funerals\ngoing on, that Hi-mar[=o] the Prince of the Fire-flies on the north side\nof the castle moat inquired of his servants the cause. Then he learned\nfor the first time of the glittering princess. Upon this the prince who\nhad just succeeded his father upon the throne fell in love with the\nprincess and resolved to marry her. He sent his chamberlain to ask of her\nfather his daughter in marriage according to true etiquette. The father\nagreed to the prince's proposal, with the condition that the Prince\nshould obey her behest in one thing, which was to come in person\nbringing her fire.\n\nThen the Prince at the head of his glittering battalions came in person\nand filled the lotus palace with a flood of golden light. But Hotaru-hime\nwas so beautiful that her charms paled not their fire even in the blaze\nof the Prince's glory. The visit ended in wooing, and the wooing in\nwedding. On the night appointed, in a palanquin made of the white\nlotus-petals, amid the blazing torches of the prince's battalions of\nwarriors, Hotaru-hime was borne to the prince's palace and there, prince\nand princess were joined in the wedlock.\n\nMany generations have passed since Hi-mar[=o] and Hotaru-hime were\nmarried, and still it is the whim of all Fire-fly princesses that their\nbase-born lovers must bring fire as their love-offering or lose their\nprize. Else would the glittering fair ones be wearied unto death by the\nimportunity of their lovers. Great indeed is the loss, for in this quest\nof fire many thousand insects, attracted by the fire-fly, are burned to\ndeath in the vain hope of winning the fire that shall gain the cruel but\nbeautiful one that fascinates them. It is for this cause that each night\ninsects hover around the lamp flame, and every morning a crowd of victims\ndrowned in the oil, or scorched in the flame, must be cleaned from the\nlamp. This is the reason why young ladies catch and imprison the\nfire-flies to watch the war of insect-love, in the hope that they may\nhave human lovers who will dare as much, through fire and flood, as they.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BATTLE OF THE APE AND THE CRAB.\n\n\nIn the land where neither the monkeys or the cats have tails, and the\npersimmons grow to be as large as apples and with seeds bigger than a\nmelon's, there once lived a land crab in the side of a sand hill. One day\nan ape came along having a persimmon seed, which he offered to swap with\nthe crab for a rice-cake. The crab agreed, and planting the seed in his\ngarden went out every day to watch it grow.\n\nBy-and-by the ape came to visit the crab, and seeing the fine tree laden\nwith the yellow-brown fruit, begged a few. The crab, asking pardon of\nthe ape, said he could not climb the tree to offer him any, but agreed to\ngive the ape half, if he would mount the tree and pluck them.\n\nSo the monkey ran up the tree, while the crab waited below, expecting to\neat the ripe fruit. But the monkey sitting on a limb first filled his\npockets full, and then picking off all the best ones, greedily ate the\npulp, and threw the skin and stones in the crab's face. Every once in a\nwhile, he would pull off a green sour persimmon and hit the crab hard,\nuntil his shell was nearly cracked. At last the crab thought he would get\nthe best of the ape. So when his enemy had eaten his fill until he was\nbulged out, he cried out,\n\n\"Now Mister Ape, I dare you to come down head-foremost. You can't do it.\"\n\nSo the ape began to descend, head downward. This was just what the crab\nwanted, for all the finest persimmons rolled out of his pockets on the\nground. The crab quickly gathered them up, and with both arms full ran\noff to his hole. Then the ape was very angry. He kindled a fire, and blew\nthe smoke down the hole, until the crab was nearly choked. The poor crab\nto save his life had to crawl out.\n\nThen the monkey beat him soundly, and left him for dead.\n\nThe crab had not been long thus, when three travelers, a rice-mortar, an\negg, and a wasp found him lying on the ground. They carried him into the\nhouse, bound up his wounds and while he lay in bed they planned how they\nmight destroy the ape. They all talked of the matter over their cups of\ntea, and after the mortar had smoked several pipes of tobacco, a plan was\nagreed on.\n\nSo taking the crab along, stiff and sore as he was, they marched to the\nmonkey's castle. The wasp flew inside, and found that their enemy was\naway from home. Then all entered and hid themselves. The egg cuddled up\nunder the ashes in the hearth. The wasp flew into the closet. The mortar\nhid behind the door. They then waited for the ape to come home. The crab\nsat beside the fire.\n\nTowards evening the monkey arrived, and throwing off his coat (which was\njust what the wasp wanted) he lighted a sulphur match, and kindling a\nfire, hung on the kettle for a cup of tea, and pulled out his pipe for a\nsmoke. Just as he sat down by the hearth to salute the crab, the egg\nburst and the hot yolk flew all over him and in his eye, nearly blinding\nhim. He rushed out to the bath-room to plunge in the tub of cold water,\nwhen the wasp flew at him and stung his nose. Slipping down, he fell\nflat on the floor, when the mortar rolled on him and crushed him to\ndeath. Then the whole party congratulated the crab on their victory.\nGrateful for the friendship thus shown, the whole party, crab, mortar and\nwasp lived in peace together.\n\nThe crab married the daughter of a rich crab that lived over the hill,\nand a great feast of persimmons was spread before the bride's relatives\nwho came to see the ceremony. By-and-by a little crab was born which\nbecame a great pet with the mortar and wasp. With no more apes to plague\nthem, they lived very happily.\n\n[Illustration: THE EGG, WASP AND MORTAR ATTACK THE MONKEY.]\n\n\n\n\nTHE WONDERFUL TEA-KETTLE.\n\n\nA long time ago there was an old priest who lived in the temple of\nMorinji in the province of Hitachi. He cooked his own rice, boiled his\nown tea, swept his own floor and lived frugally as an honest priest\nshould do.\n\nOne day he was sitting near the square fire-place in the middle of the\nfloor. A rope and chain to hold the pot and kettle hung down from the\ncovered hole in the ceiling which did duty as a chimney. A pair of brass\ntongs was stuck in the ashes and the fire blazed merrily. At the side of\nthe fire-place, on the floor, was a tray filled with tiny tea-cups, a\npewter tea-caddy, a bamboo tea-stirrer, and a little dipper. The priest\nhaving finished sweeping the ashes off the edges of the hearth with a\nlittle whisk of hawk's feathers, was just about to put on the tea when\n\"suzz,\" \"suzz,\" sang the tea-kettle spout; and then \"pattari\"--\"pattari\"\nsaid the lid, as it flapped up and down, and the kettle swung backwards\nand forwards.\n\n\"What does this mean?\" said the old bonze. \"_Naru hodo_,\" said he, with a\nstart as the spout of the kettle turned into a badger's nose with its big\nwhiskers, while from the other side sprouted out a long bushy tail.\n\n\"_Yohodo medzurashi_,\" shouted the priest dropping the tea-caddy and\nspilling the green tea all over the matting as four hairy legs appeared\nunder the kettle, and the strange compound, half badger and half kettle,\njumped off the fire, and began running around the room. To the priest's\nhorror it leaped on a shelf, puffed out its belly and began to beat a\ntune with its fore-paws as if it were a drum. The old bonze's pupils,\nhearing the racket rushed in, and after a lively chase, upsetting piles\nof books and breaking some of the tea-cups, secured the badger, and\nsqueezed him in a keg used for storing the pickled radishes called\n_daikon_, (or Japanese sauer-kraut.) They fastened down the lid with a\nheavy stone. They were sure that the strong odor of the radishes would\nkill the beast, for no man could possibly survive such a smell, and it\nwas not likely a badger could.\n\nThe next morning the tinker of the village called in and the priest told\nhim about his strange visitor. Wishing to show him the animal, he\ncautiously lifted the lid of the cask, lest the badger, might after all,\nbe still alive, in spite of the stench of the sour mess, when lo! there\nwas nothing but the old iron tea-kettle. Fearing that the utensil might\nplay the same prank again, the priest was glad to sell it to the tinker\nwho bought the kettle for a few iron cash. He carried it to his junk\nshop, though he thought it felt unusually heavy.\n\nThe tinker went to bed as usual that night with his _andon_, or paper\nshaded lamp, just back of his head. About midnight, hearing a strange\nnoise like the flapping up and down of an iron pot-lid, he sat up in bed,\nrubbed his eyes, and there was the iron pot covered with fur and\nsprouting out legs. In short, it was turning into a hairy beast. Going\nover to the recess and taking a fan from the rack, the badger climbed up\non the frame of the lamp, and began to dance on its one hind leg, waving\nthe fan with its fore-paw. It played many other tricks, until the man\nstarted up, and then the badger turned into a tea-kettle again.\n\n\"I declare,\" said the tinker as he woke up next morning, and talked the\nmatter over with his wife. \"I'll just 'raise a mountain'\" (earn my\nfortune) on this kettle. It certainly is a very highly accomplished\ntea-kettle I'll call it the Bumbuku Chagama (The Tea-Kettle accomplished\nin literature and military art) and exhibit it to the public.\n\nSo the tinker hired a professional show-man for his business agent, and\nbuilt a little theatre and stage. Then he gave an order to a friend of\nhis, an artist, to paint scenery, with Fuji yama and cranes flying in the\nair, and a crimson sun shining through the bamboo, and a red moon rising\nover the waves, and golden clouds and tortoises, and the Sumiyoshi\ncouple, and the grasshopper's picnic, and the Procession of Lord\nLong-legs, and such like. Then he stretched a tight rope of rice-straw\nacross the stage, and the handbills being stuck up in all the barber\nshops in town, and wooden tickets branded with \"Accomplished and Lucky\nTea-Kettle Performance, Admit one,\"--the show was opened. The house was\nfull and the people came in parties bringing their tea-pots full of tea\nand picnic boxes full of rice and eggs, and dumplings, made of millet\nmeal, sugared roast-pea cakes, and other refreshments; because they came\nto stay all day. Mothers brought their babies with them for the children\nenjoyed it most of all.\n\nThen the tinker, dressed up in his wide ceremonial clothes, with a big\nfan in his hand, came out on the platform, made his bow and set the\nwonderful tea-kettle on the stage. Then at a wave of his fan, the kettle\nran around on four legs, half badger and half iron, clanking its lid and\nwagging its tail. Next it turned into a badger, swelled out its body and\nbeat a tune on it like a drum. It danced a jig on the tight rope, and\nwalked the slack rope, holding a fan, or an umbrella in his paw, stood on\nhis head, and finally at a flourish of his master's fan became a cold and\nrusty tea-kettle again. The audience were wild with delight, and as the\nfame of the wonderful tea-kettle spread, many people came from great\ndistances.\n\nYear after year the tinker exhibited the wonder until he grew immensely\nrich. Then he retired from the show business, and out of gratitude took\nthe old kettle to the temple again and deposited it there as a precious\nrelic. It was then named Bumbuku Dai Mio Jin (The Great Illustrious,\nAccomplished in Literature and the Military Art).\n\n\n\n\nPEACH-PRINCE, AND THE TREASURE ISLAND.\n\n\nVery long, long ago, there lived an old man and woman in a village near a\nmountain, from which flowed a stream of purest water. This old couple\nloved each other so dearly and lived together so happily, that the\nneighbors called them _oshi-dori fu-fu_ (a love-bird couple), after the\nmandarin ducks which always dwell together in pairs, and are so\naffectionate that they are said to pine and die if one be taken from the\nother. The old man was a woodcutter, and the old woman kept house, but\nthey were very lonely for they had no child, and often grieved over their\nhard lot.\n\nOne day while the man was out on the mountain cutting brush, his old\ncrone took her shallow tub and clothes down to the brook to wash. She had\nnot yet begun, when she saw a peach floating with its stem and two leaves\nin the stream. She picked up the fruit and set it aside to take home and\nshare it with her old man. When he returned she set it before him, not\ndreaming what was in it. He was just about to cut it open, when the peach\nfell in half, and there lay a little baby boy. The happy old couple\nrejoiced over him and reared him tenderly. Because he was their first\nchild (taro) and born of a peach (momo) they called him Momotar[=o] or\nPeach-Darling.\n\nThe most wonderful thing in the child, was his great strength! Even when\nstill a baby, he would astonish his foster-mother by standing on the\nmats, and lifting her wash tub, or kettle of hot tea, which he would\nbalance above his head without spilling a drop. The little fellow grew to\nbe strong and brave and good. He was always kind to his parents and saved\nthem many a step and much toil. He practiced archery, wrestling, and\nhandling the iron club, until he was not afraid of anybody or anything.\nHe even laughed at the oni, who, were demons living in the clouds or on\nlonely islands in the sea. Momotar[=o] was also very kind to birds and\nanimals, so that they were very tame, and became his friends, knew him\nand called him by name.\n\nNow there was an island far out in the ocean, inhabited by onis with\nhorns in their heads, and big sharp tusks in their mouths, who ravaged\nthe shores of Japan and ate up the people. In the centre of the island\nwas the giant Oni's castle, built inside a great cave which was full of\nall kinds of treasures such as every one wants. These are:\n\n1. The hat which makes the one who puts it on invisible. It looks just\nlike a straw hat, but has a tuft of fine grass on the top, and a pink\nfringe like the lining of shells, around the brim.\n\n2. A coat like a farmer's grass rain-cloak, which makes the wearer\ninvisible.\n\n3. The crystal jewels which flash fire, and govern the ebb and flow of\nthe tide.\n\n4. Shipp[=o], or \"the seven jewels,\" namely gold and silver, branch of\nred coral, agate, emerald, crystal and pearl. All together called _takare\nmono_, or precious treasures.\n\nMomotaro made up his mind to conquer these demons, and get their\ntreasures. He prepared his weapons and asked the old woman to make him\nsome millet dumplings. So the old lady ground the millet seeds into meal,\nthe old man kneaded the dough, and both made the dumplings which the\nlittle hero carefully stuck on skewers and stowed away in a bamboo\nbasket-box. This he wrapped in a silk napkin, and flung it over his\nshoulder. Seizing his iron club he stuck his flag in his back as the sign\nof war. The flag was of white silk, crossed by two black bars at the top,\nand underneath these, was embroidered the device of a peach with a stem\nand two leaves floating on a running stream. This was his crest or\n_sashimono_ (banneret). Then he bade the old folks good-bye and walked\noff briskly. He took his little dog with him, giving him a millet\ndumpling now and then.\n\nAs he passed along he met a monkey chattering and showing his teeth. The\nmonkey said,\n\n\"Where are you going, Mr. Peach-Darling?\"\n\n\"I'm going to the _oni's_ island to get his treasures.\"\n\n\"What have you got good in your package?\"\n\n\"Millet dumplings. Have one?\"\n\n\"Yes, give me one, and I'll go with you,\" said the monkey.\n\nSo the monkey ate the dumpling, and boy, dog and monkey all trudged on\ntogether. A little further on a pheasant met them and said:\n\n\"Ohio, Momotar[=o], doko?\" (Good morning, Mr. Peach-Prince, where are you\ngoing?). Peach-Prince told him, and at the same time offered him a\ndumpling. This made the pheasant his friend.\n\nPeach-Prince and his little army of three retainers journeyed on until\nthey reached the sea-shore. There they found a big boat into which\nPeach-Prince with the dog and monkey embarked, while the pheasant flew\nover to the island to find a safe place to land, so as to take the onis\nby surprise.\n\nThey quietly reached the door of the cave, and then Momotar[=o] beat in\nthe gate with his iron club. Rushing into the castle, he put the small\nonis to flight, and dashing forward, the little hero would nearly have\nreached the room where the giant oni was just waking up after a nights'\ndrunkenness. With a terrible roar he advanced to gobble up Peach-Prince,\nwhen the dog ran behind and bit the oni in the leg. The monkey climbed up\nhis back and blinded him with his paws while the pheasant flew in his\nface. Then Peach-Prince beat him with his iron club, until he begged for\nhis life and promised to give up all his treasures.\n\nThe onis brought all their precious things out of the storehouse and laid\nthem on great tables or trays before the little hero and his little army.\n\nMomotaro sat on a rock, with his little army of three retainers around\nhim, holding his fan, with his hands akimbo on his knees, just as mighty\ngenerals do after a battle, when they receive the submission of their\nenemies. On his right sat kneeling on the ground his faithful monkey,\nwhile the pheasant and dog sat on the left.\n\nAfter the onis had surrendered all, they fell down on their hands and\nknees with their faces in the dust, and acknowledged Peach-Prince as\ntheir master, and swore they would ever henceforth be his slaves. Then\nPeach-Prince, with a wave of his fan bade them rise up and carry the\ntreasures to the largest ship they had, and to point the prow to the\nland. This done, Momotaro and his company got on board, and the onis\nbowed farewell.\n\nA stiff breeze sprang up and sent the ship plowing through the waters,\nand bent out the great white sail like a bow. On the prow was a long\nblack tassel like the mane of a horse, that at every lurch dipped in the\nwaves, and as it rose flung off the spray.\n\nThe old couple becoming anxious after their Peach-Darling, had traveled\ndown to the sea shore, and arrived just as the treasure ship hove in\nsight. Oh how beautiful it looked with its branches of red coral, and\nshining heaps of gold and silver, and the invisible coat and hat, the\ndazzling sheen of the jewels of the ebbing and the flowing tide, the\nglistening pearls, and piles of agate and crystal.\n\n[Illustration: THE ONI SUBMITTING TO PEACH PRINCE.]\n\nMomotaro came home laden with riches enough to keep the old couple in\ncomfort all their lives, and he himself lived in great state. He knighted\nthe monkey, the dog and the pheasant, and made them his body-guard. Then\nhe married a beautiful princess and lived happily till he died.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FOX AND THE BADGER.\n\n\nThere is a certain mountainous district in Shikoku in which a skillful\nhunter had trapped or shot so many foxes and badgers that only a few were\nleft. These were an old grey badger and a female fox with one cub. Though\nhard pressed by hunger, neither dared to touch a loose piece of food,\nlest a trap might be hidden under it. Indeed they scarcely stirred out of\ntheir holes except at night, lest the hunter's arrow should strike them.\nAt last the two animals held a council together to decide what to do,\nwhether to emigrate or to attempt to outwit their enemy. They thought a\nlong while, when finally the badger having hit upon a good plan, cried\nout:\n\n\"I have it. Do you transform yourself into a man. I'll pretend to be\ndead. Then you can bind me up and sell me in the town. With the money\npaid you can buy some food. Then I'll get loose and come back. The next\nweek I'll sell you and you can escape.\"\n\n\"Ha! ha! ha! _yoroshiu_, _yoroshiu_,\" (good, good,) cried both together.\n\"It's a capital plan,\" said Mrs. Fox.\n\nSo the Fox changed herself into a human form, and the badger, pretending\nto be dead, was tied up with straw ropes.\n\nSlinging him over her shoulder, the fox went to town, sold the badger,\nand buying a lot of _tofu_ (bean-cheese) and one or two chickens, made a\nfeast. By this time the badger had got loose, for the man to whom he was\nsold, thinking him dead, had not watched him carefully. So scampering\naway to the mountains he met the fox, who congratulated him, while both\nfeasted merrily.\n\nThe next week the badger took human form, and going to town sold the fox,\nwho made believe to be dead. But the badger being an old skin-flint, and\nvery greedy, wanted all the money and food for himself. So he whispered\nin the man's ear to watch the fox well as she was only feigning to be\ndead. So the man taking up a club gave the fox a blow on the head, which\nfinished her. The badger, buying a good dinner, ate it all himself, and\nlicked his chops, never even thinking of the fox's cub.\n\nThe cub after waiting a long time for its mother to come back, suspected\nfoul play, and resolved on revenge. So going to the badger he challenged\nhim to a trial of skill in the art of transformation. The badger accepted\nright off, for he despised the cub and wished to be rid of him.\n\n\"Well what do you want to do first? said Sir Badger.\"\n\n\"I propose that you go and stand on the Big Bridge leading to the city,\"\nsaid the cub, \"and wait for my appearance. I shall come in splendid\ngarments, and with many followers in my train. If you recognize me, you\nwin, and I lose. If you fail, I win.\"\n\nSo the badger went and waited behind a tree. Soon a daimio riding in a\npalanquin, with a splendid retinue of courtiers appeared, coming up the\nroad. Thinking this was the fox-cub changed into a nobleman, although\nwondering at the skill of the young fox, the badger went up to the\npalanquin and told the person inside that he was recognized and had lost\nthe game.\n\n\"What!\" said the daimio's followers, who were real men, and surrounding\nthe badger, they beat him to death.\n\nThe fox-cub, who was looking on from a hill near by, laughed in derision,\nand glad that treachery was punished, scampered away.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SEVEN PATRONS OF HAPPINESS.\n\n\nEvery child knows who the _Shichi fuku Fin_ or seven Patrons of Happiness\nare. They have charge of Long Life, Riches, Daily Food, Contentment,\nTalents, Glory, and Love. Their images carved in ivory, wood, stone, or\ncast in bronze are found in every house or sold in the stores or are\npainted on shop signs or found in picture books. They are a jolly company\nand make a happy family. On New Year's eve a picture of the Treasure-ship\n(Takare-bune) laden with shipp[=o] (the seven jewels) and all the good\nthings of life which men most desire is hung up in houses. The ship is\ncoming into port and the passengers are the seven happy fairies who will\nmake gifts to the people. These seven jewels are the same as those which\nMomotaro brought back from the oni's island.\n\nFirst there is Fukoruku Jin the patron of Long Life or Length of Days. He\nhas an enormously high forehead rounded at the top which makes his head\nlook like a sugar-loaf. It is bald and shiny. A few stray white hairs\nsometimes sprout up, and the barber to reach them has to prop a ladder\nagainst his head to climb up and apply his razor. This big head comes\nfrom thinking so much. His eyebrows are cotton-white, and a long snowy\nbeard falls down over his breast.\n\nOnce in a while in a good humor he ties a handkerchief over his high\nslippery crown and allows little boys to climb up on top--that is if\nthey are good and can write well.\n\nWhen he wants to show how strong and lively he is even though so old, he\nlets Daikoku the fat fellow ride on top of his head, while he smokes his\npipe and wades across a river. Daikoku has to hold on tightly or he will\nslip down and get a ducking.\n\nUsually the old shiny head is a very solemn gentleman, and walks slowly\nalong with his staff in one hand while with the other he strokes his long\neyebrows. The tortoise and the crane are always with him, for these are\nhis pets. Sometimes a stag with hair white with age, walks behind him.\nEvery body likes Fukoruku Jin because every one wants to get his favor\nand live long; until, like a lobster, their backs are bent with age. At a\nwedding you will always see a picture of white-bearded and shiny-pated\nFukoruku Jin.\n\nDaikoku is a short chubby fellow with eyes half sunk in fat but twinkling\nwith fun. He has a flat cap set on his head like the kind which babies\nwear, a loose sack over his shoulders, and big boots on his feet. His\nthrone is two straw bags of rice, and his badge of office is a mallet or\nhammer, which makes people rich when he shakes it. The hammer is the\nsymbol of labor, showing that people may expect to get rich only by hard\nwork. One end of it is carved to represent the jewel of the ebbing and\nthe flowing tides, because merchants get rich by commerce on the sea and\nmust watch the tides. He is often seen holding the arithmetic frame on\nwhich you can count, do sums, subtract, multiply, or divide, by sliding\nballs up and down a row of sticks set in a frame, instead of writing\nfigures. Beside him is a ledger and day-book. His favorite animal is the\nrat, which like some rich men's pets, eats or runs away with his wealth.\n\nThe great silver-white radish called daikon, two feet long and as big as\na man's calf is always seen near him because it signifies flourishing\nprosperity.\n\nHe keeps his bag tightly shut, for money easily runs away when the purse\nis once opened. He never lets go his hammer, for it is only by constant\ncare that any one can keep money after he gets it. Even when he frolics\nwith Fukuroku Jin, and rides on his head, he keeps his hammer ready\nswinging at his belt. He has huge lop ears.\n\nOnce in a while, when he wishes to take exercise, and Fukuroku Jin wants\nto show how frisky he can be, even if he is old, they have a wrestling\nmatch together. Daikoku nearly always beats, because Fukuroku Jin is so\ntall that he has to bend down to grip Daikoku, who is fat and short, and\nthus he becomes top-heavy. Then Daikoku gets his rival's long head under\nhis left arm, seizes him over his back by the belt, and throws him over\nhis shoulder flat on the ground. But if Fukuroku Jin can only get hold of\nDaikoku's lop ears, both fall together. Then they laugh heartily and try\nit again.\n\nEbisu is the patron of daily food, which is rice and fish, and in old\ntimes was chiefly fish. He is nearly as fat as Daikoku, but wears a court\nnoble's high cap. He is always fishing or enjoying his game. When very\nhappy, he sits on a rock by the sea, with his right leg bent under him,\nand a big red fish, called the tai, under his left arm. He carries a\nstraw wallet on his back to hold his fish and keep it fresh. Often he is\nseen standing knee-deep in the water, pole in hand, watching for a\nnibble. Some say that Ebisu is the same scamp that goes by the other name\nof Sosano[=o].\n\nHotei is the patron of contentment, and of course is the father of\nhappiness. He does not wear much clothing, for the truth is that all his\nproperty consists of an old, ragged wrapper, a fan, and a wallet. He is\nas round as a pudding, and as fat as if rolled out of dough. His body is\nlike a lump of _mochi_ pastry, and his limbs like _dango_ dumplings. He\nhas lop ears that hang down over his shoulders, a tremendous double chin,\nand a round belly. Though he will not let his beard grow long, the\nslovenly old fellow never has it shaven when he ought to. He is a jolly\nvagabond, and never fit for company; but he is a great friend of the\nchildren, who romp over his knees and shoulders, pull his ears and climb\nup over his shaven head. He always keeps something good for them in his\nwallet. Sometimes he opens it wide, and then makes them guess what is\ninside. They try to peep in but are not tall enough to look over the\nedge. He makes tops, paints pictures or kites for the boys, and is the\nchildren's greatest friend. When the seven patrons meet together, Hotei\nis apt to drink more wine than is good for him.\n\nToshitoku is almost the only one of the seven who never lays aside his\ndignity. He has a very grave countenance. He is the patron of talents.\nHis pet animal is a spotted fawn. He travels about a good deal to find\nand reward good boys, who are diligent in their studies, and men who are\nfitted to rule. In one hand he carries a crooked staff of bamboo, at the\ntop of which is hung a book or roll of manuscript. His dress is like\nthat of a learned doctor, with square cap, stole, and high-toed slippers.\n\nBishamon is the patron of glory and fame. He is a mighty soldier, with a\ngolden helmet, breastplate and complete armor. He is the protector of\npriests and warriors. He gives them skill in fencing, horsemanship and\narchery. He holds a pagoda in one hand and a dragon sword in the other.\nHis pet animal is the tiger.\n\nSix out of the jolly seven worthies are men. Benten is the only lady. She\nis the patron of the family and of the sea. She plays the flute and the\nguitar for the others, and amuses them at their feasts, sometimes even\ndancing for them. Her real home is in Riu Gu, and she is the Queen of the\nworld under the sea. She often dwells in the sea or ocean caves. Her\nfavorite animal is the snake, and her servants are the dragons.\n\nOnce a year the jolly seven meet together to talk over old times, relate\ntheir adventures, and have a supper together. Then they proceed to\nbusiness, which is to arrange all the marriages for the coming year. They\nhave a great many hanks of red and white silk, which are the threads of\nfate of those to be married: The white threads are the men, the red are\nthe women. At first they select the threads very carefully, and tie a\ngreat many pairs or couples neatly and strongly together, so that the\nmatches are perfect. All such marriages of threads make happy marriages\namong human beings. But by-and-by they get tired, and lazy, and instead\nof tying the knots carefully, they hurry up the work and then jumble them\ncarelessly, and finally toss and tangle up all the rest in a muss.\n\nThis is the reason why so many marriages are unhappy.\n\nThen they begin to frolic like big boys. Benten plays the guitar, and\nBishamon lies down on the floor resting with his elbows to hear it. Hotei\ndrinks wine out of a shallow red cup as wide as a dinner plate. Daikoku\nand Fukuroku Jin begin to wrestle, and when Daikoku gets his man down, he\npounds his big head with an empty gourd while Toshitoku and Ebisu begin\nto eat tai fish. When this fun is over, Benten and Fukuroku Jin play a\ngame of checkers, while the others look on and bet; except Hotei the fat\nfellow, who is asleep. Then they get ashamed of themselves for gambling,\nand after a few days the party breaks up and each one goes to his regular\nbusiness again.\n\n\n\n\nDAIKOKU AND THE ONI.\n\n\nA long while ago, when the idols of Buddha and his host of disciples came\nto Japan, after traveling through China from India, they were very much\nvexed because the people still liked the little black fellow named\nDaikoku. Even when they became Buddhists they still burned incense to\nDaikoku, because he was the patron of wealth; for everybody then, as now,\nwanted to be rich. So the Buddhist idols determined to get rid of the\nlittle fat fellow. How to do it was the question. At last they called\nYemma, the judge of the lower regions, and gave him the power to destroy\nDaikoku.\n\nNow Yemma had under him a whole legion of _oni_, some green, some black,\nothers blue as indigo, and others of a vermillion color, which he usually\nsent on ordinary errands.\n\nBut for so important an expedition he now called Shino a very cunning old\nfellow, and ordered him to kill or remove Daikoku out of the way.\n\nShino made his bow to his master, tightened his tiger-skin belt around\nhis loins and set off.\n\nIt was not an easy thing to find Daikoku, even though every one\nworshipped him. So the oni had to travel a long way, and ask a great many\nquestions of people, and often lose his way before he got any clue. One\nday he met a sparrow who directed him to Daikoku's palace, where among\nall his money-bags and treasure piled to the ceiling, the fat and\nlop-eared fellow was accustomed to sit eating daikon radish, and amuse\nhimself with his favorite pets, the rats. Around him was stored in straw\nbags his rice which he considered more precious than money.\n\nEntering the gate, the oni peeped about cautiously but saw no one. He\nwent further on till he came to a large store house standing alone and\nbuilt in the shape of a huge rice-measure. Not a door or window could be\nseen, but climbing up a narrow plank set against the top edge he peeped\nover, and there sat Daikoku.\n\nThe oni descended and got into the room. Then he thought it would be an\neasy thing to pounce upon Daikoku. He was already chuckling to himself\nover the prospect of such wealth being his own, when Daikoku squeaked out\nto his chief rat.\n\n\"_Nedzumi san_, (Mr. Rat) I feel some strange creature must be near. Go\nchase him off the premises.\"\n\nAway scampered the rat to the garden and plucked a sprig of holly with\nleaves full of thorns like needles. With this in his fore-paw, he ran at\nthe oni, whacked him soundly, and stuck him all over with the sharp\nprickles.\n\nThe oni yelling with pain ran away as fast as he could run. He was so\nfrightened that he never stopped until he reached Yemma's palace, when he\nfell down breathless. He then told his master the tale of his adventure,\nbut begged that he might never again be sent against Daikoku.\n\nSo the Buddhist idols finding they could not banish or kill Daikoku,\nagreed to recognize him, and so they made peace with him and to this day\nBuddhists and Shint[=o]ists alike worship the fat little god of wealth.\n\nWhen people heard how the chief oni had been driven away by only a rat\narmed with holly, they thought it a good thing to keep off all oni. So\never afterward, even to this day, after driving out all the bad creatures\nwith parched beans, they place sprigs of holly at their door-posts on New\nYear's eve, to keep away the oni and all evil spirits.\n\n\n\n\nBENKEI AND THE BELL.\n\n\nOn one of the hills overlooking the blue sky's mirror of Lake Biwa,\nstands the ancient monastery of Miidera which was founded over 1,200\nyears ago, by the pious mikado Tenchi.\n\nNear the entrance, on a platform constructed of stoutest timbers, stands\na bronze bell five and a half feet high. It has on it none of the\nsuperscriptions so commonly found on Japanese bells, and though its\nsurface is covered with scratches it was once as brilliant as a mirror.\nThis old bell, which is visited by thousands of people from all parts of\nJapan who come to wonder at it, is remarkable for many things.\n\nOver two thousand years ago, say the bonzes, it hung in the temple of\nGihon Shoja in India which Buddha built. After his death it got into the\npossession of the Dragon King of the World under the Sea. When the hero\nToda the Archer shot the enemy of the queen of the Under-world, she\npresented him with many treasures and among them this great bell, which\nshe caused to be landed on the shores of the lake. Toda however was not\nable to remove it, so he presented it to the monks at Miidera. With great\nlabor it was brought to the hill-top and hung in this belfry where it\nrung out daily matins and orisons, filling the lake and hill sides with\nsweet melody.\n\nNow it was one of the rules of the Buddhists that no woman should be\nallowed to ascend the hill or enter the monastery of Miidera. The bonzes\nassociated females and wicked influences together. Hence the\nprohibition.\n\nA noted beauty of Kioto hearing of the polished face of the bell,\nresolved in spite of the law against her sex to ascend the hill to dress\nher hair and powder her face in the mirror-like surface of the bell.\n\nSo selecting an hour when she knew the priests would be too busy at study\nof the sacred rolls to notice her, she ascended the hill and entered the\nbelfry. Looking into the smooth surface, she saw her own sparkling eyes,\nher cheeks, flushed rosy with exercise, her dimples playing, and then her\nwhole form reflected as in her own silver mirror, before which she daily\nsat. Charmed as much by the vastness as the brilliancy of the reflection,\nshe stretched forth her hand, and touching her finger-tips to the bell\nprayed aloud that she might possess just such a mirror of equal size and\nbrightness.\n\nBut the bell was outraged at the impiety of the woman's touch, and the\ncold metal shrank back, leaving a hollow place, and spoiling the even\nsurface of the bell. From that time forth the bell gradually lost its\npolish, and became dull and finally dark like other bells.\n\nWhen Benkei was a monk, he was possessed of a mighty desire to steal this\nbell and hang it up at Hiyeisan. So one night he went over to Miidera\nhill and cautiously crept up to the belfry and unhooked it from the great\niron link which held it. How to get it down the mountain was now the\nquestion.\n\nShould he let it roll down, the monks at Miidera would hear it bumping\nover the stones. Nor could he carry it in his arms, for it was too big\naround (16 feet) for him to grasp and hold. He could not put his head in\nit like a candle in a snuffer, for then he would not be able to see his\nway down.\n\nSo climbing into the belfry he pulled out the cross-beam with the iron\nlink, and hanging on the bell put the beam on his shoulder to carry it in\n_tembimbo_ style, that is, like a pair of scales.\n\nThe next difficulty was to balance it, for he had nothing but his lantern\nto hang on the other end of the beam to balance the bell. It was a\nprodigiously hard task to carry his burden the six or seven miles\ndistance to Hiyeisan. It was \"trying to balance a bronze bell with a\npaper lantern.\"\n\nThe work made him puff and blow and sweat until he was as hungry as a\nbadger, but he finally succeeded in hooking it up in the belfry at\nHiyeisan.\n\nThen all the fellow priests of Benkei got up, though at night, to welcome\nhim. They admired his bravery and strength and wished to strike the bell\nat once to show their joy.\n\n\"No, I won't lift a hammer or sound a note till you make me some soup. I\nam terribly hungry,\" said Benkei, as he sat down on a cross piece of the\nbelfry and wiped his forehead with his cowl.\n\nThen the priests got out the iron soup-pot, five feet in diameter, and\nkindling a fire made a huge mess of soup and served it to Benkei. The\nlusty monk sipped bowl after bowl of the steaming nourishment until the\npot was empty.\n\n\"Now,\" said he, \"you may sound the bell.\"\n\nFive or six of the young bonzes mounted the platform and seized the rope\nthat held the heavy log suspended from the roof. The manner of striking\nthe bell was to pull back the log several feet, then let go the rope,\nholding the log after the rebound.\n\nAt the first stroke the bell quivered and rolled out a most mournful and\nsolemn sound which as it softened and died away changed into the distinct\nmurmur:\n\n\"I want to go back to Miidera, I want to go back to Miidera, I want to\ngo-o back to-o M-i-i-de-ra-ra-a-a-a.\"\n\n\"Naru hodo\" said the priests. \"What a strange bell. It wants to go back.\nIt is not satisfied with our ringing.\"\n\n\"Ah! I know what is the matter\" said the aged abbot. \"It must be\nsprinkled with holy water of Hiyeisan. Then it will be happy with us. Ho!\npage bring hither the deep sea shell full of sacred water.\"\n\nSo the pure white shell full of the consecrated water was brought,\ntogether with the holy man's brush. Dipping it in the water the abbot\nsprinkled the bell inside and out.\n\n\"I dedicate thee, oh bell, to Hiyeisan. Now strike,\" said he, signalling\nto the bell-pullers.\n\nAgain the young men mounted the platform, drew back the log with a lusty\npull and let fly.\n\n\"M-m-m-mi-mi-de-de-ra-ra ye-e-e-e-ko-o-o-o-o\" \"(Miidera ye ko, I want to\ngo back to Miidera)\" moaned out the homesick bell.\n\nThis so enraged Benkei that he rushed to the rope waved the monks aside\nand seizing the rope strained every muscle to jerk the beam its entire\nlength afield, and then let fly with force enough to crack the bell. For\na moment the dense volume of sound filled the ears of all like a storm,\nbut as the vibrations died away, the bell whined out:\n\n\"Miidera-mi-mi-de-de-ra-a-a ye-e-e-ko-o-o-o-o.\" \"I want to go back to\nMiidera,\" sobbed the bell.\n\nWhether struck at morning, noon or night the bell said the same words. No\nmatter when, by whom, how hard or how gently it was struck, the bell\nmoaned the one plaint as if crying, \"I want to go back to Miidera.\" \"I\nwant to go back to Miidera.\"\n\nAt last Benkei in a rage unhooked the bell, shouldered it beam and all,\nand set off to take it back. Carrying the bell to the top of Hiyeisan, he\nset it down, and giving it a kick rolled it down the valley toward\nMiidera, and left it there. Then the Miidera bonzes hung it up again.\nSince that time the bell has completely changed its note, until now it is\njust like other bells in sound and behavior.\n\n\n\n\nLITTLE SILVER'S DREAM OF THE SHOJI.\n\n\nKo Gin San (Miss Little Silver) was a young maid who did not care for\nstrange stories of animals, so much as for those of wonder-creatures in\nthe form of human beings. Even of these, however, she did not like to\ndream, and when the foolish old nurse would tell her ghost stories at\nnight, she was terribly afraid they would appear to her in her sleep.\n\nTo avoid this, the old nurse told her to draw pictures of a tapir, on the\nsheet of white paper, which, wrapped round the tiny pillow, makes the\npillow-case of every young lady, who rests her head on two inches of a\nbolster in order to keep her well-dressed hair from being mussed or\nrumpled.\n\nOld grannies and country folks believe that if you have a picture of a\ntapir under the bed or on the paper pillow-case, you will not have\nunpleasant dreams, as the tapir is said to eat them.\n\nSo strongly do some people believe this that they sleep under quilts\nfigured with the device of this long-snouted beast. If in spite of this\nprecaution one should have a bad dream, he must cry out on awaking,\n\"tapir, come eat, tapir, come eat\"; when the tapir will swallow the\ndream, and no evil results will happen to the dreamer.\n\nLittle Silver listened with both eyes and open mouth to this account of\nthe tapir, and then making the picture and wrapping it around her\npillow, she fell asleep. I suspect that the kowameshi (red rice) of which\nshe had eaten so heartily at supper time, until her waist strings\ntightened, had something to do with her travels in dream-land.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nShe thought she had gone down to Ozaka, and there got on a junk and\nsailed far away to the southwest, through the Inland sea. One night the\nwater seemed full of white ghosts of men and women. Some of them were\nwalking on, and in, the water. Some were running about. Here and there\ngroups appeared to be talking together. Once in a while the junk would\nrun against one of them; and when Little Silver looked to see if he were\nhurt or knocked over, she could see nothing until the junk passed by,\nwhen the ghost would appear standing in the same place, as though the\nship had gone through empty air.\n\nOccasionally a ghost would come up to the side of the ship, and in a\nsqueaky voice ask for a dipper. While she would be wondering what a ghost\nwanted to do with a dipper, a sailor would quietly open a locker, take\nout a dipper having no bottom, and give one every time he was asked for\nthem. Little Silver noticed a large bundle of these dippers ready. The\nghosts would then begin to bail up water out of the sea to empty it in\nthe boat. All night they followed the junk, holding on with one hand to\nthe gunwale, while they vainly dipped up water with the other, trying to\nswamp the boat. If dippers with bottoms in them had been given them, the\nsailors said, the boat would have been sunk. When daylight appeared the\nshadowy host of people vanished.\n\nIn the morning they passed an island, the shores of which were high rocks\nof red coral. A great earthen jar stood on the beach, and around it lay\nlong-handled ladles holding a half-gallon or more, and piles of very\nlarge shallow red lacquered wine cups, which seemed as big as the full\nmoon. After the sun had been risen some time, there came down from over\nthe hills a troop of the most curious looking people. Many were short,\nlittle wizen-faced folks, that looked very old; or rather, they seemed\nold before they ought to be. Some were very aged and crooked, with\nhickory-nut faces, and hair of a reddish gray tint. All the others had\nlong scarlet locks hanging loose over their heads, and streaming down\ntheir backs. Their faces were flushed as if by hard drinking, and their\npimpled noses resembled huge red barnacles. No sooner did they arrive at\nthe great earthen jar than they ranged themselves round it. The old ones\ndipped out ladles full, and drank of the wine till they reeled. The\nyounger ones poured the liquor into cups and drank. Even the little\ninfants guzzled quantities of the yellow sake from the shallow cups of\nvery thin red-lacquered wood.\n\nThen began the dance, and wild and furious it was. The leather-faced old\nsots tossed their long reddish-grey locks in the air, and pirouetted\nround the big sake jar. The younger ones of all ages clapped their hands,\nknotted their handkerchiefs over their foreheads, waved their dippers or\ncups or fans, and practiced all kinds of antics, while their scarlet hair\nstreamed in the wind or was blown in their eyes.\n\nThe dance over, they threw down their cups and dippers, rested a few\nminutes and then took another heavy drink all around.\n\n\"Now to work\" shouted an old fellow whose face was redder than his\nhalf-bleached hair, and who having only two teeth like tusks left looked\njust like an _oni_ (imp.) As for his wife, her teeth had long ago fallen\nout and the skin of her face seemed to have added a pucker for every year\nsince a half century had rolled over her head.\n\nThen Little Silver looked and saw them scatter. Some gathered shells and\nburned them to make lime. Others carried water and made mortar, which\nthey thickened by a pulp made of paper, and a glue made by boiling fish\nskin. Some dived under the sea for red coral, which they hauled up by\nmeans of straw ropes, in great sprigs as thick as the branches of a tree.\nThey quickly ran up a scaffold, and while some of the scarlet-headed\nplasterers smeared the walls, others below passed up the tempered mortar\non long shell shovels, to the hand mortar-boards. Even at work they had\ncasks and cups of sake at hand, while children played in the empty kegs\nand licked the gummy sugar left in some of them.\n\n\"What is that house for?\" asked Little Silver of the sailors.\n\n\"Oh, that is the Kura (storehouse) in which the King of the Sh[=o]ji\nstores the treasures of life, and health, and happiness, and property,\nwhich men throw away, or exchange for the sake, which he gives them, by\nmaking funnels of themselves.\"\n\n\"Oh, Yes,\" said Little Silver to herself, as she remembered how her\nfather had said of a certain neighbor who had lately been drinking hard,\n\"he swills sake like a Sh[=o]ji.\"\n\nShe also understood why picnic or \"chow-chow\" boxes were often decorated\nwith pictures of Sh[=o]ji, with their cups and dippers. For, at these\npicnics, many men get drunk; so much so indeed, that after a while the\nmaster of the feast orders very poor and cheap wine to be served to the\nguests. He also replaces the delicate wine cups of egg-shell porcelain,\nwith big thick tea-cups or wooden bowls, for the guests when drunk, do\nnot know the difference.\n\nShe also now understood why it was commonly said of a Mr. Matsu, who had\nonce been very rich but was now a poor sot, \"His property has all gone to\nthe Sh[=o]ji.\"\n\nJust then the ship in which she was sailing struck a rock, and the sudden\njerk woke up Little Silver, who cried out, \"Tapir, come eat; tapir, come\neat.\"\n\nNo tapir came, but if he had I fear Little Silver would have been more\nfrightened than she was by her dream of the ghosts; for next morning she\nlaughed to think how they had all their work a-dipping water for\nnothing, and at her old nurse for thinking a picture of a tapir could\nkeep off dreams.\n\n\n\n\nTHE TENGUS, OR THE ELVES WITH LONG NOSES.\n\n(After Hokusai.)\n\n\nCurious creatures are the tengus, with the head of a hawk and the body of\na man. They have very hairy hands or paws with two fingers, and feet with\ntwo toes. They are hatched out of eggs, and have wings and feathers,\nuntil full grown. Then their wings moult, and the stumps are concealed\nbehind their dress, which is like that of a man. They walk, when grown\nup, on clogs a foot high, which are like stilts, as they have but one\nsupport instead of two, like the sort which men wear. The tengus strut\nabout easily on these, without stumbling.\n\nThe Dai Tengu, or master, is a solemn-faced, scowling individual with a\nvery proud expression, and a nose about eight finger-breadths long. When\nhe goes abroad, his retainers march before him, for fear he might break\nhis nose against something. He wears a long grey beard down to his\ngirdle, and moustaches to his chin. In his left hand he carries a large\nfan made of seven wide feathers. This is the sign of his rank. He has a\nmouth, but he rarely opens it. He is very wise, and rules over all the\ntengus in Japan.\n\nThe Karasu or crow-tengu is a black fellow, with a long beak, in the\nplace where his nose and mouth ought to be. He looks as if some one had\nsqueezed out the lower part of his face, and pulled his nose down so as\nto make a beak like a crow's. He is the Dai Tengu's lictor. He carries\nthe axe of authority over his left shoulder, to chop bad people's heads\noff. In his right fist is his master's book of wisdom, and roll of\nauthority. Even these two highest in authority in Tengu-land are servants\nof the great lord Kampira, the long-haired patron of sailors and\nmountaineers.\n\nThe greatest of the Dai Tengu lived in Kurama mountain and taught\nYoshitsune. This lad, while a pupil in the monastery, would slip out in\nthe evening, when the priests thought him asleep, and come to the King of\nthe Tengus, who instructed him in the military arts, in cunning, magic,\nand wisdom. Every night the boy would spread the roll of wisdom before\nhim, and sit at the feet of the hoary-headed tengu, and learn the\nstrange letters in which tengu wisdom is written, while the long-nosed\nservant tengus, propped up on their stilt-clogs, looked on. The boy was\nnot afraid, but quickly learned the knowledge which birds, beasts and\nfishes have, how to understand their language and to fly, swim and leap\nlike them.\n\nWhen a tengu stumbles and falls down on his nose, it takes a long while\nto heal, and if he breaks it, the doctor puts it in splints like a broken\narm, until it straightens out and heals up again.\n\nSome of the amusements in Tengu-land are very curious. A pair of young\ntengus will fence with their noses as if they were foils. Their faces are\nwell protected by masks, for if one tengu should \"poke his nose\" into the\nother's eye he might put it out, and a blind tengu could not walk about,\nbecause he would be knocking his nose against everything.\n\nTwo old tengus with noses nearly two feet long, sometimes try the\nstrength of their face-handles. One fellow has his beak straight up in\nthe air like a supporting post, while the other sits a yard off with his\nelastic nose stretched across like a tight-rope, and tied with twine at\nthe top of the other one's nose. On this tight nose-rope a little tengu\nboy, with a tiny pug only two inches long, dances a jig. He holds an\numbrella in his hand, now dancing, and now standing upon one foot. The\ntengu-daddy, whose nose serves as a tent-pole, waves his fan and sings a\nsong, keeping time to the dance.\n\nThere is another tengu who sometimes quarrels with his wife, and when\nangry boxes her ears with his nose.\n\nA lady-tengu who is inclined to be literary and sentimental, writes\npoetry. When the mood seizes her she ties the pen to her nose, dips it in\nink and writes a poem on the wall.\n\nA tengu-painter makes a long-handled brush to whitewash the ceiling, by\nstrapping it to his nose.\n\nSometimes the little tengus get fighting, and then the feathers fly as\nthey tear each other with their little claws which have talons on them\nshaped like a chicken's, but which when fully grown look like hands.\n\nAll the big tengus are fond of trying the strength of their noses, and\nhow far they can bend them up and down without breaking. They have two\nfavorite games of which they sometimes give exhibitions. The player has\nlong strings of iron cash (that is, one hundred of the little iron coins,\nwith a square hole in the centre). Several of these he slides on a rope\nlike buttons on a string, or counters on a wire. Then he lifts them off\nwith the tip of his nose. Sometimes his nose bends so much under the\nweight that the coins slip off. Whichever tengu can pick off the greater\nnumber of strings without letting any slip, wins the game, and is called\nO-hana (The King of Noses).\n\nAnother balances hoops and poles on his nose and throws balls through the\nhoops; or he poises a saucer of water on the tip of his nose without\nspilling a drop. Another fellow hangs a bell from the ceiling. Then, with\na handkerchief tied loosely round his head, he pulls his nose back like a\nsnapping-turtle's beak, and then suddenly lets go. His nose then strikes\nthe bell and rings it. It hurts very much, but he does not mind it.\n\nThe tengus have one great fault. They love liquor too much. They often\nget drunk. They buy great casks of rice-wine, sling them round their\nnecks, and drink out of long cups shaped like their faces, using the nose\nfor a handle. A drunken tengu makes a funny sight, as he staggers about\nwith his big wings drooping and flapping around him, and the feathers\ntrailing in the mud, and his long nose limp, pendulous and groggy.\n\nWhen the master of the tengus wishes to \"see the flowers,\" which means to\ngo on a picnic, he punishes his drunken servant by swinging the box of\neatables over the fellow's red nose. Putting the end over his shoulders,\nhe compels the sot to come along. It sobers the fellow, for the weight on\nhis nose and the pulling on it hurts dreadfully, and often makes him\nsqueal.\n\nOyama, a mountain near Tokio, is said to be full of these long-nosed\nelves, but many other mountains are inhabited by them, for they like\nlonely places away from men.\n\nDancers often put on masks like the tengu's face and dance a curious\ndance which they call the Tengu's quadrille.\n\nThe tengus are very proud fellows, and think themselves above human\nbeings. They are afraid of brave men, however, and never dare to hurt\nthem. They scare children, especially bad boys. They watch a boy telling\nlies and catch him. Then the tengus pull out his tongue by the roots, and\nrun away with it.\n\nWhen a tengu walks, he folds his arms, throws back his head till his nose\nis far up in the air, and struts around as if he were a daimio. When a\nman becomes vain and carries his nose too high, the people say \"He has\nbecome a tengu.\"\n\n\n\n\nKINTARO, OR THE WILD BABY.\n\n\nLong, long ago, when the tallest fir trees on the Hakone mountains were\nno higher than a rice-stalk, there lived in that part of the range called\nAshigara, a little ruddy boy, whom his mother had named Kintar[=o], or\nGolden Darling. He was not like other boys, for having no children to\nplay with, he made companions of the wild animals of the forest.\n\nHe romped with the little bears, and often when the old she bear would\ncome for her cubs to give them their supper and put them to bed,\nKintar[=o] would jump on her back and have a ride to her cave. He also\nput his arms around the neck of the deer, which were not afraid of him.\nHe was prince of the forest, and the rabbits, wild boars, squirrels and\nmartens, pheasants and hawks were his servants and messengers.\n\nAlthough not much more than a fat baby, Kintar[=o] wielded a big axe, and\ncould chop a snake to pieces before he had time to wriggle.\n\nKintar[=o]'s father had been a brave soldier in Ki[=o]to, who through the\nmalice of enemies at court, had fallen into disgrace. He had loved a\nbeautiful lady whom he married. When her husband died she fled eastward\nto the Ashigara mountains, and there in the lonely forests in which no\nhuman being except poor woodcutters ever came, her boy was born.\n\nShe lived in a cave, nourishing herself on roots and herbs. The\nwoodcutters soon learned about the strange pair living wild but\npeacefully in the woods, though they did not dream of her noble rank. The\nboy was known among them as \"Little Wonder,\" and the woman as \"The old\nnurse of the mountain.\"\n\nThus, all alone, the little fellow grew up, exercising himself daily, so\nthat even though a child he could easily wrestle with a bear. Among his\nretainers were the tengus, though they were often rebellious and\ndisobedient, not liking to be governed by a boy.\n\nOne day, an old mother-tengu, who had always laughed at the idea of\nobeying a little dumpling of a fellow like Kintar[=o], flew up to her\nnest in a high fir tree. Kintar[=o] watched to see where it was, and\nwaited till she left it to go and seek for food. Then going up to the\ntree, he shook it with all his might, until the nest came tumbling down,\nand the two young squabs of tengus with it.\n\nNow it happened that just at that time the great hero and imp-killer,\nRaik[=o], was marching through the mountains on his way to Ki[=o]to.\nSeeing that the ruddy little fellow was no ordinary child, he found out\nthe mother and heard her story. He then asked for the child and adopted\nhim as his own.\n\nSo Kintar[=o] went off with Raik[=o] and grew up to be a brave soldier,\nand taking his father's name, he was known as Sakata Kintoki. His mother,\nhowever, remained in the mountains, and living to an extreme old age, was\nalways known as \"The old nurse of the mountains.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTo this day, Kintaro is the hero of Japanese boys, and on their huge\nkites will usually be seen a picture of the little black-eyed ruddy boy\nof the mountains, with his axe, while around him are his wild playmates,\nand the young tengus rubbing their long noses, which were so nearly\nbroken by their fall.\n\n\n\n\nJIRAIYA, OR THE MAGIC FROG.\n\n\nOgata was the name of a castle-lord who lived in the Island of the Nine\nProvinces, (Kiushiu). He had but one son, an infant, whom the people in\nadmiration nicknamed Jiraiya (Young Thunder.) During one of the civil\nwars, this castle was taken, and Ogata was slain; but by the aid of a\nfaithful retainer, who hid Jiraiya in his bosom, the boy escaped and fled\nnorthward to Echigo. There he lived until he grew up to manhood.\n\nAt that time Echigo was infested with robbers. One day the faithful\nretainer of Jiraiya being attacked, made resistance, and was slain by\nthe robbers. Jiraiya now left alone in the world went out from Echigo and\nled a wandering life in several provinces.\n\nAll this time he was consumed with the desire to revive the name of his\nfather, and restore the fortunes of his family. Being exceedingly brave,\nand an expert swordsman, he became chief of a band of robbers and\nplundered many wealthy merchants, and in a short time he was rich in men,\narms and booty. He was accustomed to disguise himself, and go in person\ninto the houses and presence of men of wealth, and thus learn all about\ntheir gates and guards, where they slept, and in what rooms their\ntreasures were stored, so that success was easy.\n\nHearing of an old man who lived in Shinano, he started to rob him, and\nfor this purpose put on the disguise of a pilgrim. Shinano is a very\nhigh table-land, full of mountains, and the snow lies deep in winter. A\ngreat snow storm coming on, Jiraiya took refuge in a humble house by the\nway. Entering, he found a very beautiful woman, who treated him with\ngreat kindness. This, however, did not change the robber's nature. At\nmidnight, when all was still, he unsheathed his sword, and going\nnoiselessly to her room, he found the lady absorbed in reading.\n\nLifting his sword, he was about to strike at her neck, when, in a flash,\nher body changed into that of a very old man, who seized the heavy steel\nblade and broke it in pieces as though it were a stick. Then he tossed\nthe bits of steel away, and thus spoke to Jiraiya, who stood amazed but\nfearless:\n\n\"I am a man named Senso Dojin, and I have lived in these mountains many\nhundred years, though my true body is that of a huge frog. I can easily\nput you to death but I have another purpose. So I shall pardon you and\nteach you magic instead.\"\n\nThen the youth bowed his head to the floor, poured out his thanks to the\nold man and begged to be received as his pupil.\n\nRemaining with the old man of the mountain for several weeks, Jiraiya\nlearned all the arts of the mountain spirits; how to cause a storm of\nwind and rain, to make a deluge, and to control the elements at will.\n\nHe also learned how to govern the frogs, and at his bidding they assumed\ngigantic size, so that on their backs he could stand up and cross rivers\nand carry enormous loads.\n\nWhen the old man had finished instructing him he said \"Henceforth cease\nfrom robbing, or in any way injuring the poor. Take from the wicked rich,\nand those who acquire money dishonestly, but help the needy and the\nsuffering.\" Thus speaking, the old man turned into a huge frog and hopped\naway.\n\nWhat this old mountain spirit bade him do, was just what Jiraiya wished\nto accomplish. He set out on his journey with a light heart. \"I can now\nmake the storm and the waters obey me, and all the frogs are at my\ncommand; but alas! the magic of the frog cannot control that of the\nserpent. I shall beware of his poison.\"\n\nFrom that time forth the oppressed poor people rejoiced many a time as\nthe avaricious merchants and extortionate money lenders lost their\ntreasures. For when a poor farmer, whose crops failed, could not pay his\nrent or loan on the date promised, these hard-hearted money lenders would\nturn him out of his house, seize his beds and mats and rice-tub, and even\nthe shrine and images on the god-shelf, to sell them at auction for a\ntrifle, to their minions, who resold them at a high price for the\nmoney-lender, who thus got a double benefit. Whenever a miser was robbed,\nthe people said, \"The young thunder has struck,\" and then they were glad,\nknowing that it was Jiraiya, (Young Thunder.) In this manner his name\nsoon grew to be the poor people's watchword in those troublous times.\n\nYet Jiraiya was always ready to help the innocent and honest, even if\nthey were rich. One day a merchant named Fukutaro was sentenced to death,\nthough he was really not guilty. Jiraiya hearing of it, went to the\nmagistrate and said that he himself was the very man who committed the\nrobbery. So the man's life was saved, and Jiraiya was hanged on a large\noak tree. But during the night, his dead body changed into a bull-frog\nwhich hopped away out of sight, and off into the mountains of Shinano.\n\nAt this time, there was living in this province, a young and beautiful\nmaiden named Tsunade. Her character was very lovely. She was always\nobedient to her parents and kind to her friends. Her daily task was to go\nto the mountains and cut brushwood for fuel. One day while thus busy\nsinging at the task, she met a very old man, with a long white beard\nsweeping his breast, who said to her:\n\n\"Do not fear me. I have lived in this mountain many hundred years, but my\nreal body is that of a snail. I will teach you the powers of magic, so\nthat you can walk on the sea, or cross a river however swift and deep,\nas though it were dry land.\"\n\nGladly the maiden took daily lessons of the old man, and soon was able to\nwalk on the waters as on the mountain paths. One day the old man said, \"I\nshall now leave you and resume my former shape. Use your power to destroy\nwicked robbers. Help those who defend the poor. I advise you to marry the\ncelebrated man Jiraiya, and thus you will unite your powers.\"\n\nThus saying, the old man shrivelled up into a snail and crawled away.\n\n\"I am glad,\" said the maiden to herself, \"for the magic of the snail can\novercome that of the serpent. When Jiraiya, who has the magic of the\nfrog, shall marry me, we can then destroy the son of the serpent, the\nrobber named Dragon-coil (Orochimaru).\"\n\nBy good fortune, Jiraiya met the maiden Tsunade, and being charmed with\nher beauty, and knowing her power of magic, sent a messenger with\npresents to her parents, asking them to give him their daughter to wife.\nThe parents agreed, and so the young and loving couple were married.\n\nHitherto when Jiraiya wished to cross a river he changed himself into a\nfrog and swam across; or, he summoned a bull-frog before him, which\nincreased in size until as large as an elephant. Then standing erect on\nhis warty back, even though the wind blew his garments wildly, Jiraiya\nreached the opposite shore in safety. But now, with his wife's powers,\nthe two, without any delay, walked over as though the surface was a hard\nfloor.\n\nSoon after their marriage, war broke out in Japan between the two famous\nclans of Tsukikage and Inukage. To help them fight their battles, and\ncapture the castles of their enemies, the Tsukikage family besought the\naid of Jiraiya, who agreed to serve them and carried their banner in his\nback. Their enemies, the Inukage, then secured the services of\nDragon-coil.\n\nThis Orochimaru, or Dragon-coil, was a very wicked robber whose father\nwas a man, and whose mother was a serpent that lived in the bottom of\nLake Takura. He was perfectly skilled in the magic of the serpent, and by\nspurting venom on his enemies, could destroy the strongest warriors.\n\nCollecting thousands of followers, he made great ravages in all parts of\nJapan, robbing and murdering good and bad, rich and poor alike. Loving\nwar and destruction he joined his forces with the Inukage family.\n\nNow that the magic of the frog and snail was joined to the one army, and\nthe magic of the serpent aided the other, the conflicts were bloody and\nterrible, and many men were slain on both sides.\n\nOn one occasion, after a hard fought battle, Jiraiya fled and took refuge\nin a monastery, with a few trusty vassals, to rest a short time. In this\nretreat a lovely princess named Tagoto was dwelling. She had fled from\nOrochimaru, who wished her for his bride. She hated to marry the\noffspring of a serpent, and hoped to escape him. She lived in fear of him\ncontinually. Orochimaru hearing at one time that both Jiraiya and the\nprincess were at this place, changed himself into a serpent, and\ndistilling a large mouthful of poisonous venom, crawled up to the ceiling\nin the room where Jiraiya and his wife were sleeping, and reaching a spot\ndirectly over them, poured the poisonous venom on the heads of his\nrivals. The fumes of the prison so stupefied Jiraiya's followers, and\neven the monks, that Orochimaru, instantly changing himself to a man,\nprofited by the opportunity to seize the princess Tagoto, and make off\nwith her.\n\nGradually the faithful retainers awoke from their stupor to find their\nmaster and his beloved wife delirious, and near the point of death, and\nthe princess gone.\n\n\"What can we do to restore our dear master to life?\" This was the\nquestion each one asked of the others, as with sorrowful faces and\nweeping eyes they gazed at the pallid forms of their unconscious master\nand his consort. They called in the venerable abbot of the monastery to\nsee if he could suggest what could be done.\n\n\"Alas!\" said the aged priest, \"there is no medicine in Japan to cure your\nlord's disease, but in India there is an elixir which is a sure\nantidote. If we could get that, the master would recover.\"\n\n\"Alas! alas!\" and a chorus of groans showed that all hope had fled, for\nthe mountain in India, where the elixir was made, lay five thousand miles\nfrom Japan.\n\nJust then a youth named Rikimatsu, one of the pages of Jiraiya, arose to\nspeak. He was but fourteen years old, and served Jiraiya out of\ngratitude, for he had rescued his father from many dangers and saved his\nlife. He begged permission to say a word to the abbot, who, seeing the\nlad's eager face, motioned to him with his fan to speak.\n\n\"How long can our lord live,\" asked the youth.\n\n\"He will be dead in thirty hours,\" answered the abbot, with a sigh.\n\n\"I'll go and procure the medicine, and if our master is still living\nwhen I come back, he will get well.\"\n\nNow Rikimatsu had learned magic and sorcery from the Tengus, or\nlong-nosed elves of the mountains, and could fly high in the air with\nincredible swiftness. Speaking a few words of incantation, he put on the\nwings of a Tengu, mounted a white cloud and rode on the east wind to\nIndia, bought the elixir of the mountain spirits, and returned to Japan\nin one day and a night.\n\nOn the first touch of the elixir on the sick man's face he drew a deep\nbreath, perspiration glistened on his forehead, and in a few moments more\nhe sat up.\n\nJiraiya and his wife both got well, and the war broke out again. In a\ngreat battle Dragon-coil was killed and the princess rescued. For his\nprowess and aid Jiraiya was made daimio of Idzu.\n\nBeing now weary of war and the hardships of active life, Jiraiya was glad\nto settle down to tranquil life in the castle and rear his family in\npeace. He spent the remainder of his days in reading the books of the\nsages, in composing verses, in admiring the flowers, the moon and the\nlandscape, and occasionally going out hawking or fishing. There, amid his\nchildren and children's children, he finished his days in peace.\n\n\n\n\nHOW THE JELLY-FISH LOST ITS SHELL.\n\n\nParts of the seas of the Japanese Archipelago are speckled with thousands\nof round white jelly-fish, that swim a few feet below the surface. One\ncan see the great steamer go ploughing through them as through a field of\nfrosted cakes. The huge paddle-wheels make a perfect pudding of thousands\nof them, as they are dashed against the paddle-box and whipped into a\nfroth like white of eggs or churned into a thick cream by the propeller\nblades. Sometimes the shoals are of great breadth, and then it veritably\nlooks as though a crockery shop had been upset in the ocean, and ten\nthousand white dinner-plates had broken loose. Around the bays and\nharbors the Japanese boys at play drive them with paddles into shoals,\nand sometimes they poke sticks through them. This they can do easily,\nbecause the jelly-fish has no jacket of shell or bone like the lobster,\nnor any skin like a fish, and so always has to swim naked, exposed to all\nkinds of danger. Sometimes great jelly-fishes, two or three feet in\ndiameter, sail gaily along near the shore, as proud as the\nlong-handled-umbrella of a daimi[=o], and as brilliantly colored as a\nJapanese parasol. Floating all around their bodies, like the streamers of\na temple festival, or a court lady's ribbons, are their long tentacles or\nfeelers. No peacock stretching his bannered tail could make a finer\nsight, or look prouder than these floating sun-fishes, or bladders of\nliving jelly.\n\nBut alas for all things made of water! Let but a wave of unusual force,\nor a sudden gust of wind come, and this lump of pride lies collapsed and\nstranded on the shore, like a pancake upset into a turnover, in which\nbatter and crust are hopelessly mixed together. When found fresh, men\noften come down to the shore and cutting huge slices of blubber, as\ntransparent as ice, they eat the solid water with their rice, in lieu of\ndrink.\n\nA jelly-fish as big as an umbrella, and weighing as much as a big boy,\nwill, after lying a few hours in the sun leave scarcely a trace on the\nspot for their bodies are little more than animated masses of water. At\nnight, however where a jelly-fish has stranded, the ground seems to crawl\nand emit a dull fire of phosphorescence which the Japanese call \"dragon's\nlight.\"\n\nBut the jelly-fish once had a shell, and was not so defenceless, say the\nfairy tales. How it lost it is thus told.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the days of old, the jelly-fish was one of the retainers in waiting\nupon the Queen of the World under the Sea, at her palace in Riu Gu. In\nthose days he had a shell, and as his head was hard, no one dared to\ninsult him, or stick him with their horns, or pinch him with their claws,\nor scratch him with their nails, or brush rudely by him with their fins.\nIn short, this fish instead of being a lump of jelly, as white and\nhelpless as a pudding, as we see him now, was a lordly fellow that could\nget his back up and keep it high when he wished to. He waited on the\nqueen and right proud was he of his office. He was on good terms with the\nKing's dragon, which often allowed him to play with his scaly tail but\nnever hurt him in the least.\n\nOne day the Queen fell sick, and every hour grew worse. The King became\nanxious, and her subjects talked about nothing else but her sickness.\nThere was grief all through the water-world; from the mermaids on their\nbeds of sponge, and the dragons in the rocky caverns, down to the tiny\ngudgeons in the rivers, that were considered no more than mere bait. The\njolly cuttle-fish stopped playing his drums and guitar, folded his six\narms and hid away moping in his hole. His servant the lobster in vain\nlighted his candle at night, and tried to induce him to come out of his\nlair. The dolphins and porpoises wept tears, but the clams, oysters and\nlimpets shut up their shells and did not even wiggle. The flounders and\nskates lay flat on the ocean's floor, never even lifting up their noses.\nThe squid wept a great deal of ink, and the jelly-fish nearly melted to\npure water. The tortoise was patient and offered to do anything for the\nrelief of the Queen.\n\nBut nothing could be done. The cuttle-fish who professed to be \"a kind of\na\" doctor, offered the use of all his cups to suck out the poison, if\nthat were the trouble.\n\nBut it wasn't. It was internal, and nothing but medicine that could be\nswallowed would reach the disease.\n\nAt last some one suggested that the liver of a monkey would be a specific\nfor the royal sickness, and it was resolved to try it. The tortoise, who\nwas the Queen's messenger, because he could live on both land and water,\nswim or crawl, was summoned. He was told to go upon earth to a certain\nmountain, catch a monkey and bring him alive to the Under-world.\n\nOff started the tortoise on his journey to the earth, and going to a\nmountain where the monkeys lived, squatted down at the foot of a tree and\npretended to be asleep though keeping his claws and tail out. There he\nwaited patiently, well knowing that curiosity and the monkey's love of\ntricks would bring one within reach of his talons. Pretty soon, a family\nof chattering monkeys came running along among the branches overhead,\nwhen suddenly a young _saru_ (monkey) caught sight of the sleeping\ntortoise.\n\n\"_Naru hodo_\" (Is it possible?) said the long-handed fellow, \"here's fun;\nlet's tickle the old fellow's back and pull his tail.\"\n\nAll agreed, and forthwith a dozen monkeys, joining hand over hand, made a\nlong ladder of themselves until they just reached the tortoise's back.\n(They didn't use their tails, for Japanese monkeys have none, except\nstumps two inches long). However, he who was to be the tail end of this\nliving rope, when all was ready, crawled along and slipped over the whole\nline, whispering as he slid:\n\n\"'Sh! don't chatter or laugh, you'll wake the old fellow up.\"\n\nNow the monkey expected to hold on the living pendulum by one long hand,\nand swinging down with the other, to pull the tortoise's tail, and see\nhow near he could come to his snout without being snapped up. For a\nmonkey well knew that a tortoise could neither jump off its legs nor\nclimb a tree.\n\nOnce! Twice! The monkey pendulum swung back and forth without touching.\n\nThree! Four! The monkey's finger-nails scratched the tortoise's back. Yet\nold Hard Shell pretended to be sound asleep.\n\nFive! Six! The monkey caught hold of the tortoise's tail and jerked it\nhard. Old Tortoise now moved out its head a little, as if still only half\nawake.\n\nSeven! Eight! This time the monkey intended to pull the tortoise's head,\nwhen just as he came within reach, the tortoise snapped him, held him in\nhis claws, and as the monkey pendulum swung back he lost his hold. In an\ninstant he was jerked loose, and fell head-foremost to the ground, half\nstunned.\n\nFrightened at the loss of their end link, the other monkeys of the chain\nwound themselves up like a windlass over the branches, and squatting on\nthe trees, set up a doleful chattering.\n\n\"Now,\" says the tortoise, \"I want you to go with me. If you don't, I'll\neat you up. Get on my back and I'll carry you; but I must hold your paw\nin my mouth so you won't run away.\"\n\nHalf frightened to death, the monkey obeyed, and the tortoise trotted off\nto the sea, swam to the spot over the Queen's palace, and in a fillip of\nthe finger was down in the gardens of Riu Gu.\n\nHere, let me say, that according to another version of this story the\nmonkeys assembled in force when they suspected what the tortoise had come\nafter, and catching him napping turned him over on his back so that he\ncould not move or bite. Then they took his under shell off, so that he\nhad to travel back to Riu Gu and get another one. This last version\nhowever is uncertain and it looks like a piece of invention to\nsuppose that the monkeys had a sufficient medical knowledge to make them\nsuspicious of the design of the tortoise on the monkey's liver. I prefer\nthe regular account.\n\n[Illustration: THE MONKEYS IN GRIEF.]\n\nThe Queen hearing of the monkey's arrival thanked the tortoise, and\ncommanded her cook and baker to feed him well and treat him kindly, for\nthe queen felt really sorry because he was to lose his liver.\n\nAs for the monkey he enjoyed himself very much, and ran around everywhere\namusing the star-fishes, clams, oysters and other pulpy creatures that\ncould not run, by his rapid climbing of the rocks and coral bushes, and\nby rolling over the sponge beds and cutting all manner of antics.\n\nThey had never before seen anything like it. Poor fellow! he didn't\nsuspect what was to come.\n\nAll this time however the jelly-fish pitied him in his heart, and could\nhardly keep what he knew to himself. Seeing that the monkey, lonely and\nhomesick was standing by the shore of a pond, the jelly-fish squeezed\nhimself up near him and said:\n\n\"Excuse my addressing you, I feel very sorry for you because you are to\nbe put to death.\"\n\n\"Why?\" said the monkey, \"What have I done?\"\n\n\"Oh, nothing,\" said the jelly-fish, \"only our queen is sick and she wants\nyour liver for medicine.\"\n\nThen if ever any one saw a sick looking monkey it was this one. As the\nJapanese say \"his liver was smashed.\" He felt dreadfully afraid. He put\nhis hands over his eyes, and immediately began to plan how to save both\nhis liver and his life.\n\nAfter a while the rain began to fall heavily, and the monkey ran in out\nof the garden, and standing in the hall of the Queen's palace began to\nweep bitterly. Just then the tortoise, passing by, saw his captive.\n\n\"What are you crying about?\"\n\n\"Aita! aita!\" cried the monkey, \"When I left my home on the earth, I\nforgot to bring my liver with me, but hung it upon a tree, and now it is\nraining and my liver will decay and I'll die. Aita! aita!\" and the poor\nmonkey's eyes became red as a _tai_ fish, and streamed with tears.\n\nWhen the tortoise told the Queen's courtiers what the monkey had said,\ntheir faces fell.\n\n\"Why, here's a pretty piece of business. The monkey is of no use without\nhis liver. We must send him after it.\"\n\nSo they dispatched the tortoise to the earth again, the monkey sitting\na-straddle of his back. They came to the mountain again, and the tortoise\nbeing a little lazy, waited at the foot while the monkey scampered off,\nsaying he would be back in an hour. The two creatures had become so well\nacquainted that the old Hard Shell fully trusted the lively little\nfellow.\n\nBut instead of an hour the tortoise waited till evening. No monkey came.\nSo finding himself fooled, and knowing all the monkeys would take the\nalarm, he waddled back and told the Queen all about it.\n\n\"Then,\" said the Queen after reprimanding her messenger for his silly\nconfidence, \"the monkey must have got wind of our intention to use his\nliver, and what is more, some one of my retainers or servants must have\ntold him.\"\n\nThen the Queen issued an order commanding all her subjects to appear\nbefore the Dragon-King of the Sea. Whoever did this wicked thing, Kai Riu\nO would punish him.\n\nNow it happened that all the fish and sea animals of all sorts, that\nswam, crawled, rolled or moved in any way, appeared before Kai Riu O, the\nDragon-King, and his Queen--all except the jelly-fish. Then the Queen\nknew the jelly-fish was the guilty one. She ordered the culprit to be\nbrought into her presence. Then publicly, before all her retainers and\nservants, she cried out:\n\n\"You leaky-tongued wretch, for your crime of betraying the confidence of\nyour sovereign, you shall no longer remain among shell-fish. I condemn\nyou to lose your shell.\"\n\nThen she stripped off his shell, and left the poor jelly-fish entirely\nnaked and ashamed.\n\n\"Be off, you tell-tale. Hereafter all your children shall be soft and\ndefenceless.\"\n\nThe poor jelly-fish blushed crimson, squeezed himself out, and swam off\nout of sight. Since that time jelly-fishes have had no shells.\n\n\n\n\nLORD CUTTLE-FISH GIVES A CONCERT.\n\n\nDespite the loss of the monkey's liver, the queen of the World under the\nSea, after careful attention and long rest, got well again, and was able\nto be about her duties and govern her kingdom well. The news of her\nrecovery created the wildest joy all over the Under-world, and from tears\nand gloom and silence, the caves echoed with laughter, and the\nsponge-beds with music. Every one had on a \"white face.\" Drums, flutes\nand banjos, which had been hung up on coral branches, or packed away in\nshell boxes, were taken down, or brought out, and right merrily were\nthey struck or thrummed with the ivory _hashi_ (plectrum). The pretty\nmaids of the Queen put on their ivory thimble-nails, and the Queen again\nlistened to the sweet melodies on the _koto_, (flat harp), while down\namong the smaller fry of fishy retainers and the scullions of the\nkitchen, were heard the constant thump of the _tsutsumi_ (shoulder-drum),\nthe bang of the taiko (big drum), and the loud cries of the dancers as\nthey struck all sorts of attitudes with hands, feet and head.\n\nNo allusion was openly made either to monkeys, tortoises or jelly-fish.\nThis would not have been polite. But the jelly-fish, in a distant pool in\nthe garden, could hear the refrain, \"The rivers of China run into the\nsea, and in it sinks the rain.\"\n\nNow in the language of the Under-world people the words for \"river,\" and\n\"skin,\" (or \"covering,\") and \"China,\" and \"shell,\" and \"rain,\" and\n\"jelly,\" are the same. So the chorus, which was nothing but a string of\npuns, meant, \"The skin of the jelly-fish runs to the sea, and in it sinks\nthe jelly.\"\n\nBut none of these musical performances were worthy of the Queen's notice;\nalthough as evidences of the joy of her subjects, they did very well. A\ngreat many entertainments were gotten up to amuse the finny people, but\nthe Queen was present at none of them except the one about to be\ndescribed. How and why she became a spectator shall also be told.\n\nOne night the queen was sitting in the pink drawing-room, arrayed in her\nqueenly robes, for she was quite recovered and expected to walk out in\nthe evening. Everything in the room, except a vase of green and golden\ncolored sponge-plant, and a plume of glass-thread, was of a pink color.\nThen there was a pretty rockery made of a pyramid of pumice, full of\nembossed rosettes of living sea-anemones of scarlet, orange, grey and\nblack colors, which were trained to fold themselves up like an umbrella,\nor blossom out like chrysanthemums, at certain hours of the day, or when\ntouched, behaving just like four o'clocks and sensitive plants.\n\nAll the furniture and hangings of the rooms were pink. The floor was made\nof mats woven from strips of shell-nacre, bound at the sides with an inch\nborder of pink coral. The ceiling was made of the rarest of pink shells\nwrought into flowers and squares. The walls were decorated with the same\nmaterial, representing sea-scenes, jewels and tortoise shell patterns. In\nthe _tokonoma_, or raised space, was a bouquet of sea-weed of richest\ndyes, and in the nooks was an open cabinet holding several of the\nqueen's own treasures, such as a tiara which looked like woven threads of\ncrystal (Euplectella), and a toilet box and writing case made of solid\npink coral. The gem of all was a screen having eight folds, on which was\ndepicted the palace and throne-room of Riu Gu, the visit of Toda, and the\nprocession of the Queen, nobles and grandees that escorted the brave\narcher, when he took his farewell to return to earth.\n\nThe Queen sat on the glistening sill of the wide window looking out over\nher gardens, her two maids sitting at her feet. The sound of music wafted\nthrough the coral groves and crystal grottoes reached her ear.\n\n\"_O medzurashi gozarimasu!_\" \"(How wonderful this is!)\" exclaimed the\nqueen, half aloud. \"What strange music is this? It is neither guitar,\nnor hand, nor shoulder drum, nor singing. It seems to be a mixture of\nall. Hear! It sounds as if a band with many instruments was playing to\nthe accompaniment of a large choir of voices.\"\n\nTrue enough! It was the most curious music ever heard in Riu Gu, for to\ntell the truth the voices were not in perfect accord, though all kept\ngood time. The sound seemed to issue from the mansion of Lord\nCuttle-fish, the palace physician. The queen's curiosity was roused.\n\n\"I shall go and see what it is,\" said she, as she rose up. Suddenly she\nrecollected, and exclaimed:\n\n\"O, no, it would not be proper for me to be seen in public at this hour\nof the evening, and if it is in Lord Cuttle-fish's mansion, I could not\nenter without a retinue, No, it won't do for me, it's beneath my\ndignity,\" said her majesty to herself as she went over to touch her\nanemones, while her maids fanned her, seeing their mistress flushed with\nexcitement, and fearing a relapse.\n\nCuriosity got the better of the queenly lady, and off she started with\nonly her two maids who held aloft over her head, the long pearl-handled\nfans made of white shark's fins.\n\n\"Besides,\" thought she, \"perhaps the concert is outside, in the garden.\nIf so, I can look down and see from the great green rock that overlooks\nit, and my lord Kai Riu O need not know of it.\"\n\nThe Queen walked over her pebbled garden walk, avoiding the great high\nroad paved with white coral rock, and taking a by-path trimmed with\nfan-coral. The sound of the drums and voices grew louder, until as she\nreached the top of a green rock back of Lord Cuttle-fish's garden, the\nwhole performance was open to her view.\n\nIt was so funny, and the queen was so overcome at the comical sight, that\nshe nearly fell down and got the hysterics, laughing so heartily. She\nutterly forgot her dignity, and laughed till the tears ran down her face.\nShe was so afraid she would scream out, that she nearly choked herself to\ndeath with her sleeve, while her alarmed maids, though meaning nothing by\ntheir acts but friendly help, slapped her back to give her breath.\n\nThere, at the top of a high green rock, all covered with barnacles, on a\nhuge tuft of sponge, sat Lord Cuttle-fish, playing on three musical\ninstruments at once. His great warty speckled head, six feet high, like a\nhuge bag upside down, was bent forward to read the notes of his music\nbook by the light of a wax candle, which was stuck in the feelers of a\nprickly lobster, and patiently held. Of his six pulpy arms one long one\nran down like the trunk of an elephant, fingering along the pages of a\nmusic book. Two others were used to play the guitar, one to grasp the\nhandle and pinch the strings, and the other to hold the ivory stick to\nstrike the strings. The tsutsumi (small double drum) was held on his\nshoulder and neck, while still another arm curled up in a bunch, punched\nit like a fist. Below him was a another, a bass drum, set in a frame, and\nin his last leg, or arm, was clutched a heavy drum-stick, which pounded\nout tremendous noise, if not music. There the old fellow sat with his\nhead bobbing, and all his six cuppy arms in motion, his rolling blue eyes\nogling the notes, and his mouth like an elephant's, screeching out the\nsong, which was made up of puns on 'tortoises,' 'monkeys,'\n'jelly-fishes,' 'livers' and 'shell,' though the real words made an\nentirely different sense.\n\nAll this time, in front of Lord Cuttle-fish, sat the lobster holding up\nthe light, like the _kurombo_, or black fellows who hold candles at the\nend of long-handled candle-sticks on the stage of the theatres so that\nthe people may see the faces of the actors.\n\nBut the audience, or rather the orchestra was the funniest part of all.\nThey could hardly be called listeners, for they were all performers. On\nthe left was the lusty red-faced _tai_ fish with its gills wide open,\nsinging at the top, or rather at the bottom, of his throat, and beating\ntime by flapping his wide fins. Just back of him was a little gudgeon,\nsilent and fanning himself with a blue flat fan, having disgracefully\nbroken down on a high note. Next behind, on the right, was a long-nosed\ngar-fish singing alto, and proud of her slender form, with the last new\nthing in folding fans held in her fin. In the fore-ground squatted a\ngreat fat frog with big bulging eyes, singing base, and leading the choir\nby flapping his webbed fingers up and down with his frightful cavern of a\nmouth wide open. Next, sat the stately and dignified mackerel who was\nrather scandalized at the whole affair, and kept very still, refusing to\njoin in. At the mackerel's right fin, squeaked out the stupid flat-headed\n_fugu_ fish with her big eye impolitely winking at the servant-maid just\nbringing in refreshments; for the truth was, she was thirsty after so\nmuch vocal exercise. The _fugu_ was very vain and always played the\ncoquette around the hooks of the fishermen who always liked to eat her\nbecause she was so sweet, yet her flesh was poison.\n\n\"How strange it is that men will angle after that ugly hussy, when she\npoisons them,\" was the oft-repeated remark of the gar-fish.\n\nJust behind the herring, with one eye on Lord Cuttle-fish and one on the\ncoming refreshments, was the skate. The truth must be told that the\nentire right wing of the orchestra was very much demoralized by the smell\nof the steaming tea and eatables just about to be served. The suppon,\n(tortoise with a snout like a bird's beak,) though he continued to sing,\nimpolitely turned his head away from Lord Cuttle-fish, and his back to\nthe frog that acted as precentor. The sucker, though very homely, and\nbloated with fat, kept on in the chorus, and pretended not to notice the\nwaiter and her tray and cups. Indeed, Madame Sucker thought it quite\nvulgar in the tortoise to be so eager after the cakes and wine.\n\nIn truth the concert had been long, and all were thirsty and ready for a\nbite and a drink.\n\nSuddenly the music ceased, and the long clatter on the drum announced the\nend. Lord Cuttle-fish kicked over his drum, unscrewed his guitar, and\npacked it away in his music box. He then slid along on his six slippery\nlegs to the refreshments, and actually amused the company by standing on\nhis head, and twirling his six cuppy arms around.\n\nAt this Miss Mackerel was quite shocked, and whispered under her fan to\nthe gar-fish, \"It is quite undignified. What would the Queen say if she\nsaw it?\" not knowing that the Queen was looking on.\n\nThen all sat down on their tails, propped upright on one fin, and\nproduced their fans to cool themselves off. The lobster pulled off the\ncandle stump and ate it up, wiped his feelers, and joined the party.\n\nThe liquid refreshments consisted of sweet and clear _sake_ (rice beer)\ntea, and cherry-blossom water. The solids were thunder-cakes,\negg-cracknels, boiled rice, _daikon_ radishes and macaroni, lotus-root,\n_taro_, and side-dishes piled up with flies, worms, bugs and all kinds of\nbait for the small fry--the finny brats that were to eat at the second\ntable. The tea was poured by the servants of Lord Cuttle-fish. These were\nthe funniest little green _kappas_, or creatures half way between a\nmonkey and a tortoise, with yellow eyes, hands like an ape, hair clipped\nshort on their heads, eyes like frogs, and a mouth that stretched from\near to ear Poor creatures! they were only too happy to know that though\nthey looked like monkeys their livers would not do for medicine.\n\nThe Queen did not wait to see the end of the feast, but laughing\nheartily, returned to her palace and went to sleep.\n\nAfter helping himself with all the cups of his arms out of the tub of\nboiled rice, until Miss Mackerel made up her mind that he was an _omeshi\ngurai_, (rice glutton,) and drinking like a shoal of fishes, Lord\nCuttle-fish went home, coiled himself up into a ball, and fell asleep. He\nhad a headache next morning.\n\n\n\n\nYORIMASA, THE BRAVE ARCHER.\n\n\nGenzan Yorimasa was a brave warrior and a very useful man who lived more\nthan eight thousand moons ago. On account of his valor and skill in the\nuse of the bow he was called to Kioto, and promoted to be chief guard of\nthe imperial palace. At that time the emperor, Narahito, could not sleep\nat night, because his rest was disturbed by a frightful beast, which\nscared away even the sentinels in armor who stood on guard.\n\nThis dreadful beast had the wings of a bird, the body and claws of a\ntiger, the head of a monkey, a serpent tail, and the crackling scales of\na dragon. It came after night, upon the roof of the palace, and howled\nand scratched so dreadfully, that the poor mikado losing all rest, grew\nweak and thin. None of the guards dare face it in hand-to-hand fight, and\nnone had skill enough to hit it with an arrow in the dark, though several\nof the imperial corps of archers had tried again and again. When Yorimasa\nreceived his appointment, he strung his bow carefully, and carefully\nhoning his steel-headed arrows, stored his quiver, and resolved to mount\nguard that night with his favorite retainer.\n\nIt chanced to be a stormy night. The lightning was very vivid, and\nKaminari, the thunder-god was beating all his drums. The wind swirled\nround frightfully, as though Fuden the wind-god was emptying all his\nbags. Toward midnight, the falcon eye of Yorimasa saw, during a flash of\nlightning, the awful beast sitting on the \"devil's tile\" at the tip of\nthe ridge-pole, on the north-east end of the roof. He bade his retainer\nhave a torch of straw and twigs ready to light at a moment's notice, to\nloosen his blade, and wet its hilt-pin, while he fitted the notch of his\nbest arrow into the silk cord of his bow.\n\nKeeping his eyes strained, he pretty soon saw the glare now of one eye,\nnow two eyes, as the beast with swaying head crept along the great roof\nto the place on the eaves directly under the mikado's sleeping-room.\nThere it stopped.\n\nThis was Yorimasa's opportunity. Aiming about a foot to the right of\nwhere he saw the eye glare, he drew his yard-length shaft clear back to\nhis shoulder, and let fly. A dull thud, a frightful howl, a heavy bump\non the ground, and the writhing of some creature among the pebbles, told\nin a few seconds time that the shaft had struck flesh. The next instant\nYorimasa's retainer rushed out with blazing torch and joined battle with\nhis dirk. Seizing the beast by the neck, he quickly despatched him, by\ncutting his throat. Then they flayed the monster, and the next morning\nthe hide was shown to his majesty.\n\nAll congratulated Yorimasa on his valor and marksmanship. Many young men,\nsons of nobles and warriors, begged to become his pupils in archery. The\nmikado ordered a noble of very high rank to present to Yorimasa a famous\nsword named Shishi-no-[=o], (King of Wild Boars), and to give him a\nlovely maid of honor named Ayami, to wife. And so the brave and the fair\nwere married, and to this day the fame of Yorimasa is like the\n\"ume-take-matsu,\" (plum-blossom, bamboo and pine), fragrant, green and\never-during.\n\n[Illustration: YORIMASA AND THE NIGHT-BEAST.]\n\n\n\n\nWATANABE CUTS OFF THE ONI'S ARM.\n\n\nWhen the capital of Japan was the city of Kioto, and the mikado dwelt in\nit with all his court, there lived a brave captain of the guard named\nYorimitsu, who belonged to the famous Minamoto family. He was also called\nRaiko, and by this name he is best known to all the boys and girls in\nGreat Japan. Under Captain Raiko were three brave guardsmen, one of whom\nwas named Watanabe Tsuna. The duty of these men-at-arms was to watch at\nthe gates leading to the palace.\n\nIt had come to pass that the blossom capital had fallen in a dreadful\ncondition, because the guards at the other gates had been neglected.\nThieves were numerous and murders were frequent, so that every one in the\ncity was afraid to go out into the streets at night. Worse than all else,\nwas the report that oni or imps were prowling around in the dark to seize\npeople by the hair of the head. Then they would drag them away to the\nmountains, tear the flesh off their bones, and eat them up.\n\nThe worst place in the city, to which the horned imps came oftenest, was\nat the south-western gate called the Rajo-mon.\n\nTo this post of danger, Raiko sent Tsuna, the bravest of his guards.\n\nIt was on a dark, rainy and dismal night, that Tsuna started, well-armed,\nto stand sentinel at the gate. His trusty helmet was knotted over his\nchin, and all the pieces of his armor were well laced up. His sandals\nwere girt tight to his feet, and in his belt was thrust the trusty sword,\nfreshly ground, until its edge was like a razor's, and with it the owner\ncould cut asunder a hair floating in the air.\n\nArriving at the red pillar of the gate, Tsuna paced up and down the stone\nway with eyes and ears wide open. The wind was blowing frightfully, the\nstorm howled and the rain fell in such torrents that soon the cords of\nTsuna's armor and his dress were soaked through.\n\nThe great bronze bell of the temples on the hills boomed out the hours\none after another, until a single stroke told Tsuna it was the hour of\nthe Rat (midnight).\n\nTwo hours passed, and the hour of the Bull sounded (2 A.M.,) still Tsuna\nwas wide awake. The storm had lulled, but it was darker than ever.\n\nThe hour of the Tiger (3 o'clock) rung out, and the soft mellow notes of\nthe temple bell died away like a lullaby wooing one to sleep, spite of\nwill and vow.\n\nThe warrior, almost without knowing it, grew sleepy and fell into a doze.\nHe started and woke up. He shook himself, jingled his armor, pinched\nhimself, and even pulled out his little knife from the wooden scabbard of\nhis dirk, and pricked his leg with the point of it to keep awake, but all\nin vain. Unconsciously overcome, he leaned against the gate-post, and\nfell asleep.\n\nThis was just what the imp wanted. All the time he had been squatting on\nthe cross-piece at the top of the gate waiting his opportunity. He now\nslid down as softly as a monkey, and with his iron-like claws grabbed\nTsuna by the helmet, and began to drag him into the air.\n\nIn an instant Tsuna was awake. Seizing the hairy wrist of the imp with\nhis left hand, with his right he drew his sword, swept it round his head,\nand cut off the demon's arm. The oni, frightened and howling with pain,\nleaped up the post and disappeared in the clouds.\n\nTsuna waited with drawn sword in hand, lest the oni might come again, but\nin a few hours morning dawned. The sun rose on the pagodas and gardens\nand temples of the capitol and the nine-fold circle of flowery hills.\nEverything was beautiful and bright. Tsuna returned to report to his\ncaptain, carrying the oni's arm in triumph. Raiko examined it, and loudly\npraised Tsuna for his bravery, and rewarded him with a silken sash.\n\nNow it is said that if an oni's arm be cut off it cannot be made to unite\nwith the body again, if kept apart for a week. So Raiko warned Tsuna to\nlock it up, and watch it night and day, lest it be stolen from him.\n\nSo Tsuna went to the stone-cutters who made idols of Buddha, mortars for\npounding rice, and coffers for burying money in to be hidden away in the\nground, and bought a strong box cut out of the solid stone. It had a\nheavy lid on it, which slid in a groove and came out only by touching a\nsecret spring. Then setting it in his bed chamber, he guarded it day and\nnight, keeping the gate and all his doors locked. He allowed no one who\nwas a stranger to look at the trophy.\n\nSix days passed by, and Tsuna began to think his prize was sure, for were\nnot all his doors tight shut? So he set the box out in the middle of the\nroom, and twisting some rice-straw fringe in token of sure victory and\nrejoicing, he sat down in ease before it. He took off his armor and put\non his court robes. During the evening, but rather late, there was a\nfeeble knock like that of an old woman at the gate outside.\n\nTsuna cried out, \"Who's there?\"\n\nThe squeaky voice of his aunt (as it seemed), who was a very old woman,\nreplied \"Me, I want to see my nephew, to praise him for his bravery in\ncutting the oni's arm off.\"\n\nSo Tsuna let her in and carefully locking the door behind her, helped the\nold crone into the room, where she sat down on the mats in front of the\nbox and very close to it. Then she grew very talkative, and praised her\nnephew's exploit, until Tsuna felt very proud.\n\nAll the time the old woman's left shoulder was covered with her dress\nwhile her right hand was out. Then she begged earnestly to be allowed to\nsee the limb. Tsuna at first politely refused, but she urged, until\nyielding affectionately he slid back the stone lid just a little.\n\n\"This is my arm\" cried the old hag, turning into an oni, and dragging out\nthe arm.\n\nShe flew up to the ceiling, and was out of the smoke-slide through the\nroof in a twinkling. Tsuna rushed out of the house to shoot her with an\narrow, but he saw only a demon far off in the clouds grinning horribly.\nHe noted carefully however that the direction of the imps' flight was to\nthe north-west.\n\nA council was now held by Raiko's band, and it was decided that the\nlurking-place of the demons must be in the mountains of Oye in the\nprovince of Tango. It was resolved to hunt out and destroy the imps.\n\n\n\n\nWATANABE KILLS THE GREAT SPIDER.\n\n\nDuring the time in which Watanabe was forming his plan to destroy the\nonis that lurked in the Oye mountains, the brave Raiko fell sick, and\ndaily grew weaker and paler. When the demons found this out they sent the\nthree-eyed imp called Mitsume Kozo, to plague him.\n\nThis imp, which had a snout like a hog's, three monstrous blue eyes, and\na mouth full of tusks, was glad that the brave soldier could no longer\nfight the onis. He would approach the sick man in his chamber, leer\nhorribly at him, loll out his tongue, and pull down the lids of his eyes\nwith his hairy fingers, until the sight sickened Raiko more and more.\n\nBut Raiko, well or ill, always slept with his trusty sword under his\npillow, and pretending to be greatly afraid, and to cower under the\nbed-clothes, the kozo grew bolder and bolder. When the imp was near the\nbed, Raiko drew his blade, and cut the oni across his huge double nose.\nThis made the demon howl, and he ran away, leaving tracks of blood.\n\nWhen Tsuna and his band heard of their brave master's exploit, they came\nto congratulate him, and offered to hunt out the demon and destroy him.\n\nThey followed the red drops until they came to a cavern in the mountains.\nEntering this they saw in the gloom a spider six feet high, with legs as\nlong as a fishing-pole, and as thick as a daikon radish. Two great\nyellow eyes glared at them like lamps. They noticed a great gaping wound\nas if done by a sword-cut on his snout.\n\nIt was a horrible, nasty hairy thing to fight with swords, since to get\nnear enough, they would be in danger of the creature's claws. So Tsuna\nwent and chopped down a tree as thick as a man's leg, leaving the roots\non, while his comrades prepared a rope to tie up the monster like a fly\nin a web. Then with a loud yell Tsuna rushed at the spider, felled him\nwith a blow, and held him down with the tree and roots so he could not\nbite or use his claws. Seeing this, his comrades rushed in, and bound the\nmonster's legs tight to his body so that he could not move. Drawing their\nswords they passed them through his body and finished him. Returning in\ntriumph to the city, they found their dear captain recovered from his\nillness.\n\nRaiko thanked his brave warriors for their exploits, made a feast for\nthem, and gave them many presents. At this feast Captain Raiko told them\nthat he had received orders from the mikado to march against the oni's\nden in Tango, slaughter them all, and rescue the prisoners he should find\nthere. Then he showed them his commission written in large letters,\n\n\"I command you, Raiko, to chastise the onis.\"\n\nHe also allowed them to examine the gold brocade bag, in which it was\nkept, and which one of the fair ladies of the court had made for him with\nher own tapering fingers.\n\nAt this time many families in Kioto were grieving over the loss of their\nchildren, and even while Tsuna had been away, several lovely damsels had\nbeen seized and taken to the demon's den.\n\nLest the onis might hear of their coming, and escape, the four trusty men\ndisguised themselves as Komuso or wandering priests of the mountains.\nThey put on over their helmets, huge hats like wash-bowls, made of straw,\nwoven so tightly that no one could see their faces. They covered their\narmor with very cheap and common clothes, and then after worshipping at\nthe shrines, began their march.\n\n\n\n\nRAIKO AND THE SHI-TEN DOJI.\n\n\nQuite pathless were the desolate mountains of Tango, for no one ever went\ninto them except once in a while a poor woodcutter or charcoal-burner;\nyet Raiko and his men set out with stout hearts. There were no bridges\nover the streams, and frightful precipices abounded. Once they had to\nstop and build a bridge by felling a tree, and walking across it over a\ndangerous chasm. Once they came to a steep rock, to descend which they\nmust make a ladder of creeping vines. At last they reached a dense grove\nat the top of a cliff, far up to the clouds, which seemed as if it might\ncontain the demon's castle.\n\nApproaching, they found a pretty maiden washing some clothes which had\nspots of blood on them. They said to her, \"Sister, Miss, why are you\nhere, and what are you doing?\"\n\n\"Ah,\" said she, with a deep sigh, \"you must not come here. This is the\nhaunt of demons. They eat human flesh and they will eat yours.\" \"Look\nthere\" said she pointing to a pile of white bones of men, women and\nchildren, \"You must go down the mountain as quickly as you came.\" Saying\nthis she burst into tears.\n\nBut instead of being frightened or sorrowful, the brave fellows nearly\ndanced for joy. \"We have come here for the purpose of destroying the\ndemons by the mikado's orders,\" said Raiko, patting his breast, where\ninside his dress in the damask bag was the imperial order.\n\nAt this the maiden dried her tears and smiled so sweetly that Raiko's\nheart was touched by her beauty.\n\n\"But how came you to live among these cannibal demons,\" asked Raiko.\n\nShe blushed deeply as she replied sadly \"Although they eat men and old\nwomen, they keep the young maidens to wait on them.\"\n\n\"It's a great pity\" said Raiko, \"but we shall now avenge our fellow\nsubjects of the mikado, as well as your shame and cruel treatment, if you\nwill show us the way up the cliff to the den.\"\n\nThey began to climb the hill but they had not gone far before they met a\nyoung oni who was a cook in the great d[=o]ji's kitchen. He was carrying\na human limb for his master's lunch. They gnashed their teeth silently,\nand clutched their swords under their coats. Yet they courteously saluted\nthe cook-demon, and asked for an interview with the chief. The demon\nsmiled in his sleeve, thinking what a fine dinner his master would make\nof the four men.\n\nA few feet forward, and a turn in the path brought them to the front of\nthe demon's castle. Among tall and mighty boulders of rock, which loomed\nup to the clouds, there was an opening in the dense groves, thickly\ncovered with vines and mosses like an arbor. From this point, the view\nover the plains below commanded a space of hundreds of miles. In the\ndistance the red pagodas, white temple-gables and castle towers of Kioto\nwere visible.\n\nInside the cave was a banqueting hall large enough to seat one hundred\npersons. The floor was neatly covered with new, clean mats of sea-green\nrice-straw, on which tables, silken cushions, arm-rests, drinking-cups,\nbottles and many other articles of comfort lay about. The stone walls\nwere richly decorated with curtains and hangings of fine silken stuffs.\n\nAt the end of the long hall, on a raised dais, our heroes presently\nobserved, as a curtain was lifted, the chief demon, Shi-ten d[=o]ji, of\naugust, yet frightful appearance. He was seated on a heap of luxurious\ncushions made of blue and crimson crape, stuffed with swan's down. He was\nleaning on a golden arm-rest. His body was quite red, and he was round\nand fat like a baby grown up. He had very black hair cut like a small\nboy's, and on the top of his head, just peeping through the hair were\ntwo very short horns. Around him were a score of lovely maidens--the\nfairest of Kioto--on whose beautiful faces was stamped the misery they\ndared not fully show, yet could not entirely conceal. Along the wall\nother demons sat or lay at full length, each one with his handmaid seated\nbeside him to wait on him and pour out his wine. All of them were of\nhorrible aspect, which only made the beauty of the maidens more\nconspicuous. Seeing our heroes walk in the hall led by the cook, each one\nof the demons was as happy as a spider, when in his lurking hole he feels\nthe jerk on his web-thread that tells him a fly is caught. All of them at\nonce poured out a fresh saucer of sake and drank it down.\n\nRaiko and his men separated, and began talking freely with the demons\nuntil the partitions at one corner were slid aside, and a troop of\nlittle demons who were waiter-boys entered. They brought in a host of\ndishes, and the onis fell to and ate. The noise of their jaws sounded\nlike the pounding of a rice mill.\n\nOur heroes were nearly sickened at the repast, for it consisted chiefly\nof human flesh, while the wine-cups were made of empty human skulls.\nHowever, they laughed and talked and excused themselves from eating,\nsaying they had just lunched.\n\nAs the demons drank more and more they grew lively, laughed till the cave\nechoed, and sang uproarious songs. Every time they grinned, they showed\ntheir terrible tusks, and teeth like fangs. All of them had horns, though\nmost of these were very short.\n\nThe d[=o]ji became especially hilarious, and drank the health of every\none of his four guests in a skull full of wine. To supply him there was\na tub full of sake at hand, and his usual drinking-vessel was a dish\nwhich seemed to Tsuma to be as large as a full moon.\n\nRaiko now offered to return the courtesies shown them by dancing \"the\nKioto dance,\" for which he was famous. Stepping out into the centre of\nthe hall, with his fan in one hand, he danced gracefully and with such\nwonderful ease, that the onis screamed with delight, and clapped their\nhands in applause, saying they had never seen anything to equal it. Even\nthe maidens, lost in admiration of the polished courtier, forgot their\nsorrow, and felt as happy for the time as though they were at home\ndancing.\n\nThe dance finished, Raiko took from his bosom a bottle of sake, and\noffered it to the chief demon as a gift, saying it was the best wine of\nSakai. The delighted d[=o]ji drank and gave a sip to each of his lords\nsaying, \"This is the best liquor I ever tasted, you must drink the health\nof our friends in it.\"\n\nNow Raiko had bought, at the most skillful druggists' in the capital, a\npowerful sleeping potion, and mixed it with the wine, which made it taste\nvery sweet. In a few minutes all the demons had dropped off asleep, and\ntheir snores sounded like the rolling thunder of the mountains.\n\nThen Raiko rose up and gave the signal to his comrades. Whispering to the\nmaidens to leave the room quietly, they drew their swords, and with as\nlittle noise as possible cut the throats of the demons. No sound was\nheard but the gurgling of blood that ran out in floods on the floor. The\nd[=o]ji lying like a lion on his cushions was still sleeping, the snores\nissuing out of his nose like thunder from a cloud. The four warriors\napproached him and like loyal vassals as they were, they first turned\ntheir faces towards Kioto, reverenced the mikado, and prayed for the\nblessing of the gods who made Japan. Raiko then drew near, and measuring\nthe width of the doji's neck with his sword found that it would be short.\nSuddenly, the blade lengthened of itself. Then lifting his weapon, he\nsmote with all his might and cut the neck clean through.\n\nIn an instant, the bloody head flew up in the air gnashing its teeth and\nrolling its yellow eyes, while the horns sprouted out to a horrible\nlength, the jaws opening and shutting like the edges of an earthquake\nfissure. It flew up and whirled round the room seven times. Then with a\nrush it flew at Raiko's head, and bit through the straw hat and into the\niron helmet inside. But this final effort exhausted its strength, it's\nmotions ceased and it fell heavily to the floor.\n\nAnxiously the comrades helped their fallen leader to rise, and examined\nhis head. But he was unhurt,--not a scratch was on him. Then the heroes\ncongratulated each other and after despatching the smaller demons,\nbrought out all the treasure and divided it equally. Then they set the\ncastle on fire and buried the bones of the victims, setting up a stone to\nmark the spot. All the maidens and captives were assembled together, and\nin great state and pomp they returned to Kioto. The virgins were restored\nto their parents, and many a desolate home was made joyful, and many\nmourning garments taken off. Raiko was honored by the mikado in being\nmade a kuge (court noble,) and was appointed Chief of the entire garrison\nof Kiot[=o]. Then all the people were grateful for his valor.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SAZAYE AND THE TAI.\n\n\nSazaye is a shell-fish, which is very proud of its shell. This is high,\nfull of points like towers, and thick like a castle wall. When feeding,\nenjoying itself or moving around, its long neck and body are stretched\nout before it, armed with its hard operculum, which is like an iron\nshield, or the end of a battering ram. The operculum fits the entrance to\nits shell like a trap door. As soon as any danger is near it pulls in its\nhead, and slams itself shut with a loud noise.\n\nOn account of the hardness and thickness of his shell, the sazaye is the\nenvy of the soft-bodied fishes that covet his security. But on the other\nhand the sazaye, though a slow moving creature, is apt to be too proud of\nhis defence and trust too much to his fancied security.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOne day a Tai (red fish) and a Herring were looking at the strong shell\nof the sazaye, and becoming quite envious, the Tai said:\n\n\"What a mighty strong castle you do live in, Mr. Sazaye. When you once\nshut up your shell no one need even try to touch you. You are to be\nenvied sir.\"\n\nThe Sazaye was tickled at the flattery, but pretending to be very humble,\nshook his head and said:\n\n\"It is very kind in you, my lords, to say so, but my little hut is\nnothing but a shell; yet I must say that when I lock my door I do not\nfeel any anxiety, and I really pity you poor fellows who have no shell at\nall.\"\n\nHe had hardly got the last word out of his grisly throat, when suddenly\nthere was a great splash, and away darted the tai and herring, never\nresting their fins or tails a moment till safe out of danger.\n\nThe Sazaye drew in his flap in the twinkling of an eye, and keeping as\nquiet as possible, wondered what the noise was. Was it a stone, or a net,\nor a fish-hook? He wondered if the tai and herring were caught.\n\n\"Surely they must be,\" thought he. \"However I'm safe, thanks to my castle\nshell,\" he muttered.\n\nSo drawing his trap tighter he took a long nap. When he woke up, quite\nrefreshed, he cautiously loosened his trap and peeped out.\n\n\"How strange every thing looks, am I dreaming?\" said he as he saw piles\nof fish, clams, prawns and lobsters lying on a board all around him.\n\n\"Ugh, what is that?\" clapping himself shut as a great black-nosed and\nlong-whiskered dog poked his muzzle near him.\n\nPoor shell-fish! There he lay in a fishmonger's shop, with a slip of\npaper marked \"ten cash,\" (1-10 of a cent,) on his back. A few hours\nlater, purchased by a laborer's wife for his dinner, he was stewing along\nwith several of his relative's in his own juice. The castle, of which he\nwas so proud, serving first as a dinner-pot, then as a saucer, after\nwhich it was thrown away in a heap and burned into lime.\n\n[Illustration: THE FISH STALL IN TOKIO.]\n\n\n\n\nSMELLS AND JINGLES.\n\n\nYedo people are very fond of broiled eels. A rich merchant, named\nKisaburo, who was very miserly with his money, once moved his quarters\nnext door to the shop of one Kichibei, who caught and cooked eels for a\nliving. During the night Mr. Kichibei caught his stock in trade, and in\nthe day-time served them, smoking hot, to his customers. Cut into pieces\nthree or four inches long, they were laid to sizzle on a grid-iron over\nred hot charcoal, which was kept in a glow by constant fanning.\n\nKisaburo, wishing to save money, and having a strong imagination, daily\ntook his seat at meal time close to his neighbor's door. Eating his\nboiled rice, and snuffing in the odors of the broiled eels, as they were\nwafted in, he enjoyed with his nose, what he would not pay for to put in\nhis mouth. In this way, as he flattered himself, he saved much money, and\nhis strong box grew daily heavier.\n\nKichibei, the eel-broiler, on finding this out, thought he would charge\nhis stingy neighbor for the smell of his eels. So, making out his bill he\npresented it to Kisaburo, who seemed to be much pleased. He called to his\nwife to bring his iron-bound money box, which was done. Emptying out the\nshining mass of _kobans_ (oval gold pieces, worth five or six dollars),\n_ichi-bu_ and _ni-bu_ (square silver pieces, worth a quarter and a half\ndollar respectively) he jingled the coins at a great rate, and then\ntouching the eel-man's bill with his fan, bowed, low and said with a\nsmile:\n\n[Illustration: A JINGLE FOR A SNIFF.]\n\n\"All right, neighbor Kichibei, we are square now.\"\n\n\"What!\" cried the eel-frier, \"are you not going to pay me?\"\n\n\"Why yes, I have paid you. You have charged me for the smell of your\neels, and I have paid you with the sound of my money.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE LAKE OF THE LUTE AND THE MATCHLESS MOUNTAIN.\n\n\nOf all the beautiful objects in \"the land of the holy gods,\" as the\nJapanese call their country, none are more beautiful than Fuji Mountain\nand Lake Biwa. The one is a great cone of white snow, the other is a\nsheet of heaven-blue water, in shape like a lute with four strings.\n\nSweeping from twenty square leagues of space out of the plain and rising\ntwelve thousand feet in air, Fuji, or Fusi Yama, casts its sunset shadow\nfar out on the ocean, and from fourteen provinces gleams the splendor of\nits snowy crest. It sits like a king on his throne in the heart of\nSuruga Province.\n\nOne hundred and thirty miles to the west as the crane wings her flight,\nin the heart of Omi, is Biwa Ko, the lake of the lute. It is sixty miles\nlong and as blue as the sky whose mirror it is. Along its banks rise\nwhite-walled castles and stretch mulberry plantations. On its bosom rise\nwooded islands, white, but not with frost; for thousands of herons nestle\non the branches of the trees, like lilies on their stems. Down under the\nblue depths, say the people, is the Dragon shrine (Riu Gu), where dwell\nthe dragon-helmed Kai Riu O, and his consort, the shell-crowned Queen of\nthe World Under the Sea.\n\nWhy do the pilgrims from all over the empire exclaim joyfully, while\nclimbing Fuji's cinder-beds and lava-blocks, \"I am a man of Omi\"? Why,\nwhen quenching their thirst with the melted snow-water of Fuji crater, do\nthey cry out \"I am drinking from Lake Biwa\"? Why do the children clap\ntheir hands, as they row or sail over Biwa's blue surface, and say: \"I am\non top of Fuji Yama\"?\n\nTo these questions the Japanese legend gives answer.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhen Heaven and earth were first created, there was neither Lake of Biwa\nnor Mountain of Fuji. Suruga and Omi were both plains. Even for long\nafter men inhabited Japan and the Mikados had ruled for centuries there\nwas neither earth so nigh to heaven nor water so close to the Under-world\nas the peaks of Fuji and the bottom of Biwa. Men drove the plow and\nplanted the rice over the very spot where crater and deepest depth now\nare.\n\nBut one night in the ancient times there was a terrible earthquake. All\nthe world shook, the clouds lowered to the earth, floods of water poured\nfrom the sky, and a sound like the fighting of a myriad of dragons filled\nthe air. In the morning all was serene and calm. The sky was blue. The\nearth was as bright and all was as \"white-faced\" as when the sun goddess\nfirst came out from her hiding in the cave.\n\nThe people of Omi awoke, scarce expecting to find either earth or heaven,\nwhen lo! they looked on what had yesterday been tilled land or barren\nmoor, and there was a great sheet of blue. Was it sky? Had a sheet of the\n\"blue field of heaven\" fallen down? Was it the ocean? They came near it,\ntasted it. It was fresh and sweet as a fountain-rill. They looked at it\nfrom the hill-tops, and, seeing its outline, called it \"the lake of the\nfour-stringed lute.\" Others, proud of their new possession, named it the\nLake of Omi.\n\nGreater still was the surprise of the Suruga people. The sailors, far out\nat sea, rubbed their eyes and wondered at the strange shape of the\ntowering white cloud. Was it the Iwakura, the eternal throne of Heaven,\ncome down to rest on earth out of the many piled white clouds of heaven?\nSome thought they had lost their reckoning; but were assured when they\nrecognized familiar landmarks on shore. Many a cottager woke up to find\nhis house, which lay in a valley the day before, was now far up on the\nslope, with the distant villages and the sea visible; while far, far\nabove shone the snowy head of a mountain, whose crown lay in the blue\nsky. At night the edges of the peak, like white fingers, seemed to pluck\nthe stars from the Milky Way.\n\n\"What shall we call this new-born child of the gods?\" said the people.\nAnd various names were proposed.\n\n\"There is no other mountain so beautiful in all the earth, there's not\nits equal anywhere; therefore call it Fuji, (no two such), the peerless,\nthe matchless mountain,\" said one.\n\n\"It is so tall, so comely, so grand, call it Fuji, (rich scholar, the\nlordly mountain),\" said another.\n\n\"Call it Fuji, (never dying, the immortal mountain),\" said a third.\n\n\"Call it, after the festal flower of joy, Fuji\" (Wistaria) said another,\nas he decked the peak of his hat with the drooping clusters of the tender\nblue blossom. \"It looks blue and purple in the distance, just like the\nfuji flower.\" Various as the meanings of the name were, they sounded all\nalike to the ear. So, without any quarreling, all agreed to call it Fuji\nand each to choose his own meaning. To this day, though many a learned\ndispute and the scratching of the written character on the sand with\nwalking stick, or on paper with pencil, or on the palm of the hand with\nforefinger takes place, all pronounce the name alike as they rave on the\nbeauties of Fuji Yama.\n\nSo went forth into the countries bounding \"the four seas\" the belief that\nthere was a white mountain of perfect form in Japan, and that whoever\nascended it would live long and even attain immortality; and that\nsomewhere on the mountain was hidden the elixir of immortality, which if\nany one drank he would live forever. Now in one of the kingdoms of\nfar-off China there lived a rich old king, who had abundance of\ntreasures, health, and many children. But he did not wish to die, and,\nhence, spent his days in studying the lore and arts of the alchemists,\nwho believed they would finally attain to the transmutation of lead into\ngold, find the universal solvent of all things, the philosophers' stone,\nthe elixir of life, and all the wondrous secrets which men in Europe long\nafterward labored to discover.\n\nAmong the king's sages was one old man of mighty wisdom, who had heard of\nthe immortal mountain of Japan, and, learning of the manner of its\nappearance, concluded that the Japan Archipelago contained the Fortunate\nIsles and in it was the true elixir of life. He divulged his secret to\nthe king, and advised him to make the journey to the Land of the Rising\nSun.\n\nOverjoyed at the good news and the faithfulness of his loyal sage, the\nking loaded him with gifts and honors. He selected five hundred of the\nmost beauteous youths and virgins of his kingdom, and, fitting out a\nfleet, sailed away to the Happy Isles of the East. Coasting along the\nshore until they recognized the glorious form of the mountain, they\nlanded and began the ascent. Alas! for the poor king. The rough sea and\nsevere storms had worn on his aged frame and the fatigues of the ascent\nwere so great, that before reaching the top he fainted away, and before\nthe head of the procession had set foot on the crater edge the monarch\nwas dead. Sadly they gave up the search for the elixir of life, and,\ndescending the mountain, buried their master in the Province of Kii.\nThen, in their exuberance of youth and joy, thinking little of the far\nfuture and wishing to enjoy the present, they separated in couples,\nmarried, and, disposing of their ship and cargo, settled in the country,\nand colonized the eastern part of Japan.\n\nLong afterward, when Buddhist believers came to Japan, one of them,\nclimbing Fuji, noticed that around its sunken crater were eight peaks,\nlike the petals of their sacred lotus flower. Thus, it seemed to them,\nGreat Buddha had honored Japan, by bestowing the sacred symbol of\nNirvana, or Heaven, on the proudest and highest part of Japan. So they\nalso named it Fuji, \"the sacred mountain\"; and to this day all the world\ncalls this sacred mountain Fuji, or Fusi Yama, while the Japanese people\nbelieve that the earth which sunk in Omi is the same which, piled to the\nclouds, is the lordly mountain of Suruga.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WATERFALL OF YORO, OR THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.\n\n\nLong, long, ago, when the oldest stork was young, there lived an aged\nwoodcutter and his son on the slopes of the mountain Tagi, in the\nprovince of Mino. They gained a frugal livelihood by cutting brushwood on\nthe hill-side, and carrying it in bundles on their back to sell in the\nnearest market town; for they were too poor to own an ox. With the money\nthus received they bought rice and radishes, their daily food.\n\nOnly once or twice a year, at New Year's and on the mikado's birthday,\ncould they afford to treat themselves to a mess of bean-curd or fresh\nfish. Yet the old man was very fond of rice-wine, and every week bought a\ngourd full to keep his old blood warm.\n\nAs the years rolled on the aged father's limbs became so stiff that he\nwas unable any longer to climb the mountains. So his son, now grown to be\na sturdy man, cut nearly double the quantity of wood and thus kept the\nfamily larder full. The old man was so proud of his son that he daily\nstood at sunset in front of his rustic gate to welcome him back. And to\nsee the old daddy and the young stripling remove their headkerchiefs, and\nbow with hands on knees in polite fashion, bending their backs and\nsucking in their breath, out of respect to each other, and to hear them\ninquiring after one another's health, showering mutual compliments all\nthe time, one would have thought they had not seen each other for eight\nyears, instead of eight hours.\n\nOne winter the snow fell long and thick, until all the ground in field\nand forest was covered several feet over. The bamboo branches bent with\ntheir weight of white, the pine boughs broke under their load, and even\nthe stone idols along the wayside were covered up. At first, even with\nthe hardest work, the young woodcutter could scarcely get and sell wood\nto buy enough food to keep them both alive. He often went hungry himself,\nso that his father might have his warm wine.\n\nOne day he went by another path up one of the mountain dells with his\nrope basket strapped to his back, and the empty gourd-bottle at his belt.\nWhile gloomily grieving over his hard luck, the faint odor of rice-wine\nseemed borne on the breeze.\n\nHe snuffed the air. It was no mistake. \"Here's luck, surely,\" said he,\nthrowing down his bundle.\n\nHurrying forward he saw a foaming waterfall tumbling over the rocks in a\nthick stream.\n\nAs he drew near, some of the spray fell on his tongue. He tasted it,\nsmacked his lips and throwing down his cord and basket to the ground,\nfilled his gourd and hastened home to his father.\n\nEvery day, till the end of his father's life, did he come to this\nwonderful cascade of wine, and thus the old man was nourished for many a\nlong year.\n\nThe news of this fountain of youth spread abroad until it reached the\ncourt. The mikado, hearing of it, made a journey to Mino to see the\nwonderful waterfall. In honor of this event, and as a reward of filial\npiety, the name of the year-period was changed to Yoro, (Nourishing Old\nAge).\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTo this day, many people young and old go out to enjoy picnic parties at\nthe foot of the waterfall; which now, however, runs honest water only,\nwhich makes the cheeks red; and not the wonderful wine that once tipped\nthe old daddy's nose with perpetual vermilion.\n\n\n\n\nTHE EARTHQUAKE FISH.\n\n\nMukashi, mukashi, (as most Japanese stories begin), long, long ago, when\nthe gods came down from heaven to subdue the earth for the mikados, and\ncivilize the country, there were a great many earthquakes, and nothing to\nstop them. The world continually rocked, and men's houses and lives were\nnever safe.\n\nNow the two gods who were charged with the work of subduing the\nnortheastern part of the world were Kashima and Katori. Having done their\nwork well, and quieted all the enemies of the Sun-goddess, they came to\nthe province of Hitachi. Kashima, sticking his sword into the earth, ran\nit through to the other side, leaving the hilt above the ground. In the\ncourse of centuries this mighty sword shrunk and turned to stone, and the\npeople gave it the name of _Kaname ishi_, (The rock of Kaname).\n\nNow Kaname means the rivet in a fan, that holds all the sticks together,\nand they gave the name \"rivet-rock,\" because it is the rivet that binds\nthe earth together. No one could ever lift this rock except Kashima the\nmighty one who first set it in the earth.\n\nYet even Kashima never raises it, except to stop an earthquake of unusual\nviolence. When the earth quivers, it is because the great earthquake-fish\nor _jishin-uwo_ is restless or angry. This _jishin-uwo_ is a great\ncreature something like a catfish. It is about seven hundred miles long,\nand holds the world on its back. Its tail is at Awomori in the north,\nand the base of its head is at Kioto, so that all Japan lies on top of\nit. To his mouth are attached huge twirling feelers, which are just like\nthe hideous moustaches which the hairy-faced men from beyond the\n_Tai-kai_ (Pacific Ocean) wear on their lips. As soon as these begin to\nmove, it is a sign that the monster is in wrath. When he gets angry, and\nflaps his tail or bumps his head, there is an earthquake. When he\nflounders about or rolls over, there is terrible destruction of life and\nproperty on the surface of the earth above.\n\nIn order to keep the earthquake-fish quiet, the great giant Kashima is\nappointed to watch him. His business is to stand near by, and when the\nmonster becomes violent Kashima must jump up and straddle him, and hold\nhis gills, put his foot on his fin; and when necessary lift up the great\nrock of Kaname and hold him down with its weight. Then he becomes\nperfectly quiet, and the earthquake ceases. Hence the people sing this\nearthquake verse:\n\n\n         \"No monster can move the Kaname rock\n            Though he tug at it never so hard,\n          For over it stands, resisting the shock,\n            The Kashima Kami on guard.\"\n\nAnother verse they sing as follows:\n\n\n                  \"These are things\n                 An earthquake brings;\n          At nine of the bell they sickness fortell,\n              At five and seven betoken rain,\n            At four the sky is cleared thereby,\n           At six and eight comes wind again.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE DREAM STORY OF GOJIRO.\n\n\nOnly a few years ago there was a gentleman in Fukui, Japan, who had a\nson, a bright lad of twelve, who was very diligent at school and had made\nastonishing progress in his studies. He was especially quick at learning\nChinese characters, of which every Japanese gentleman who wishes to be\ncalled educated must know at least two thousand. For, although the\nChinese and Japanese are two very different languages, yet the Japanese,\nCoreans and Chinese use the same letters to write with, just as English,\nGermans, French and Spaniards all employ one and the same alphabet.\n\nNow Gojiro's father had promised him that when he read through five\nvolumes of the Nihongi, or Ancient History of Japan, he would give him\nfor a present a book of wonderful Chinese stories. Gojiro performed his\ntask, and his father kept his promise. One day on his return from a\njourney to Kioto, he presented his son with sixteen volumes, all neatly\nsilk-bound, well illustrated with wood-cuts, and printed clearly on thin,\nsilky mulberry paper, from the best wooden blocks. It will be remembered\nthat several volumes of Japanese literature make but one of ours, as they\nare much lighter and thinner than ours.\n\nGojiro was so delighted with the wonderful stories of heroes and\nwarriors, travelers and sailors, that he almost felt himself in China. He\nread far into the night, with the lamp inside of his musquito curtain;\nand finally fell asleep, still undressed, but with his head full of all\nsorts of Chinese wonders.\n\nHe dreamed he was far away in China, walking along the banks of the great\nYellow River. Everything was very strange. The people talked an entirely\ndifferent language from his own; had on different clothes; and, instead\nof the nice shaven head and top-knot of the Japanese, every one wore a\nlong pigtail of hair, that dangled at his heels. Even the boats were of a\nstrange form, and on the fishing smacks perched on projecting rails, sat\nrows of cormorants, each with a ring around his neck. Every few minutes\none of them would dive under the water, and after a while come struggling\nup with a fish in its mouth, so big that the fishermen had to help the\nbird into the boat. The game was then flung into a basket, and the\ncormorant was treated to a slice of raw fish, by way of encouragement\nand to keep the bird from the bad habit of eating the live fish whole.\nThis the ravenous bird would sometimes try to do, even though the ring\nwas put around his neck for the express purpose of preventing him from\ngulping down a whole fish at once.\n\nIt was springtime, and the buds were just bursting into flower. The river\nwas full of fish, especially of carp, ascending to the great rapids or\ncascades. Here the current ran at a prodigious rate of swiftness, and the\nwaters rippled and boiled and roared with frightful noise. Yet, strange\nto say, many of the fish were swimming up the stream as if their lives\ndepended on it. They leaped and floundered about; but every one seemed to\nbe tossed back and left exhausted in the river, where they panted and\ngasped for breath in the eddies at the side. Some were so bruised\nagainst the rocks that, after a few spasms, they floated white and stiff,\nbelly up, on the water, dead, and were swept down the stream. Still the\nshoal leaped and strained every fin, until their scales flashed in the\nsun like a host of armored warriors in battle. Gojiro, enjoying it as if\nit were a real conflict of wave and fishes, clapped his hands with\ndelight.\n\nThen Gojiro inquired, by means of writing, of an old white-bearded sage\nstanding by and looking on: \"What is the name of this part of the river?\"\n\n\"We call it Lung Men,\" said the sage.\n\n\"Will you please write the characters for it,\" said Gojiro, producing his\nink-case and brush-pen, with a roll of soft mulberry paper.\n\nThe sage wrote the two Chinese characters, meaning \"The Gate of the\nDragons,\" or \"Dragons' Gate,\" and turned away to watch a carp that\nseemed almost up into smooth water.\n\n\"Oh! I see,\" said Gojiro to himself. \"That's pronounced Riu Mon in\nJapanese. I'll go further on and see. There must be some meaning in this\nfish-climbing.\" He went forward a few rods, to where the banks trended\nupward into high bluffs, crowned by towering firs, through the top\nbranches of which fleecy white clouds sailed slowly along, so near the\nsky did the tree-tops seem. Down under the cliffs the river ran perfectly\nsmooth, almost like a mirror, and broadened out to the opposite shore.\nFar back, along the current, he could still see the rapids shelving down.\nIt was crowded at the bottom with leaping fish, whose numbers gradually\nthinned out toward the center; while near the top, close to the edge of\nlevel water, one solitary fish, of powerful fin and tail, breasted the\nsteep stream. Now forward a leap, then a slide backward, sometimes\nfurther to the rear than the next leap made up for, then steady progress,\nthen a slip, but every moment nearer, until, clearing foam and ripple and\nspray at one bound, it passed the edge and swam happily in smooth water.\n\nIt was inside the Dragon Gate.\n\nNow came the wonderful change. One of the fleecy white clouds suddenly\nleft the host in the deep blue above, dipped down from the sky, and\nswirling round and round as if it were a water spout, scratched and\nfrayed the edge of the water like a fisher's troll. The carp saw and\ndarted toward it. In a moment the fish was transformed into a white\ndragon, and, rising into the cloud, floated off toward Heaven. A streak\nor two of red fire, a gleam of terrible eyes, and the flash of white\nscales was all that Gojiro saw. Then he awoke.\n\n\"How strange that a poor little carp, a common fish that lives in the\nriver, should become a great white dragon, and soar up into the sky, to\nlive there,\" thought Gojiro, the next day, as he told his mother of his\ndream.\n\n\"Yes,\" said she; \"and what a lesson for you. See how the carp persevered,\nleaping over all difficulties, never giving up till it became a dragon. I\nhope my son will mount over all obstacles, and rise to honor and to high\noffice under the government.\"\n\n\"Oh! oh! now I see!\" said Gojiro. \"That is what my teacher means when he\nsays the students in Tokio have a saying, 'I'm a fish to day, but I hope\nto be a dragon to-morrow,' when they go to attend examination; and that's\nwhat Papa meant when he said: 'That fish's son, Kofuku, has become a\nwhite dragon, while I am yet only a carp.'\"\n\n[Illustration: THE ASCENT OF THE DRAGON'S GATE.]\n\nSo on the third day of the third month, at the Feast of Flags, Gojiro\nhoisted the _nobori_. It was a great fish, made of paper, fifteen feet\nlong and hollow like a bag. It was yellow, with black scales and streaks\nof gold, and red gills and mouth, in which two strong strings were\nfastened. It was hoisted up by a rope to the top of a high bamboo pole on\nthe roof of the house. There the breeze caught it, swelled it out round\nand full of air. The wind made the fins work, and the tail flap, and the\nhead tug, until it looked just like a carp trying to swim the rapids of\nthe Yellow River--the symbol of ambition and perseverance.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PROCESSION OF LORD LONG-LEGS.\n\n\nLovely and bright in the month of May, at the time of rice-planting, was\nthe day on which the daimio, Lord Long-legs, was informed by his\nchamberlain, Hop-hop, that on the morrow his lordship's retinue would be\nin readiness to accompany their worshipful Lord Long-legs on his journey.\nThis Lord Long-legs was a daimio who ruled over four acres of rice-field\nin Echizen, whose revenue was ten thousand rice-stalks. His retainers,\nwho were all grasshoppers, numbered over six thousand, while his court\nconsisted only of nobles, such as Mantis, Beetle, and Pinching-bug. The\nmaids of honor who waited on his queen Katydid, were lady-bugs,\nbutterflies, and goldsmiths, and his messengers were fire-flies and\ndragon-flies. Once in a while a beetle was sent on an errand; but these\nstupid fellows had such a habit of running plump into things, and bumping\ntheir heads so badly that they always forgot what they were sent for.\nBesides these, he had a great many servants in the kitchen--such as\ngrubs, spiders, toads, etc. The entire population of his dominion,\nincluding the common folks, numbered several millions, and ranked all the\nway from horse-flies down to ants, mosquitoes, and ticks.\n\nMany of his subjects were very industrious and produced fine fabrics,\nwhich, however, were seized and made use of by great monsters, called\nmen. Thus the gray worms kept spinning-wheels in their heads. They had a\nfashion of eating mulberry leaves, and changing them into fine threads,\ncalled silk. The wasps made paper, and the bees distilled honey. There\nwas another insect which spread white wax on the trees. These were all\nretainers or friendly vassals of Lord Long-legs.\n\nNow it was Lord Long-legs' duty once a year to go up to Yedo to pay his\nrespects to the great Tycoon and to spend several weeks in the Eastern\nmetropolis. I shall not take the time nor tax the patience of my readers\nin telling about all the bustle and preparation that went on in the\nyashiki (mansion) of Lord Long-legs for a whole week previous to\nstarting. Suffice it to say that clothes were washed and starched, and\ndried on a board, to keep them from shrinking; trunks and baskets were\npacked; banners and umbrellas were put in order; the lacquer on the\nbrass ornaments; shields and swords and spears were all polished; and\nevery little item was personally examined by the daimio's chief\ninspector. This functionary was a black-and-white-legged mosquito, who,\non account of his long nose, could pry into a thing further and see it\neasier than any other of his lordship's officers; and, if anything went\nwrong, he could make more noise over it than any one else. As for the\nretainers, down to the very last lackey and coolie, each one tried to\noutshine the other in cleanliness and spruce dress.\n\nThe Bumble-bee brushed off the pollen from his legs; and the humbler\nHoney-bee, after allowing his children to suck his paws, to get the honey\nsticking to them, spruced up and listened attentively to the orders read\nto him by the train-leader, Sir Locust, who prided himself on being\nseventeen years old, and looked on all the others as children. He read\nfrom a piece of wasp-nest paper: \"No leaving the line to suck flowers,\nexcept at halting-time.\" The Blue-tailed Fly washed his hands and face\nover and over again. The lady-bugs wept many tears, because they could\nnot go with the company; the crickets chirped rather gloomily, because\nnone with short limbs could go on the journey; while Daddy Long-legs\nalmost turned a somersault for joy when told he might carry a bundle in\nthe train. All being in readiness, the procession was to start at six\no'clock in the morning. The exact minute was to be announced by the\ntime-keeper of the mansion, Flea san, whose house was on the back of\nNeko, a great black cat, who lived in the porter's lodge of the castle,\nnear by. Flea san was to notice the opening or slits in the monster's\nmoony-green eyes, which when closed to a certain width would indicate six\no'clock. Then with a few jumps she was to announce it to a mosquito\nfriend of hers, who would fly with the news to the gate-keeper of the\nyashiki, one Whirligig by name.\n\nSo, punctually to the hour, the great double gate swung wide open, and\nthe procession passed out and marched on over the hill. All the servants\nof Lord Long-legs were out, to see the grand sight. They were down on\ntheir knees, saying: \"O shidzukani,\" (please go slowly). When their\nmaster's palanquin passed, they bowed their heads to the dust, as was\nproper. The ladies, who were left behind, cried bitterly, and soaked\ntheir paper handkerchiefs with tears, especially one fair brown creature,\nwho was next of kin to Lord Long-legs, being an ant on his mother's\nside.\n\nThe procession was closed by six old daddies (spiders), marching two by\ntwo, who were a little stupid and groggy, having had a late supper, and a\njolly feast the night before. When the great gate slammed shut, one of\nthem caught the end of his foot in it, and was lamed for the rest of the\njourney. This old Daddy Long-legs, hobbling along, with a bundle on his\nback, was the only funny thing in the procession, and made much talk\namong bystanders on the road.\n\nThis is the order and the way they looked. First there went out, far\nahead, a plump, tall Mantis, with a great long baton of grass, which he\nswung to and fro before him, from right to left, (like a drum-major),\ncrying out: \"_Shitaniro_, down on your knees! Get down with you!\" Whereat\nall the ants, bugs and lizards at once bent their forelegs, and the\ntoads, which were already squatting, bobbed their noses in the dust. Even\nthe mud-turtles poked their heads out of the water to see what was going\non. All the worms and grubs who lived up in trees or tall bushes had to\ncome down to the ground. It was forbidden to any insect to remain on a\nhigh stalk of grass, lest he might look down on His Highness. Even the\nInch-worm had to wind himself up and stop measuring his length, while the\nline was passing. And in case of grubs or moths in the nest or cocoon,\ntoo young to crawl out, the law compelled their parents to cover them\nover with a leaf. It would be an insult to Lord Long-legs to look down on\nhim. Next followed two lantern-bearers, holding glow-worms for lanterns\nin their fore-paws. These were wrapped in cases made of leaves, which\nthey took off at night. Behind were six fire-flies, well supplied with\nself-acting lamps, which they kept hidden somewhere under their wings.\nNext marched four abreast the band of little weevils, carrying the\numbrellas of state, which were morning-glories--some open, some shut.\nBehind them strutted four green grasshoppers, who were spear-bearers,\ncarrying pink blossoms. Just before the palanquin were two tall dandies,\nhigh lords themselves and of gigantic stature and imposing bellies, who,\nwith arms akimbo and feelers far up in the air, bore aloft high over all\nthe insignia of their Lord Long-legs. All these fellows strutted along on\ntheir hind legs, their backs as stiff as a hemp stalk, their noses\npointing to the stars, and their legs striding like stilts. The priest in\nhis robes, a praying beetle, who was chaplain, walked on solemnly.\n\nMeanwhile a great crowd of spectators lined the path; but all were on\ntheir knees. Frogs and toads blinked out of the sides of their heads. The\npretty red lizards glided out, to see the splendid show; worms stopped\ncrawling; and all kinds of bugs ceased climbing, and came down from the\ngrass and flower-stalks, to bow humbly before the train of Lord\nLong-legs. Bug mothers hastened, with their bug babies on their backs,\ndown to the road, and, squatting down, taught their little nits to put\ntheir fore-paws politely together and bow down on their front knees. No\none dared to speak out loud; but the mole-cricket, nudging his fellow\nunder the wing, said: \"Just look at that green Mantis! He looks as though\n'he would rush out with a battle-ax on his shoulder to meet a chariot.'\nSee how he ogles his fellow!\"\n\n\"Yes; and just behold that bandy-legged hopper, will you? I could walk\nbetter than that myself,\" said the other.\n\n\"'Sh!\" said the mole-cricket. \"Here comes the palanquin.\"\n\nEverybody now cast a squint up under their eyebrows, and watched the\npalanquin go by. It was made of delicately-woven striped grass, bound\nwith bamboo threads, lacquered, and finished with curtains of gauze, made\nof dragon-fly wings, through which Lord Long-legs could peep. It was\nborne on the shoulders of four stalwart hoppers, who, carrying rest-poles\nof grass, trudged along, with much sweat and fuss and wiping of their\nforeheads, stopping occasionally to change shoulders. At their side\nwalked a body-guard of eight hoppers, armed with pistils, and having\nside-arms of sword-grass. They were also provided with poison-shoots, in\ncase of trouble. Other bearers followed, keeping step and carrying the\nregalia, consisting of chrysanthemum stalks and blossoms. Then followed,\nin double rank, a long string of wasps, who were for show and nothing\nmore. Between them, inside, carefully saddled, bridled, and in full\nhousings, was a horse-fly, led by a snail, to keep the restive animal\nfrom going at a too rapid pace.\n\nThree big, gawky helmet-headed beetles next followed, bearing\nrice-sprouts, with full heads of rice.\n\n\"Oh! oh! look there!\" cried a little grub at the side of the road. \"See\nthe little grasshopper riding on his father's back!\"\n\n\"Hai,\" said Mother Butterfly, putting one paw on her baby's neck, for\nfear of being arrested for making a noise.\n\nIt was so. The little 'hopper, tired of long walking, had climbed on his\nfather's back for a ride, holding on by the feelers and seeing\neverything.\n\nFinally, toward the end of the procession, was a great crowd of common\n'hoppers, beetles, and bugs of all sorts, carrying the presents to be\ngiven in Yedo, and the clothing, food and utensils for the use of Lord\nLong-legs on the journey; for the hotels were sometimes very poor on the\nTokaido high road, and the daimio liked his comforts. Besides, it was\nnecessary for Lord Long-legs to travel with proper dignity, as became a\ndaimio. His messengers always went before and engaged lodging-places, as\nthe fleas, spiders and mosquitoes from other localities, who traveled up\nand down the great high road, sometimes occupied the places first. The\nprocession wound up by the rear-guard of Daddy Long-legs, who prevented\nany insult or disrespect from the rabble. After the line had passed,\ninsects could cross the road, traffic and travel were resumed, and the\nroad was cleared, while the procession faded from view in the distance.\n\n\n\n\nKIYOHIME, OR THE POWER OF LOVE.\n\n\nQuiet and shady was the spot in the midst of one of the loveliest valley\nlandscapes in the empire, near the banks of the Hidaka river, where stood\nthe tea-house kept by one Kojima. It was surrounded on all sides by\nglorious mountains, ever robed with deep forests, silver-threaded with\nflashing water-falls, to which the lovers of nature paid many a visit,\nand in which poets were inspired to write stanzas in praise of the white\nfoam and the twinkling streamlets. Here the bonzes loved to muse and\nmeditate, and anon merry picnic parties spread their mats, looped their\ncanvas screens, and feasted out of nests of lacquered boxes, drinking the\namber sake from cups no larger nor thicker than an egg-shell, while the\nsound of guitar and drum kept time to dance and song.\n\nThe garden of the tea-house was as lovely a piece of art as the florist's\ncunning could produce. Those who emerged from the deep woods of the lofty\nhill called the Dragon's Claw, could see in the tea-house garden a living\ncopy of the landscape before them. There were mimic mountains, (ten feet\nhigh), and miniature hills veined by a tiny, path with dwarfed pine\ngroves, and tiny bamboo clumps, and a patch of grass for meadow, and a\nvalley just like the great gully of the mountains, only a thousand times\nsmaller, and but twenty feet long. So perfect was the imitation that even\nthe miniature irrigated rice-fields, each no larger than a\nchecker-board, were in full sprout. To make this little gem of nature in\nart complete, there fell from over a rock at one end a lovely little\nwaterfall two feet high, which after an angry splash over the stones,\nrolled on over an absurdly small beech, all white-sanded and pebbled,\nthreading its silver way beyond, until lost in fringes of lilies and\naquatic plants. In one broad space imitating a lake, was a lotus pond,\nlined with iris, in which the fins of gold fish and silver carp flashed\nin the sunbeams. Here and there the nose of a tortoise protruded, while\non a rugged rock sat an old grandfather surveying the scene with one or\ntwo of his grand-children asleep on his shell and sunning themselves.\n\nThe fame of the tea-house, its excellent fare, and special delicacy of\nits mountain trout, sugar-jelly and well-flavored rice-cakes, drew\nhundreds of visitors, especially poetry-parties, and lovers of grand\nscenery.\n\nJust across the river, which was visible from the verandah of the\ntea-house, stood the lofty firs that surrounded the temple of the Tendai\nBuddhists. Hard by was the pagoda, which painted red peeped between the\ntrees. A long row of paper-windowed and tile-roofed dwellings to the\nright made up the monastery, in which a snowy eye-browed but rosy-faced\nold abbot and some twenty bonzes dwelt, all shaven-faced and\nshaven-pated, in crape robes and straw sandals, their only food being\nwater and vegetables.\n\nNot the least noticeable of the array of stone lanterns, and bronze\nimages with aureoles round their heads, and incense burners and holy\nwater tanks, and dragon spouts, was the belfry, which stood on a stone\nplatform. Under its roof hung the massive bronze bell ten feet high,\nwhich, when struck with a suspended log like a trip-hammer, boomed\nsolemnly over the valley and flooded three leagues of space with the\nmelody which died away as sweetly as an infant falling in slumber. This\nmighty bell was six inches thick and weighed several tons.\n\nIn describing the tea-house across the river, the story of its sweetest\ncharm, and of its garden the fairest flower must not be left untold.\nKiyo, the host's daughter, was a lovely maiden of but eighteen, as\ngraceful as the bamboo reed swaying in the breeze of a moonlit summer's\neve, and as pretty as the blossoms of the cherry-tree. Far and wide\nfloated the fame of Kiyo, like the fragrance of the white lilies of\nIbuki, when the wind sweeping down the mountain heights, comes\nperfume-laden to the traveler.\n\nAs she busied herself about the garden, or as her white socks slipped\nover the mat-laid floor, she was the picture of grace itself. When at\ntwilight, with her own hands, she lighted the gay lanterns that hung in\nfestoons along the eaves of the tea-house above the verandah, her bright\neyes sparkling, her red petticoats half visible through her\nsemi-transparent crape robe, she made many a young man's heart glow with\na strange new feeling, or burn with pangs of jealousy.\n\nAmong the priests that often passed by the tea-house on their way to the\nmonastery, were some who were young and handsome.\n\nIt was the rule of the monastery that none of the bonzes should drink\nsake (wine) eat fish or meat, or even stop at the tea-houses to talk with\nwomen. But one young bonze named \"Lift-the-Kettle\" (after a passage in\nthe Sanscrit classics) had rigidly kept the rules. Fish had never passed\nhis mouth; and as for sake, he did not know even its taste. He was very\nstudious and diligent. Every day he learned ten new Chinese characters.\nHe had already read several of the sacred sutras, had made a good\nbeginning in Sanskrit, knew the name of every idol in the temple of the\n3,333 images in Kioto, had twice visited the sacred shrine of the\nCapital, and had uttered the prayer \"Namu mi[=o] ho ren ge ki[=o],\"\n(\"Glory be to the sacred lotus of the law\"), counting it on his rosary,\nfive hundred thousand times. For sanctity and learning he had no peer\namong the young neophytes of the bonzerie.\n\nAlas for \"Lift-the-Kettle!\". One day, after returning from a visit to a\nfamous shrine in the Kuanto, (Eastern Japan), as he was passing the\ntea-house, he caught sight of Kiyohime, (the \"lady\" or \"princess\" Kiyo),\nand from that moment his pain of heart began. He returned to his bed of\nmats, but not to sleep. For days he tried to stifle his passion, but his\nheart only smouldered away like an incense-stick.\n\nBefore many days he made a pretext for again passing the house.\nHopelessly in love, without waiting many days he stopped and entered the\ntea-house.\n\nHis call for refreshments was answered by Kiyohime herself!\n\nAs fire kindles fire, so priest and maiden were now consumed in one flame\nof love. To shorten a long story, \"Lift-the-Kettle\" visited the inn\noftener and oftener, even stealing out at night to cross the river and\nspend the silent hours with his love.\n\nSo passed several months, when suddenly a change come over the young\nbonze. His conscience began to trouble him for breaking his vows. In the\nterrible conflict between principle and passion, the soul of the priest\nwas tossed to and fro like the feathered seed-ball of a shuttlecock.\n\nBut conscience was the stronger, and won.\n\nHe resolved to drown his love and break off his connection with the girl.\nTo do it suddenly, would bring grief to her and a scandal both on her\nfamily and the monastery. He must do it gradually to succeed at all.\n\nAh! how quickly does the sensitive love-plant know the finger-tip touch\nof cooling passion! How quickly falls the silver column in the crystal\ntube, at the first breath of the heart's chill even though the words on\nthe lip are warm! Kiyohime marked the ebbing tide of her lover's regard,\nand then a terrible resolve of evil took possession of her soul. From\nthat time forth, she ceased to be a pure and innocent and gentle virgin.\nThough still in maiden form and guise, she was at heart a fox, and as to\nher nature she might as well have worn the bushy tail of the sly\ndeceiver. She resolved to win over her lover, by her importunities, and\nfailing in this, to destroy him by sorcery.\n\nOne night she sat up until two o'clock in the morning, and then, arrayed\nonly in a white robe, she went out to a secluded part of the mountain\nwhere in a lonely shrine stood a hideous scowling image of Fudo, who\nholds the sword of vengeance and sits clothed in fire. There she called\nupon the god to change her lover's heart or else destroy him.\n\nThence, with her head shaking, and eyes glittering with anger like the\norbs of a serpent, she hastened to the shrine of Kampira, whose servants\nare the long-nosed sprites, who have the power of magic and of teaching\nsorcery. Standing in front of the portal she saw it hung with votive\ntablets, locks of hair, teeth, various tokens of vows, pledges and marks\nof sacrifice, which the devotees of the god had hung up. There, in the\ncold night air she asked for the power of sorcery, that she might be able\nat will to transform herself into the terrible _ja_,--the awful\ndragon-serpent whose engine coils are able to crack bones, crush rocks,\nmelt iron or root up trees, and which are long enough to wind round a\nmountain.\n\nIt would be too long to tell how this once pure and happy maiden, now\nturned to an avenging demon went out nightly on the lonely mountains to\npractice the arts of sorcery. The mountain-sprites were her teachers, and\nshe learned so diligently that the chief goblin at last told her she\nwould be able, without fail, to transform herself when she wished.\n\nThe dreadful moment was soon to come. The visits of the once lover-priest\ngradually became fewer and fewer, and were no longer tender hours of\nlove, but were on his part formal interviews, while Kiyohime became more\nimportunate than ever. Tears and pleadings were alike useless, and\nfinally one night as he was taking leave, the bonze told the maid that he\nhad paid his last visit. Kiyohime then utterly forgetting all womanly\ndelicacy, became so urgent that the bonze tore himself away and fled\nacross the river. He had seen the terrible gleam in the maiden's eyes,\nand now terribly frightened, hid himself under the great temple bell.\n\nForthwith Kiyohime, seeing the awful moment had come, pronounced the\nspell of incantation taught her by the mountain spirit, and raised her\nT-shaped wand. In a moment her fair head and lovely face, body, limbs and\nfeet lengthened out, disappeared, or became demon-like, and a\nfire-darting, hissing-tongued serpent, with eyes like moons trailed over\nthe ground towards the temple, swam the river, and scenting out the track\nof the fugitive, entered the belfry, cracking the supporting columns made\nof whole tree-trunks into a mass of ruins, while the bell fell to the\nearth with the cowering victim inside.\n\nThen began the winding of the terrible coils round and round the metal,\nas with her wand of sorcery in her hands, she mounted the bell. The\nglistening scales, hard as iron, struck off sparks as the pressure\nincreased. Tighter and tighter they were drawn, till the heat of the\nfriction consumed the timbers and made the metal glow hot like fire.\n\n[Illustration: THE SORCERESS MELTING THE BELL.]\n\nVain was the prayer of priest, or spell of rosary, as the bonzes\npiteously besought great Buddha to destroy the demon. Hotter and hotter\ngrew the mass, until the ponderous metal melted down into a hissing pool\nof scintillating molten bronze; and soon, man within and serpent without,\ntimber and tiles and ropes were nought but a few handfuls of white ashes.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FISHERMAN AND THE MOON-MAIDEN.\n\n\nPearly and lustrous white, like a cloud in the far-off blue sky, seemed\nthe floating figure of the moon-maiden, as she flew to earth. She was one\nof the fifteen glistening virgins that wait attendant upon the moon in\nher chambers in the sky. Looking down from her high home to the earth,\nshe became enraptured with the glorious scenery of Suruga's ocean shore,\nand longed for a bath in the blue waters of the sea.\n\nSo this fairy maid sped to the earth one morning early, when the moon\nhaving shone through the night was about to retire for the day. The sun\nwas rising bright and red over the eastern seas, flushing the mountains\nand purpling the valleys. Out amid the sparkling waves the ships sailed\ntoward the sun, and the fishermen cast their nets.\n\nIt was in early spring, when the air was full of the fragrance of plum\nblossoms, and the zephyrs blew so softly that scarce a bamboo leaf\nquivered, or a wave lapsed with sound on the silvery shore.\n\nThe moon-maiden was so charmed with the scenery of earth, that she longed\nto linger above it to gaze tranquilly. Floating slowly through the air,\nshe directed her course to the pine groves that fringe the strand near\nCape Miwo. Lying at the base of Fuji mountain, whose snowy crown glistens\nabove, fronting the ocean, whose blue plain undulates in liquid glory\ntill it meets the bending sky, the scenery of Miwo is renowned\neverywhere under the whole heavens, but especially in the land which the\nmikado's reign blesses with peace.\n\nFull of happiness, the fairy maiden played sweet music from her flute,\nuntil the air was full of it, and it sounded to the dweller on earth like\nthe sweet falling of rain drops on the thirsty ground. Her body shed\nsweet fragrance through the air, and flowers fell from her robes as she\npassed. Though none saw her form, all wondered.\n\nArriving over a charming spot on the sea shore, she descended to the\nstrand, and stood at the foot of a pine tree. She laid her musical\ninstrument on a rock near by, and taking off her wings and feathered suit\nhung them carefully on the pine tree bough. Then she strolled off along\nthe shore to dip her shining feet in the curling waves.\n\nPicking up some shells, she wondered with innocent joy at the rich\ntints, which seemed more beautiful than any color in the moon-world. With\none, a large smooth scallop, she was particularly pleased; for inside one\nvalve was a yellow disc, and on its mate was a white one.\n\n\"How strange,\" said she. \"Here is the sun, and there is the moon. I shall\ncall this the _Tsuki-hi-kai_--'sun and moon shell',\" and she put them in\nher girdle.\n\nIt chanced that near the edge of the pine grove, not far away, there\ndwelt a lone fisherman, who, coming down to the shore, caught a whiff of\nsweet perfume such as had never before delighted his nostrils. What could\nit be? The spring zephyrs, blowing from the west, seemed laden with the\nsweet odor.\n\nCuriosity prompted him to seek the cause. He walked toward the pine tree,\nand looking up, caught sight of the feathery suit of wings. Oh! how his\neyes sparkled. He danced for joy, and taking down the robe carried it to\nhis neighbors. All were delighted, and one old man said that the fairy\nmust herself be near by. He advised the man to seek until he found her.\n\nSo with feathered robe in hand the fisherman went out again to the\nstrand, and took his place near the pine tree. He had not waited long\nbefore a lovely being, with rose-tinted white skin and of perfect form,\nappeared.\n\n\"Please good sir, give me back my feathered robe,\" said she, in a sad\nvoice of liquid sweetness, though she seemed greatly frightened.\n\n\"No, I must keep it as a sacred treasure, a relic from a heavenly\nvisitor, and dedicate it in the shrine yonder as a memorial of an angel's\nvisit\" said the fisherman.\n\n\"Oh, wicked man, what a wretched and impious thing to rob an inhabitant\nof heaven of the robe by which she moves. How can I fly back to my home\nagain?\"\n\n\"Give me your wings, oh ye wild geese that fly across the face of the\nmoon, and on tireless pinions seek the icy shores in spring time, and\nsoar unwearied homeward in autumn. Lend me your wings.\"\n\nBut the wild geese overhead only whirred and screamed, and bit their\nsprays of pine which they carried in their mouth.\n\n\"Oh, ye circling gulls, lend me but for a day your downy wings. I am\nprisoner here\", cried the weeping fairy.\n\nBut the graceful gulls hovering for a moment swept on in widening circles\nout to farther sea.\n\n\"Oh, breezes of the air which blow whither ye list! Oh, tide of ocean\nwhich ebbs and flows at will! Ye may move all, but I am prisoner here,\ndevoid of motion. Oh, good sir have pity and give me back my wings,\"\ncried the moon-maiden, pressing her hands together in grief.\n\nThe fisher's heart was touched by the pathos of her voice and the\nglittering of her tears.\n\n\"I'll give back your winged-robe if you'll dance and make music for me\",\nsaid he.\n\n\"Oh, yes, good sir, I will dance and make music, but first let me put on\nmy feather-robe for without it I have no power of motion.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes\", said the suspicious mortal, \"If I give you back your wings\nyou'll fly straight to heaven.\"\n\n\"What! can you not believe the word of a heavenly being, without\ndoubting? Trust me in good faith and you'll lose nothing.\"\n\nThen with shamed face the fisherman handed to the moon-maiden her\nfeathered robe, which she donned and began to dance. She poured out such\nsweet strains from her upright flute that with eye and ear full of\nrapture, the fisherman imagined himself in heaven. Then she sang a sweet\nsong in which she described the delights of life in the moon and the\npleasure of celestial residence.\n\nThe fisherman was so overjoyed that he longed to detain the fairy. He\nbegged her to dwell with him on earth, but in vain. As he looked, he saw\nher rising. A fresh breeze, rippling the face of the sea, now sprang up,\nand wafted the pearly maiden over the pine-clad hills and past Fuji\nmountain. All the time sweet music rained through the air until, as the\nfisherman strained his eyes toward the fresh-fallen snow on Fuji's\ncrest, he could no longer distinguish the moon-maiden from the fleecy\nclouds that filled the thin air.\n\nPondering long upon the marvelous apparition, the fisherman resolved to\nmark the spot where the fairy first descended to earth. So he prevailed\nupon the simple villagers to build a railing of stone around the now\nsacred pine.\n\nDaily they garlanded the old trunk with festoons of tasseled and twisted\nrice-straw. Long after, when by the storms of centuries the old pine, in\nspite of bandages and crutches, and tired of wrestling with the blast,\nfell down like an old man, to rise no more, a grateful posterity cleared\nthe space and built the shrine of Miwo, which still dots with its sacred\nenclosure the strand of Suruga on which the fairy danced.\n\n\n\n\nTHE JEWELS OF THE EBBING AND THE FLOWING TIDE.\n\n\nChiuai was the fourteenth mikado of the Land of the Gods (Japan). His\nwife, the empress, was named Jingu, or Godlike Exploit. She was a wise\nand discreet lady and assisted her husband to govern his dominions. When\na great rebellion broke out in the south island called Kiushiu, the\nmikado marched his army against the rebels. The empress went with him and\nlived in the camp. One night, as she lay asleep in her tent, she dreamed\nthat a heavenly being appeared to her and told her of a wonderful land\nin the west, full of gold, silver, jewels, silks and precious stones. The\nheavenly messenger told her if she would invade this country she would\nsucceed, and all its spoil would be hers, for herself and Japan.\n\n\"Conquer Corea!\" said the radiant being, as she floated away on a purple\ncloud.\n\nIn the morning the empress told her husband of her dream, and advised him\nto set out to invade the rich land. But he paid no attention of her. When\nshe insisted, in order to satisfy her, he climbed up a high mountain, and\nlooking far away towards the setting sun, saw no land thither, not even\nmountain peaks. So, believing that there was no country in that direction\nhe descended, and angrily refused to set out on the expedition. Shortly\nafter, in a battle with the rebels the mikado was shot dead with an\narrow.\n\nThe generals and captains of the host then declared their loyalty to the\nempress as the sole ruler of Japan. She, now having the power, resolved\nto carry out her daring plan of invading Corea. She invoked all the\n_kami_ or gods together, from the mountains, rivers and plains to get\ntheir advice and help. All came at her call. The kami of the mountains\ngave her timber and iron for her ships; the kami of the fields presented\nrice and grain for provisions; the kami of the grasses gave her hemp for\ncordage; and the kami of the winds promised to open his bag and let out\nhis breezes to fill her sails toward Corea. All came except Isora, the\nkami of the sea shore. Again she called for him and sat up waiting all\nnight with torches burning, invoking him to appear.\n\nNow, Isora was a lazy fellow, always slovenly and ill-dressed, and when\nat last he did come, instead of appearing in state in splendid robes, he\nrose right out of the sea-bottom, covered with mud and slime, with shells\nsticking all over him and sea-weed clinging to his hair. He gruffly asked\nwhat the empress wanted.\n\n\"Go down to Riu Gu and beg his majesty Kai Riu O, the Dragon King of the\nWorld Under the Sea, to give me the two jewels of the tides,\" said the\nimperial lady.\n\nNow among the treasures in the palace of the Dragon King of the World\nUnder the Sea were two jewels having wondrous power over the tides. They\nwere about as large as apples, but shaped like apricots, with three rings\ncut near the top. They seemed to be of crystal, and glistened and shot\nout dazzling rays like fire. Indeed, they appeared to seethe and glow\nlike the eye of a dragon, or the white-hot steel of the sword-forger.\nOne was called the Jewel of the Flood-Tide, and the other the Jewel of\nthe Ebb-Tide. Whoever owned them had the power to make the tides\ninstantly rise or fall at his word, to make the dry land appear, or the\nsea overwhelm it, in the fillip of a finger.\n\nIsora dived with a dreadful splash, down, down to Riu Gu, and straightway\npresented himself before Kai Riu O. In the name of the empress, he begged\nfor the two tide-jewels.\n\nThe Dragon King agreed, and producing the flaming globes from his casket,\nplaced them on a huge shell and handed them to Isora, who brought the\njewels to Jingu, who placed them in her girdle.\n\nThe empress now prepared her fleet for Corean invasion. Three thousand\nbarges were built and launched, and two old kami with long streaming\ngray hair and wrinkled faces, were made admirals. Their names were Suwa\nDaimi[=o] Jin (Great Illustrious, Spirit of Suwa) and Sumiyoshi Daimi[=o]\nJin, the kami who lives under the old pine tree at Takasago, and presides\nover nuptial ceremonies.\n\nThe fleet sailed in the tenth month. The hills of Hizen soon began to\nsink below the horizon, but no sooner were they out of sight of land than\na great storm arose. The ships tossed about, and began to butt each other\nlike bulls, and it seemed as though the fleet would be driven back; when\nlo! Kai Riu O sent shoals of huge sea-monsters and immense fishes that\nbore up the ships and pushed their sterns forward with their great\nsnouts. The shachihoko, or dragon-fishes, taking the ship's cables in\ntheir mouths towed them forward, until the storm ceased and the ocean\nwas calm. Then they plunged downwards into the sea and disappeared.\n\nThe mountains of Corea now rose in sight. Along the shore were gathered\nthe Corean army. Their triangular fringed banners, inscribed with\ndragons, flapped in the breeze. As soon as their sentinels caught sight\nof the Japanese fleet, the signal was given, and the Corean line of war\ngalleys moved gaily out to attack the Japanese.\n\nThe empress posted her archers in the bows of her ships and waited for\nthe enemy to approach. When they were within a few hundred sword-lengths,\nshe took from her girdle the Jewel of the Ebbing Tide and cast the\nflashing gem into the sea. It blazed in the air for a moment, but no\nsooner did it touch the water, than instantly the ocean receded from\nunder the Corean vessels, and left them stranded on dry land. The\nCoreans, thinking it was a tidal wave, and that the Japanese ships were\nlikewise helpless in the undertow, leaped out of their galleys and rushed\nover the sand, and on to the attack. With shouting and drawn swords their\naspect was terrible. When within range of the arrows, the Japanese bowmen\nopened volleys of double-headed, or triple-pronged arrows on the Coreans,\nand killed hundreds.\n\nBut on they rushed, until near the Japanese ships, when the empress\ntaking out the Flood-Tide Jewel, cast it in the sea. In a snap of the\nfinger, the ocean rolled up into a wave many tens of feet high and\nengulfed the Corean army, drowning them almost to a man. Only a few were\nleft out of the ten thousand. The warriors in their iron armor sank dead\nin the boiling waves, or were cast along the shore like logs. The\nJapanese army landed safely, and easily conquered the country. The king\nof Corea surrendered and gave his bales of silk, jewels, mirrors, books,\npictures, robes, tiger skins, and treasures of gold and silver to the\nempress. The booty was loaded on eighty ships, and the Japanese army\nreturned in triumph to their native country.\n\n\n\n\nKAI RIU O, THE DRAGON KING OF THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA.\n\n\nSoon after her arrival at home, the empress Jingu gave birth to a son,\nwhom she named Ojin. He was one of the fairest children ever born of an\nimperial mother, and was very wise and wonderful even when an infant. He\nwas a great favorite of Takenouchi, the prime minister of the empress. As\nhe grew up, he was full of the _Yamato Damashii_, or the spirit of\nunconquerable Japan.\n\nThis Takenouchi was a very venerable old man, who was said to be three\nhundred and sixty years old. He had been the counsellor of five mikados.\nHe was very tall, and as straight as an arrow, when other old men were\nbent like a bow. He served as a general in war and a civil officer in\npeace. For this reason he always kept on a suit of armor under his long\nsatin and damask court robes. He wore the bear-skin shoes and the\ntiger-skin scabbard which were the general's badge of rank, and also the\nhigh cap and long fringed strap hanging from the belt, which marked the\ncourt noble. He had moustaches, and a long beard fell over his breast\nlike a foaming waterfall, as white as the snows on the branches of the\npine trees of Ibuki mountain.\n\nNow the empress, as well as Takenouchi, wished the imperial infant Ojin\nto live long, be wise and powerful, become a mighty warrior, be\ninvulnerable in battle, and to have control over the tides and the ocean\nas his mother once had. To do this it was necessary to get back the Tide\nJewels.\n\nSo Takenouchi took the infant Ojin on his shoulders, mounted the imperial\nwar-barge, whose sails were of gold-embroidered silk, and bade his rowers\nput out to sea. Then standing upright on the deck, he called on Kai Riu O\nto come up out of the deep and give back the Tide Jewels to Ojin.\n\nAt first there was no sign on the waves that Kai Riu O heard. The green\nsea lay glassy in the sunlight, and the waves laughed and curled above\nthe sides of the boat. Still Takenouchi listened intently and waited\nreverently. He was not long in suspense. Looking down far under the\nsparkling waves, he saw the head and fiery eyes of a dragon mounting\nupward. Instinctively he clutched his robe with his right hand, and held\nOjin tightly on his shoulder, for this time not Isora, but the terrible\nKai Riu O himself was coming.\n\nWhat a great honor! The sea-king's servant, Isora, had appeared to a\nwoman, the empress Jingu, but to her son, the Dragon King of the World\nUnder the Sea deigned to come in person.\n\nThe waters opened; the waves rolled up, curled, rolled into wreaths and\nhooks and drops of foam, which flecked the dark green curves with silvery\nbells. First appeared a living dragon with fire-darting eyes, long\nflickering moustaches, glittering scales of green all ruffled, with\nterrible spines erect, and the joints of the fore-paws curling out jets\nof red fire. This living creature was the helmet of the Sea King. Next\nappeared the face of awful majesty and stern mien, as if with reluctant\ncondescension, and then the jewel robes of the monarch. Next rose into\nview a huge haliotis shell, in which, on a bed of rare gems from the deep\nsea floor, glistened, blazed and flashed the two Jewels of the Tides.\n\nThen the Dragon-King spoke, saying:\n\n\"Quick, take this casket, I deign not to remain long in this upper world\nof mortals. With these I endow the imperial prince of the Heavenly line\nof the mikados of the Divine country. He shall be invulnerable in battle.\nHe shall have long life. To him I give power over sea and land. Of this,\nlet these Tide-Jewels be the token.\"\n\nHardly were these words uttered when the Dragon-King disappeared with a\ntremendous splash. Takenouchi standing erect but breathless amid the\ncrowd of rowers who, crouching at the boat's bottom had not dared so much\nas to lift up their noses, waited a moment, and then gave the command to\nturn the prow to the shore.\n\nOjin grew up and became a great warrior, invincible in battle and\npowerful in peace. He lived to be one hundred and eleven years old, and\nwas next to the last of the long lived mikados of Everlasting Great\nJapan.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTo this day Japanese soldiers honor him as the patron of war, and pray to\nhim as the ruler of battle.\n\nWhen the Buddhist priests came to Japan they changed his name to Hachiman\nDai Bosatsu, or the \"Great Buddha of the Eight Banners.\" On many a hill\nand in many a village of Japan may still be seen a shrine to his honor.\nOften when a soldier comes back from war, he will hang up a tablet or\npicture-frame, on which is carved a painting or picture of the two-edged\nshort sword like that which Ojin carried. Many of the old soldiers who\nfought in armor wore a little silver sword of Ojin set as a frontlet to\ntheir helmets, for a crest of honor. On gilded or lacquered Japanese\ncabinets and shrines, and printed on their curious old, and new greenback\npaper money, are seen the blazing Jewels of the Tides. On their gold and\nsilver coins the coiled dragon clutches in his claws the Jewels of the\nEbbing and the Flowing Tide. One of the iron-clad war ships of the\nimperial Japanese navy, on which floats proudly the red sun-banner of the\nEmpire of the Rising Sun, is named K[=o]g[=o] (Empress) after the Amazon\nempress who in the third century carried the arms of the Island Empire\ninto the main land of Asia, and won victory by her mastery over the\nebbing and the flowing tides.\n\n[Illustration: THE DRAGON KING'S GIFT OF THE TIDE JEWELS.]\n\n\n\n\nTHE CREATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.\n\n\nOf old the Heavens and the Earth were not separated. Land and water,\nsolids and gases, fire and stone, light and darkness were mixed together.\nAll was liquid and turbid chaos.\n\nThen the mighty mass began to move from within. The lighter particles of\ngas and air began to rise, forming the sky and heavens. The heavy parts\nsank and cohered, becoming the earth. The water formed the four seas.\nThen there appeared something like a white cloud floating between heaven\nand earth. Out of this came forth three beings--The Being of the Middle\nof Heaven, The High August Being, and The Majestic Being. These three\n\"hid their bodies.\"\n\nOut of the warm mould of the earth something like a rush sprouted up. It\nwas clear and bright like crystal. From this rush-sprout came forth a\nbeing whose title is \"The Delightful and Honorable Rush-Sprout.\" Next\nappeared another being out of the buds of the rush-sprout whose name is\n\"The Honorable Heaven-born.\" These five beings are called \"the heavenly\ngods.\"\n\nNext came into existence four pairs of beings viz.: (1) The Being Sprung\nfrom the First Mud, and The Being of the Sand and Mud; (2) The Being with\nHands and Feet Growing, and the Being Having Breath; (3) The Male Being,\nand the Female Being of the Great Place (the earth); (4) The Being of\nComplete Perfection, and the Being who cried out \"Strange and Awful\" to\nher mate.\n\nThus the last pair that came into existence were the first man and woman\ncalled Izanagi and Izanami.\n\nIt is said that the other pairs of beings before Izanagi and Izanami were\nonly their imperfect forms or the processes through which they passed\nbefore arriving at perfection.\n\nThese two beings lived in the Heavens. The world was not yet well formed,\nand the soil floated about like a fish in the water, but near the\nsurface; and was called \"The Floating Region.\" The sun, earth and moon\nwere still attached to each other like a head to the neck, or arms to the\nbody. They were little by little separating, the parts joining them\ngrowing thinner and thinner. This part, like an isthmus, was called\n\"Heaven's Floating Bridge.\" It was on this bridge that Izanagi and\nIzanami were standing when they saw a pair of wagtails cooing and billing\nsweetly together. The heavenly couple were so delighted with the sight\nthat they began to imitate the birds. Thus began the art of love, which\nmortals have practiced to this day.\n\nWhile talking together on this Bridge of Heaven, they began to wonder if\nthere was a world beneath them. They looked far down upon the green seas,\nbut could see nothing! Then Izanagi took his long jeweled spear and\nplunged it into the turbid mass, turning it round and round. As he lifted\nit up, the drops which trickled from it hardened into earth of their own\naccord; and thus dry land was formed. As Izanagi was cleansing his spear\nthe lumps of muck and mud which had adhered to it flew off into space,\nand were changed into stars and comets.\n\n[It is said that by turning his spear round and round, Izanagi set the\nEarth revolving in daily revolutions].\n\nTo the land thus formed, they gave the name of \"The Island of the\nCongealed Drop,\" because they intended to create a large archipelago and\nwished to distinguish this as the first island. They descended from\nHeaven on the floating bridge and landed on the island. Izanagi struck\nhis tall spear in the ground making it the axis of the world. He then\nproceeded to build a palace around the spear which formed the central\npillar. [This spot was formerly at the North pole, but is now at Eshima,\noff the central eastern coast of Japan]. They then resolved to walk round\nthe island and examine it. This done, they met together. Izanami cried\nout, \"What a lovely man!\" But Izanagi rebuked her for speaking first, and\nsaid they must try it again. Then they walked round the island once more.\nWhen they met, Izanami held her tongue while Izanagi said, \"What a lovely\nwoman!\"\n\nBeing now both in good humor, they began the work of creating Japan. The\nfirst island brought up out of the water was Awaji; and then the main\nisland. After that, eight large islands were created, whence comes one of\nthe names of Japan, \"The Empire of the Eight Great Islands.\" Six smaller\nislands were also produced. The several thousand islets which make up the\narchipelago of Everlasting Great Japan were formed by the spontaneous\nconsolidation of the foam of the sea.\n\nAfter the country was thus formed the divine pair created eight millions\nof earthly gods or kami, and the ten thousand different things on the\nearth. Vegetation sprang up over all the land, which was however still\ncovered with mist. So Izanagi created with his breath the two gods, male\nand female of the wind. All these islands are the children of Izanagi and\nIzanami, and when first born were small and feeble, but gradually grew\nlarger and larger, attaining their present size like human beings, which\nare at first tiny infants.\n\nAs the gradual separation of the land and sea went on, foreign countries\nwere formed by the congealing of the foam of the sea. The god of fire was\nthen born of Izanami, his mother. This god often got very angry at any\none who used unclean fire. Izanami then created by herself the gods of\nmetals, of clay and of fresh water. This latter was told always to keep\nthe god of fire quiet, and put him out when he began to do mischief.\n\nIzanagi and Izanami, though married but a short time, began to quarrel,\nfor Izanami had once told her husband not to look at her when she hid\nherself. But Izanagi did not do what she requested, but intruded on her\nprivacy when she was unwell, and stared at her when she wished to be\nalone. Izanami then got very angry, and went down to the lower world of\ndarkness, and disappeared.\n\nIn the dark world under the earth Izanami stayed a long time, and after\nlong waiting, Izanagi went after her. In the darkness of the Under-world\nhe was horrified at what he saw, and leaving his consort below, tried to\nescape to the earth again.\n\nIn his struggles several gods were created, one of them coming out of his\nstaff. When he got up to daylight, he secured a large rock to close up\nthe hole in the earth. Turning this rock into a god, he commanded him to\nwatch the place. He then rushed into the sea and continued washing for a\nlong time to purify himself. In blowing out from his lungs the polluted\nair inhaled in the Under-world, the two evil gods sprang forth from his\nbreath. As these would commit great harm and wickedness, Izanagi created\ntwo other gods to correct their evil. But when he had washed his eyes and\ncould see clearly again, there sprang out two precious and lovely beings;\none from his left eye, being a rare and glistening maiden, whom he\nafterwards named Ama Terasu, or \"The Heaven Illuminating Spirit.\" From\nhis right eye appeared Susa no O, the \"Ruler of the Moon.\" Being now pure\nagain, and having these lovely children, Izanagi rejoiced and said, \"I\nhave begotten child upon child, and at the end of my begetting, I have\nbegotten me two jewel-children.\" Now the brightness of the person of the\nmaiden Ama Terasu was beautiful, and shone through Heaven and Earth.\nIzanagi, well pleased, said: \"Though my children are many, none of them\nis like this wonder-child. She must not be kept in this region.\" So\ntaking off the necklace of precious stones from his neck and rattling it,\nhe gave it to her, saying, \"Rule thou over the High Plain of Heaven.\"\n\nAt that time the distance between Heaven and Earth was not very great,\nand he sent her up to the blue sky by the Heaven-uniting Pillar, on which\nthe Heavens rested like a prop. She easily mounted it, and lived in the\nsun, illuminating the whole Heavens and the Earth. The Sun now gradually\nseparated from the Earth, and both moved farther and farther apart until\nthey rested where they now are.\n\nIzanagi next spoke to Susa no O the Ruler of the Moon, and said, \"Rule\nthou over the new-born Earth and the blue Waste of the Sea, with its\nMultitudinous Salt Waters.\"\n\n[So then the Heavens and the Earth and Moon were created and inhabited.\nAnd as Japan lay directly opposite the sun when it separated from the\nEarth, it is plain that Japan lies on the summit of the globe. It is\neasily seen that all other countries were formed by the spontaneous\nconsolidation of the ocean foam, and the collection of mud in the various\nseas. The stars were made to guide warriors from foreign countries to the\ncourt of the Mikado, who is the true Son of Heaven].\n\n\n\n\nHOW THE SUN GODDESS WAS ENTICED OUT OF HER CAVE.\n\n\nWhen the far-shining goddess, on account of the evil pranks of her\nbrother, Susa no O, the Ruler of the Moon, hid herself in a cave, there\nwas no more light, and heaven and earth were plunged into darkness.\n\nA council of all the gods was held in the dry bed of one of the rivers\n[which we call the Milky Way] in the fields of Heaven. The question of\nhow to appease the anger of the goddess was discussed. A long-headed and\nvery wise god was ordered to think out a plan to entice her forth from\nthe cave.\n\nAfter due deliberation, it was resolved that a looking-glass should be\nmade to tempt her to gaze at herself, and that tricks should be played to\narouse her curiosity to come out and see what was going on.\n\nSo setting to work with a will, the gods forged and polished a mirror,\nwove cloth for beautiful garments, built a pavilion, carved a necklace of\njewels, made wands, and tried an augury.\n\nAll being ready, the fat and rosy-cheeked goddess of mirth with face full\nof dimples, and eyes full of fun, named Uzume, was selected to lead the\ndance. She had a flute made from a bamboo cane by piercing holes between\nthe joints, while every god in the great orchestra had a pair of flat\nhard wood clappers, which he struck together.\n\nShe bound up her long flowing sleeves with a creeper vine, and made for\nherself a baton of twigs of bamboo grass, by which she could direct the\nmotions of the musicians. This she held in one hand while in the other\nwas a spear wound round with grass, on which small bells tinkled. Great\nbonfires were lighted in front of the cave, so that the audience of gods\ncould see the dance. A large circular box which resounded like a drum\nwhen trod on, was set up for Uzume to dance upon. The row of cocks now\nbegan to crow in concert.\n\nAll being ready, the Strong-handed god who was to pull the sun-goddess\nout of the cave, as soon as overcome by her curiosity she should peep\nforth, hid himself beside the stone door of the cave. Uzume mounted the\nbox and began to dance. As the drum-box resounded, the spirit of folly\nseized her, and she began to chant a song.\n\nBecoming still more foolish, Uzume waved her wand wildly, loosened her\ndress, and danced till she had not a stitch of clothing left on her. The\ngods were so amused at her foolishness that they all laughed, until the\nheavens shook as with claps of thunder.\n\nThe Sun-goddess within the cave heard all these strange noises; the\ncrowing of the cocks, the hammering on the anvil, the chopping of wood,\nthe music of the koto, the clappering of the hard wood, the tinkling of\nthe bells, the shouting of Uzume and the boisterous laughter of the gods.\nWondering what it all meant, she peeped out.\n\nAs she did so the Doubly Beautiful goddess held up the mirror.\n\nThe Far-Shining one seeing her own face in it was greatly astonished.\nCuriosity got the better of fear. She looked far out. Instantly the\nstrong-handed god pulled the rocky door open, and seizing her hand,\ndragged her forth. Then all the heavens and earth were lightened, the\ntrees and grass became green again, and the goddess of colors resumed her\nwork of tinting the flowers. The gloom fled from all eyes, and human\nbeings again became \"white-faced.\"\n\nThus the calamity which had befallen heaven and earth, by the sun-goddess\nhiding in the cave became a means of much benefit to mortals. For by\ntheir necessity the gods were compelled to invent the arts of\nmetal-working, weaving, carpentry, jeweling and many other useful\nappliances for the human race. They also on this occasion first made use\nof music, dancing, the Dai Kagura (The comedy which makes the gods laugh)\nand many of the games which the children play at the present time.\n\n\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nJAPANESE FAIRY WORLD - TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES\n\nPlace names and proper names have various spelling throughout the\nbook. These have been left as written in the original book. Apart from\nthose items listed below, all parochial, unusual and non-standard\nspelling, grammar and punctuation has been left as printed in the\noriginal book.\n\nThe use of the macron above the letter \"O\" in names throughout the\nbook is inconsistent. The same name may appear either with or without\na macron or the macron may appear above different letters when the\nsame name is printed in different places through the book. This has\nbeen left as printed in the original book.\n\nIn the plain text version, macrons are indicated by [=o] in place of\nthe letter \"O\" with the macron above it. Macrons do not appear above\nany letter other than \"O\".\n\n\n\n\nInconsistencies between the table of contents and the Chapter headings\nhave been made consistent with the text. That is, the table of\ncontents has been changed to reflect the heading of the Chapter.\n\n\n   XV\n\n   KINTARO, THE WILD BABY. (in table of contents) has been\n   changed to KINTARO, OR THE WILD BABY. (as it appears in\n   chapter heading).\n\n\n   XXXI\n\n   The Tide Jewels (in table of contents) has been changed\n   to THE JEWELS OF THE EBBING AND THE FLOWING TIDE. (as it\n   appears in chapter heading).\n\n\n   between XXV and XXVI\n\n   THE WATERFALL OF YORO, OR THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. - has\n   been added to table of contents. This chapter appears in\n   the book, but was not listed in the table of contents.\n\n\n\n\nThe following typographical, spelling and grammatical errors have been\nidentified and corrected as detailed below.\n\n\n   Preface - changed \"tattoed\" to \"tattooed\"\n   in\n   Some of these stories I first read on the [tattoed] limbs\n   and bodies of the native foot-runners,\n\n\n   page 7 - changed \"staid\" to \"stayed\"\n   in\n   The lover-husband [staid] on his side of the river, and\n   the wife came to him on the magpie bridge, save on the\n   sad occasion when it rained.\n\n\n   page 18 - changed \"phoilosophy\" to \"philosophy\"\n   in\n   Then he said to himself: \"Old Totsu San (my father) is a\n   fool, with all his [phoilosophy].\"\n\n\n   page 29 - changed \"dragoon\" to \"dragon\"\n   in\n   Their tomb was carved in the form of a white [dragoon],\n   which to this day, in spite of mosses and lichens, may\n   still be seen among the ancient monuments of the little\n   hamlet.\n\n\n   page 31 - changed \"sarely\" to \"sorely\"\n   in\n   The sorrowful old man grieved [sarely] for his pet, and\n   after looking in every place and calling it by name, gave\n   it up as lost.\n\n\n   page 59 - changed \"shinning\" to \"shining\"\n   in\n   with Fuji yama and cranes flying in the air, and a\n   crimson sun [shinning] through the bamboo,\n\n\n   page 61 - changed \"masters'\" to \"master's\"\n   in\n   It danced a jig on the tight rope, and walked the slack\n   rope, holding a fan, or an umbrella in his paw, stood on\n   his head, and finally at a flourish of his [masters'] fan\n   became a cold and rusty tea-kettle again.\n\n\n   page 100 - changed \"way\" to \"away\"\n   in\n   For a moment the dense volume of sound filled the ears of\n   all like a storm, but as the vibrations died [way], the\n   bell whined out\n\n\n   page 136 - changed \"faught\" to \"fought\"\n   in\n   On one occasion, after a hard [faught] battle, Jiraiya\n   fled and took refuge in a monastery, with a few trusty\n   vassals, to rest a short time\n\n\n   page 160 - changed \"crysanthemums\" to \"chrysanthemums\"\n   in\n   or blossom out like [crysanthemums]\n\n\n   page 162 - changed \"accompainment\" to \"accompaniment\"\n   in\n   It sounds as if a band with many instruments was playing\n   to the [accompainment] of a large choir of voices.\"\n\n\n   page 170 - changed \"maccaroni\" to \"macaroni\"\n   in\n   The solids were thunder-cakes, egg-cracknels, boiled\n   rice, daikon radishes and [maccaroni]\n\n\n   page 174 - changed \"midado's\" to \"mikado's\"\n   in\n   the beast with swaying head crept along the great roof to\n   the place on the eaves directly under the [midado's]\n   sleeping-room.\n\n\n   page 175 - changed \"markmanship\" to \"marksmanship\"\n   in\n   All congratulated Yorimasa on his valor and\n   [markmanship].\n\n\n   page 206 - changed \"ells\" to \"eels\"\n   in\n   Eating his boiled rice, and snuffing in the odors of the\n   broiled [ells], as they were wafted in, he enjoyed with\n   his nose, what he would not pay for to put in his mouth.\n\n\n   page 207 - changed \"ells\" to \"eels\"\n   in\n   \"Why yes, I have paid you. You have charged me for the\n   smell of your [ells], and I have paid you with the sound\n   of my money.\"\n\n\n   page 212 - changed \"suprise\" to \"surprise\"\n   in\n   Greater still was the [suprise] of the Suruga people.\n\n\n   page 224 - changed \"neans\" to \"means\"\n   in\n   Now Kaname [neans] the rivet in a fan, that holds all the\n   sticks together, and they gave the name \"rivet-rock,\"\n   because it is the rivet that binds the earth together.\n\n\n   page 227 - changed \"dilligent\" to \"diligent\"\n   in\n   Only a few years ago there was a gentleman in Fukui,\n   Japan, who had a son, a bright lad of twelve, who was\n   very [dilligent] at school and had made astonishing\n   progress in his studies.\n\n\n   page 238 - changed \"vessals\" to \"vassals\"\n   in\n   These were all retainers or friendly [vessals] of Lord\n   Long-legs.\n\n\n   page 247 - changed \"crysanthemum\" to \"chrysanthemum\"\n   in\n   Other bearers followed, keeping step and carrying the\n   regalia, consisting of [crysanthemum] stalks and\n   blossoms.\n\n\n   page 264 - changed \"attendent\" to \"attendant\"\n   in\n   She was one of the fifteen glistening virgins that wait\n   [attendent] upon the moon in her chambers in the sky.\n\n\n   page 272 - changed \"villiagers\" to \"villagers\"\n   in\n   So he prevailed upon the simple [villiagers] to build a\n   railing of stone around the now sacred pine.\n\n\n   page 275 - changed \"darling\" to \"daring\"\n   in\n   She, now having the power, resolved to carry out her\n   [darling] plan of invading Corea.\n\n\n   page 280 - changed \"engulphed\" to \"engulfed\"\n   to\n   In a snap of the finger, the ocean rolled up into a wave\n   many tens of feet high and [engulphed] the Corean army,\n   drowning them almost to a man\n\n\n   page 302 - changed \"too\" to \"to\"\n   in\n   All being ready, the Strong-handed god who was [too] pull\n   the sun-goddess out of the cave, as soon as overcome by\n   her curiosity she should peep forth, hid himself beside\n   the stone door of the cave.\n\n\n   page 304 - changed \"carpentery\" to \"carpentry\"\n   in\n   For by their necessity the gods were compelled to invent\n   the arts of metal-working, weaving, [carpentery],\n   jeweling and many other useful appliances for the human\n   race.","title":"Japanese Fairy World: Stories from the Wonder-Lore of Japan","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":43432}