{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_63681/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_63681","id":"gutenberg_63681","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63681","summary":null,"tags":["Americans -- Japan -- Fiction","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Novels","Japan -- Fiction","Love stories"],"text":"Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n      file which includes the original illustrations.\n      See 63681-h.htm or 63681-h.zip:\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/63681/pg63681-images.html)\n      or\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/63681/63681-h.zip)\n\n\n      Images of the original pages are available through\n      Internet Archive. See\n      https://archive.org/details/tama00wata\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s note:\n\n      Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores\n      (_italics_).\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration:\n\n  See page 80\n  THE FOX-WOMAN AMONG THE LOTUS]\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nTAMA\n\nby\n\nONOTO WATANNA\n\nIllustrated by Genjiro Kataoka\n\n\nPublish\u2019s Logo\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNew York and London\nHarper & Brothers\nPublishers  \u2725  MCMX\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n                             BOOKS BY\n\n                          ONOTO WATANNA\n\n     TAMA                  Illustrated. Crown 8vo, net $1.60\n     A JAPANESE NIGHTINGALE             Ill\u2019d. 8vo, net 2.00\n  THE WOOING OF WISTARIA                   Ill\u2019d. Post 8vo. 1.50\n     THE HEART OF HYACINTH      Ill\u2019d in Tint. 8vo, net 2.00\n     A JAPANESE BLOSSOM           Illustrated. 8vo, net 2.00\n\n               HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, N. Y.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nCopyright, 1910, by HARPER & BROTHERS\n\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\nPublished October, 1910.\nPrinted in the United States of America\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                             ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n               THE FOX-WOMAN AMONG THE LOTUS  Frontispiece\n\n               WELCOME TO TOJIN-SAN                   16\n\n               \u201cTOUCH HER NOT, BELOVED               106\n                 SENSEI! SHE IS ACCURSED,\n                 UNCLEAN!\u201d\n\n               TAMA AT THE TEMPLE TOKIWA             188\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  TAMA\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n                                  TAMA\n\n\n\n\n                                   I\n\n\nFUKUI was in an unwonted state of excitement. For days the people had\ntalked of but one event. Even the small boys, perilously astraddle the\nbamboo poles, the scullery wenches of the kitchen, the very mendicants\nof the street, the highest and lowest of the citizens of Fukui talked of\nthe coming of the O-Tojin-san (Honorable Mr. Foreigner).\n\nFor at last the exalted Daimio of the province had acceded to the\npleadings and eager demands of the students of the university, and, at\ngreat expense and trouble, a foreign professor had been imported.\n\nSigns of preparation were everywhere visible. Vigorous housecleaning was\nin evidence. The professional story-tellers, who took the place of\nnewspapers in these days, reaped small fortunes in their halls. Some of\nthem opened booths on the streets and regaled their auditors with\nstrange accounts of America and its people.\n\nAlready the Tojin-san\u2019s house and household had been chosen for him,\nfrom the Daimio\u2019s high officer and the four samourai body-guard, who\nwere to protect him from any possible Jo-i (foreign hater), down to his\nbody-servant.\n\nAn enormous old historical Shiro (mansion), two hundred and seven years\nold, was assigned as his residence, and was now undergoing certain\nremarkable changes. For heavy woollen carpets, with flowers and figured\ndesigns, were being nailed down over the ancient matting in the chief\nrooms. Strange articles of furniture, massive and heavy as iron, were\npushed into the great chambers, under the supervising hand of a dapper,\nrosy-cheeked young samourai who was to serve as interpreter to the\nTojin. His name was Genji Negato, and he had already lived among\nforeigners in the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama. He spoke the English\nlanguage very well indeed, and his knowledge of the white man and his\nways was extraordinary.\n\nNow, as he ordered this or that article set in place, his full red lips\ncurled smilingly under his little bristly mustache. He called the\nservants in one by one, lecturing each in turn in regard to his especial\nduties. Incidentally he regaled them with tales of the habits and\ndesires of the white man.\n\nFood sufficient for six ordinary mortals must be prepared for his\nindividual consumption. Raw meat and game, slightly scorched before\nfire, were essential. A never-failing spring of what the original\nAmerican had aptly called \u201cfire-water\u201d must be constantly flowing at and\nbetween meals and day and night. Such was the thirst of the white man.\nBrooms must be in readiness to follow the trail of the dust and\nmud-laden boots of the professor, since he would not remove them even in\nthe house. Finally, his supreme favor could be won by having at hand\nalways the sweetest and prettiest maidens to entertain and caress him.\nAnd so on through a strange list.\n\nIf the students of the college where the Tojin-san was to teach were\nelated at the prospect of his coming, their joy was hardly shared by his\nhousehold. It was in a flutter of excited fear. Even the stolid,\nimpassive-faced samourai guard discussed in undertones among themselves\nthe degrading service to which they were reduced in these degenerate\ndays. To guard the body of a mere Tojin! Well, such was the will of the\nDaimio of Echizen, and a samourai is the right hand of his Prince. His\nthe task to obey even the caprice of his lord, or take his own life in\npreference to service too far beneath his honor.\n\nIn the humbler regions of the Shiro, however, the servants discussed the\nmatter less pessimistically. Some rumor of the generosity and wealth of\nforeigners had floated across the vague tide of gossip. Anyhow, the\npreparations for his coming went blithely on here, and already odors of\nvigorous advance cooking were being wafted from the kitchen regions,\nwarming and savoring the great chambers, and awakening into noisy life\nthe vast army of rats and bats which had long made their homes in the\neaves and rafters of the old deserted mansion, now for the first time in\nyears to be occupied by a tenant.\n\nEverything was quite in readiness when the cook\u2019s wife\u2019s baby\u2019s nurse\n(for his entire family were, of course, also domiciled in the Shiro)\nmissed a portion of her rice. She had turned about to give better\nattention to master baby-san, when, so she averred, a \u201cwhite hand\u201d\nreached out of nowhere and seized the remnants of her supper. She ran\nsquealing with her tale to her mistress, who, in turn, rushed with it to\nher lord, the cook. He put aside his apron and sought Genji Negato, who\nsolemnly called a council of war. To the four samourai guard the entire\nhousehold looked for a solution and ending of the impending trouble.\n\nMeasures should be taken at once, it was unanimously decided. It would\nbe to their Prince\u2019s everlasting disgrace should the exalted foreign\ndevil also become a victim of the dreaded Fox-Woman of Atago Yama, for,\nundoubtedly, this mischievous and irrepressible sprite of the mountains\nwas at her tricks again. In the names, therefore, of the august\nTojin-san, nay, in the very name of the Imperial Daimio of Echizen, it\nwas the duty of the honorable samourai to spare in no wise the witch\nshould she be caught trespassing upon the estate of the Prince\u2019s guest\nand prot\u00e9g\u00e9.\n\nThey fell to telling weird tales of the latest doings of the fox-woman.\nA Tsuruga child had followed the witch-girl into the mountains,\nbelieving her glittering hair to be the rays of the sun, and stretching\nout his tiny hands to touch and hold it. To propitiate the dread\ncreature, the parents had set out daily food at the foot of the\nmountains, and thus, for a time at least, the hunger of the fox-woman\nhad been satisfied, but the child had never been the same again,\nfretting and crying constantly for the \u201cSun Lady.\u201d As its peevishness\ncontinued, the parents revenged themselves upon its abductor, and ceased\nto set out the nightly repast, bravely facing down their fear of the\nwitch\u2019s certain anger and retaliation.\n\nSince then she had been forced to seek her sustenance elsewhere. A\nbasket of fish disappeared overnight from a vendor\u2019s locked stand. A bag\nof rice was found on the mountain-side of the river, as if the thief,\nfinding it too heavy, had dropped it in her flight.\n\nAnd now\u2014could it be possible that the most distinguished (though\naugustly degraded) guest Fukui had known in years was to suffer by the\ndepredations of the fox-woman?\n\nSamourai Iroka voted in favor of killing the witch outright. But not by\nthe means of his own personal sword, for he was unmarried and had no\ndescendants to pray for his soul should it be forced to pass along on a\njourney.\n\nSamourai Asado feared for the safety of his wife and family in the event\nof his honorable sword being stained by the blood of the witch-girl.\nOnce a similar goblin had torn the head and arms from the body of a\nsleeping babe, in revenge for the mere pin-prick of a samourai sword.\n\nSamourai Hirata suggested referring the matter to the Daimio himself;\nbut was urged against this by the others, for was not the fox-woman the\none black blot upon the escutcheon of their exalted Prince, seeing she\nwas indeed, and alas! of his own blood?\n\nFinally, Samourai Numura, an ancient, grizzled warrior of the most\nstolid common sense, gruffly insisted that the matter was the affair of\nthe Tojin himself, and from him alone should they receive commands upon\nthe matter. It was agreed, therefore, that they should wait for the\ncoming of the Tojin-san. Out of his vaunted western wisdom certainly\nshould he be able to suggest the solution of the problem.\n\nAnd, in the Season of Greatest Cold, while the snow whirled in feathery\nflakes over all the Province of Echizen, and the winds blew in laughing,\nwhispering murmurs through the glistening camphor and pine trees, across\nthe sacred bosom of Lake Biwa, and over the snow-crowned mountains\nbetween, the Tojin-san came to Fukui, the \u201cWell of Blessing.\u201d\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                   II\n\n\nTHE room was so large that even with the seven lighted andon and the\nthree ancient takahiras glimmering dully where they hung from the\nraftered ceiling overhead, it was chiefly in shadow. Set at intervals\nagainst the sliding walls were a few large pieces of heavy black-walnut\nfurniture, grotesque objects in the otherwise completely empty chamber.\nThe room itself was cold, but a kotatsu in the centre of the room had\nbeen filled with live coals, and over this the Tojin-san crouched. He\nsat upon the floor, close to the fire-frame, his knees drawn up, his\nhands encircling them.\n\nAfter a long and tortuous journey over land and water, by boat, by\nhorse, by kurumma, and often on foot\u2014a never-ending, long-winding, cold\njourney, the Tojin-san was at last at home! This was Fukui, where he had\ncontracted to live for seven years of his life; this vast, empty, bleak\nmansion was his house.\n\nHe had started upon the journey with an alert and quickened pulse, and\nan ardent ambition to serve, to raise up, to love this strange people to\nwhom he had pledged himself. A short sojourn was made in Tokio and\nKioto\u2014days of sheer delight in a charm so new it intoxicated. Then,\nleaving the open ports, under the escort sent by the Prince of Echizen,\nhe had taken finally that plunge into the great unknown country itself,\nwhere only half a dozen foreigners had been before him.\n\nThe journey had been one of many weeks. Crossing waters in a fragile\ncraft, which tossed and heaved with every tide, he had come to know the\ntrue meaning of the Japanese saying that \u201ca sea voyage is an inch of\nhell.\u201d\n\nFor days his party had been snow-bound on a desolate mountain, far from\neven the smallest village or town, and, when finally they had issued\nforth, it was only to encounter new perils, in savage-souled ronins who\nhung about the vicinity of the Tojin-san\u2019s party, their narrow, wicked\neyes intent upon his destruction. How many white men before him had\nstarted upon a similar journey, in other provinces of Japan, and met the\nthen common fate\u2014a stab in the back, or in the dark! And the\npunishments, the indemnities, the humiliations forced upon the\ngovernment by the foreigners, but added to the hatred and malice of the\nJo-i (foreign haters).\n\nBut the Prince of Echizen was of the most enlightened school. No foreign\nteacher or guest within his province should suffer the smallest hurt!\nHis edicts in the matter were so emphatic that they reached even the\nhumblest of the citizens, and the Tojin-san, did he but know it, was\npractically immune from attack. Indeed, his pilgrimage was in the nature\nof one of triumph. Whatever their inner feelings toward the intruder,\nthe people met him with smiles and expressions of welcome. Every little\ntown and hamlet sent to him on its outskirts deputations of high\nofficials. There had been feasts here and banquets there, and always and\neverywhere about him he saw the same brown face, the same glittering\neye, the same elusive smile.\n\nNow the last Daimio\u2019s officer was gone, the last officious minister of\nhis Prince had chanted his singsong poem of welcome, and the Tojin-san\nwas alone!\n\nEven the individual members of his household had dispersed. They had\ncome in one by one in solemn procession, led by the samourai guard, who,\nas they prostrated themselves, sucked in their breath fiercely,\nexpelling it in long, sibilant hisses. The cook, his assistants, and\nwife and family formed a small procession of their own, one behind the\nother, executing a series of such comical bows and bobs that the stern\nlips of the Tojin-san had softened in spite of himself, particularly so,\nwhen the tiniest one, a toddling baby no more than two years old, had\nsolemnly brought its diminutive shaven pate to the floor, and had almost\ncapsized in a somersault in its efforts to emulate its elders\u2019\npoliteness.\n\n\n[Illustration:\n\n  WELCOME TO TOJIN-SAN]\n\n\nNow the weary, half-closed eyes of the Tojin-san were seeing other\nfaces, his mind travelling backward over other scenes, very far away. He\nsaw a great, green campus, overshadowed by towering elms. Bright-eyed,\nwhite-skinned boys were singing huskily as they swept across the lawns\ninto the tall stone buildings, which seemed to smile at them with\nmaternal indulgence. The Tojin-san was seated at a desk, looking across\nat that sea of boyish faces. Strange how they had repulsed him; how he\nhad even felt a bitterness that was almost hatred for them in that other\ntime and place! And now! Now he caught himself thinking of them with a\ntenderness which almost stifled.\n\nThen the jaded mind of the Tojin-san wandered out into another scene of\nthe past, and out of a longer, darker memory a woman\u2019s cold, unsmiling\nface mocked him.\n\n\u201cMarry you!\u201d she had cried, and not even her native courtesy could\nsuppress the note of horror in her voice. \u201cOh\u2014h!\u201d she had cried out,\ncovering her eyes shudderingly, \u201cif you could but\u2014see\u2014yourself!\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san had indeed seen himself that night. Glaring back at him in\na tragic grimness his own fearful face had looked at him from the\nmirror. Not that he had not known the blight upon him; but he had been\ndull, stupid, slow to realize its full horror.\n\nTime was when the Tojin-san was as other men, smooth-skinned,\nlevel-eyed, very good to look upon. But in a God and Man forsaken little\ntown crushed between the mountains and the sea, a young and ardent\ndoctor of long ago had given himself up to a sublime heroism. Shoulder\nto shoulder with a few\u2014one or two only beside himself\u2014they had fought\nthe plague of smallpox. From this fight the Tojin-san had emerged\nmarked! With the optimism and blindness of youth, however, he had gone\nback to the woman he loved, and she had struck at him!\n\nThere is a Japanese proverb which says: \u201cThe tongue three inches long\ncan kill a man six feet tall.\u201d The Tojin-san thought of this now. A\nwoman\u2019s tongue, the mere brutal smiting of her words, had wrought a\ncurious effect upon his entire life. From that time on he had avoided\nwomen as he had not a vile plague. He led the life of an ascetic,\nwrapped in his books and sciences, making few friends, avoiding others,\nwith the sensitive fear upon him that the whole world avoided and shrank\nalso from him. And while still a young man\u2014under forty\u2014they had named\nhim \u201cOld Grind\u201d at the university.\n\nThen upon him suddenly had come a new upheaval, a pent-up, passionate\nlonging to break away from the dull hopeless treadmill to which he\nseemed bound.\n\n\u201cOld Grind!\u201d So age was to be clapped upon him while the vital fires of\nyouth still throbbed in an agony in his blood. There was a new life, an\nexhilarating, more inspiring life to be led, out in that old-new world\nacross the seas! It beckoned to those of adventurous souls and those who\nwere weary of a drowsy, torpid existence, wherein hope of a new dawn had\nvanished beyond memory. The Tojin-san panted for this new life. He\nwanted to swing his arms in a wilder world, to breathe less vitiated\nair, to feel himself _alive_ again! He had made of himself, for half a\nlifetime, a mummy for the sake of a woman he had not even really loved.\nIt was fantastic!\n\nOut of this curious rebellion against Fate which had swept upon him like\na tidal wave, the Tojin-san had broken his bonds.\n\nHe was in the strange wild land he had yearned for, strange faces peered\nat him askance, and strange gods mocked him from their temples with\ntheir sphinx-like impenetrability. And he crouched, shivering, over a\nkotatsu in a great, historical yashiki, cold and empty as a very\nmausoleum, and the strong man within him recognized and fought the\nweakness come upon him\u2014the aching, longing, praying, for the mere sight\nof a white, familiar face!\n\nSo still was the night, even the glide of a gaki (spirit) across the\ncracking snow without must have been heard. A breeze just trembled\nthrough the frost-incrusted bough of a camphor-tree, and it bristled and\nbroke, the twigs snapping and bouncing down on the frozen ground\nbeneath.\n\nSomething crept out of the shadows of the woods at the foot of the\nmountains, leaped like a fawn across the wide arm of the castle moat,\nand slid over the grounds between it and the shiro Matsuhaira. An army\nof crows which lodged in the attic of a dilapidated ruin of what had\nonce been a go-down (treasure-house) suddenly began to flap their wings,\ncalling to each other querulously and making short, futile, terrified\nflights. A rat fled from the go-down interior and scuttled across to the\nkitchen in the rear of the mansion, and the Tojin-san raised a startled\nface, listening to a new sound.\n\nIt was as if one without were tapping or scratching ever so faintly upon\nthe amado (winter walls). He did not move, but fastened his gaze upon\nthe point whence he had fancied the sound proceeded. Now it came from\nanother direction and tapped lightly, timidly again, as a child might\nhave done.\n\nThe Tojin-san came to his feet with a bound. He flung wide the screens\nof his chamber, now on this side, now on that, and now those opening\nupon the grounds. Not a soul was visible. Nothing but the white, still\nsnow, glittering like silver under the moon-rays. He looked up at the\noutjutting eaves, felt along them with his hand, though a curious\ninstinct told him insistently that the touch upon his screens had been\nintelligent and human. Slowly he drew them into place again, and, as he\ndid so, a voice, low as a sigh, called to him across the bleak snow:\n\n\u201cTo-o\u2014jin-san! To-o-o-jin\u2014san! To-o-o-jin\u2014san! To-o-o\u2014!\u201d\n\nTojin-san! That was the name he had heard everywhere. The one they had\ngiven him. Some one was calling him, wanted him, needed him, perhaps!\n\nIt was a step only down to the gardens below. He took it at a leap,\ncrossed the intervening lawn and plunged into the wooded grove beyond.\nOn and on he followed the sound of the voice, still sighing across to\nhim, now pleading, now wistful, now wild and now\u2014mocking, with the tone\nof a teasing sprite which laughed through a veil of tears.\n\nSuddenly he stopped, white-lipped. He had been within a step of the but\nhalf-frozen moat. One more, and he would have plunged into it. A\nshuddering sense of horror, of shock, seized him, and held him there\nrooted to the spot, bewildered, stunned, his ears still strained\nlistening to the drifting voice, which had vanished across the heights\nand lost itself in the white looming shadows of the mountains.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  III\n\n\n\u201cYOUR excellency, though he live a million honorable years, could not\nestimate the augustly degraded chagrin experienced by my exalted Prince\nin my humble and servile person.\u201d\n\nSo spoke the Daimio\u2019s high officer, through the interpreter, Genji\nNegato.\n\nThe American held his shaking hands over the replenished kotatsu as the\nDaimio\u2019s officer, hastily summoned by the guard, set himself the\ndistasteful task of explaining to him the existence of the fox-woman.\n\nA fox-woman, so he explained solemnly, was a female human being into\nwhose body the soul of a fox had entered. In Japanese mythology the fox\noccupies an important position, and the fox-woman is a creature greatly\nto be feared. Her face and form, so said the Japanese, were of a\nmarvellous whiteness and a beauty so dazzling that a mortal must cover\nhis eyes to escape blindness. Her hair resembled the sun-rays, so bright\nand glittering its color and effect. Gifted with this beauty of face and\nform, but devoid of soul, she had but one ruling and controlling\nambition. She spent her days and nights lurking about the mountain\npasses, behind and within rocks and caves, luring men\u2014aye, and women and\nchildren, too!\u2014to destruction.\n\nSomething in the half-skeptical smile on the taciturn face of the\nTojin-san stopped the officer\u2019s recital. His expression became troubled,\nrevealing a sensitive pride unduly wounded. Plainly the foreign Sensei\nlooked upon his explanations in the light of a fairy-tale.\n\n\u201cYour excellency disbelieves our legend of the fox-woman?\u201d he queried\ncourteously.\n\n\u201cLegends,\u201d said the Tojin-san slowly, \u201cbelong to literature, and are\ntales to charm and beguile adults and deceive children. In the West we\nno longer heed them. We name them superstitions, and we\u2019ve burned out\nour superstitions as we did our witches in the early days.\u201d\n\nThe Japanese sat up stiffly, and in the chilly room he waved his fan\nregularly to and fro.\n\n\u201cYou deny the existence of spirits in the West?\u201d\n\n\u201cAt least we do not create them out of our fancy or thought,\u201d said the\nAmerican gravely.\n\nThe officer said vehemently:\n\n\u201cThey exist actively in Japan, honorable sir. Though you ignore them,\nthey will force themselves upon you\u2014as to-night, excellency!\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san frowned slightly. Then, thoughtfully, he emptied his pipe\non the old bronze hibachi.\n\n\u201cYou wish me to believe that my visitor to-night was a\u2014spirit?\u201d\n\n\u201cShe was worse,\u201d said the officer earnestly, \u201cfor she was invested with\nat least the form of a human being.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow do you know she is not human?\u201d\n\nIt was the Japanese\u2019s turn to frown. His narrow eyes drew sternly\ntogether. His voice was stubborn. He spoke as if determined to justify\nsome indisputable course he had taken.\n\n\u201cShe is unlike us in any way, exalted sir. No human being ever was\ncreated with such fiendish beauty. Her acts are those of the gaki,\nmoreover. She is mischievous, impish, wicked, delighting as much in\ntorturing and frightening the poor as well as the rich, little children\nas well as their elders. The birds of the air come at her calling and\nfollow her whithersoever she bids them. Degraded dogs and cats, forlorn\nbeasts of the mountains and the forests are her body-guard, defying mere\nhuman beings to molest or take her. Her home is among the tombs of Sho\nKon Sha. She is of the Temple Tokiwa, long forsaken of men and accursed\nby the gods.\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san raised himself with a show of more interest.\n\n\u201cA temple housing your dreaded fox-woman!\u201d he exclaimed, whimsically.\n\n\u201cYes, alas so, excellency,\u201d admitted the Japanese miserably. \u201cHer mother\nwas Nii-no-Ama (noble nun of second rank) and kin to our august Prince.\nShe broke her vows to the Lord Buddha, desecrated and disgraced his\ntemple. The gods visited their wrath upon her offspring. They gave it a\nbody only\u2014no soul, save that of the fox. She is beyond the pale, honored\nsir, and no clean being may look upon or touch her.\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san, sitting up erectly now, was holding his lower lip\nthoughtfully between thumb and forefinger.\n\n\u201cYour fox-woman then is some sort of outcast, who has lived all her life\navoided by her kind?\u201d\n\n\u201cShe had the company of her degraded parents,\u201d said the officer gruffly,\n\u201cuntil she was the age of ten. Then a zealous band of former Danka\n(parishioners) assaulted the temple by fire and sword. The parents of\nthe fox-woman met a deserved death, being literally torn to pieces\nbefore the very altar of Great Shaka himself.\u201d\n\nThe Daimio\u2019s officer paused, his little black eyes glittering with a\nfanatical light. Then the exhilaration dropped from his voice.\n\n\u201cBut the ways of the Lord Buddha are strange. How could the devoted\nDanka conceive that Shaka would turn his wrath upon them also, for thus\nscorching his altar with unclean blood. Since the Restoration,\nexcellency, our city\u2019s history has been one of blood and poverty. Some\nassert the province is doomed. Others, more optimistic, that it is but\npassing through its new birth pains, and that, as of old, its history\nwill be glorious.\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san puffed at his relighted pipe in meditative silence. Then,\nvery quietly, he asked:\n\n\u201cDo you lay the misfortunes of your province upon this fox-woman, as you\ncall her?\u201d\n\n\u201cAye!\u201d said the officer almost fiercely. \u201cThe hand of Fate fell heaviest\nupon us after the assassination of the intruder. We have never recovered\nfrom the humiliations heaped upon us by\u2014the countries of the West. The\nbombardment of beloved Kagoshima by the allied forces of the western\nnations followed almost instantly after the death by violence of\u2014\u201d\n\nHe stopped abruptly, and coughed in gruff alarm behind his now\nsheltering fan. He had been upon the verge of telling what had been\nforbidden.\n\nThe Tojin-san looked puzzled, baffled.\n\n\u201cI do not see the connection,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cYet\u2014it is so,\u201d said the Japanese vaguely, shifting his eyes from the\naverted faces of the samourai guard.\n\nSaid the American forcefully:\n\n\u201cIt seems to me an amazing thing that to-day when you are frankly hoping\nto join the nations of enlightenment, you still give yourselves up to\nbarbarous persecution because of what, after all, is nothing but a\nlegend fit for children only. For my part, I intend to sweep from my\nhouse vigorously the absurd belief I find actually seated on my\nhearth-stone.\u201d\n\nThe Japanese said solemnly:\n\n\u201cThere are several things in life it is impossible to do, exalted sir.\nWe cannot throw a stone to the sun, or scatter a fog with a fan. We\ncannot build a bridge to the clouds. With this little hand I cannot dip\nup the ocean. We bow to the elevated wisdom of the West your excellency\nhas come to teach us in honorable chemistry and physics, but, though we\nhumbly solicit pardon for thus stating, there is nothing your augustness\ncan tell us of our own beliefs\u2014and knowledge.\u201d\n\nHe made a slight, stiff sign to his attendants and they assisted him to\narise. The American stood up also. He was smiling grimly.\n\n\u201cWhen the snows melt,\u201d he said, \u201cI shall ask for guides of your\nexcellency, and personally make a pilgrimage to the lair of this dreaded\nfox-woman of the mountains.\u201d\n\nAt that the Daimio\u2019s officer\u2019s face distinctly paled. His impassive\nfeatures were anxious, troubled.\n\n\u201cWhat does your augustness seek to do?\u2014regenerate one without a soul?\u201d\n\n\u201cI wish merely to see her. She must be an interesting specimen\u2014of her\nkind.\u201d\n\n\u201c\u2018Making an idol does not give it a soul,\u2019\u201d quoted the Daimio\u2019s officer,\nsolemnly. \u201cHonored sir, a snake has its charm to some, and the vampire\nis kin to the snake. In Japan we believe the fox-woman one form of\nvampire. Condescend, exalted sir, to beware.\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san laughed shortly, contemptuously. He was a man of gigantic\nstature, and as he stood there towering above his gleaming-eyed visitor\nthere was something about his attitude careless, indifferent, fearless,\nand beyond the understanding of the Oriental. With a morbid recollection\nof specific instructions from his Prince, the officer restrained his\nfingers, turned almost automatically toward the two short swords hanging\nat his side.\n\n\u201cIt is my duty, excellent sir,\u201d he said with forced courtesy, \u201cto\nconvince you of the danger wherewith you seek to play. Condescend to\npermit the humble one once again to be seated.\u201d\n\n\u201cBy all means,\u201d said the American, hospitably, and, in a moment, they\nwere back seated upon their respective mats, their pipes refilled at the\nhibachi.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                   IV\n\n\n\u201cYOU have stated, honored sir, that the Fox-Woman of Atago Yama is but a\nsuperstition worthy of a child, and you have laughed, Mr. sir, at the\npossibility of danger from proximity with the forsaken creature. Thus\nspoke and laughed another before your time in Fukui. We of Echizen do\nnot forget the very recent fate of Gihei Matsuyama.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd pray who was Gihei Matsuyama, and what was his fate?\u201d asked the\nTojin-san, good-humoredly.\n\nThe fanatical fire was back in the eyes of the officer. He had thrust\nforward his thin, yellow face and was regarding the Tojin-san with an\nalmost venomous glance. His words, however, were pacific, and, as he\ntalked, the American showed a greater interest with every moment.\n\n\u201cWe sent seven of our youths to the universities of the West. They were\nchosen from the most intelligent and noblest of our families. Gihei\nMatsuyama was one of these, and in him we had particular interest, for\nhe was of Fukui. After two years\u2019 sojourn in Europe he returned for\nservice in Dai Nippon, and we gave him a position of honor and housed\nhim in an honorable yashiki hard by Atago Yama.\n\n\u201cAs a youth\u2014as a child, he had known the story of the fox-woman. His\nhonorable sire and other male kin had participated in the slaughter of\nthe parents of the creature. Now with this new wisdom he had acquired in\nthe West, as fresh as new-spread varnish upon him, Gihei laughed to\nscorn the stories of her fiendish origin, and boasted he would dissipate\nthem as the air does the steam. Making a bold and ingenuous wager that\nhe would enslave the sprite, he set himself the task of tracking her.\nUnaided by even the counsel of the priests of neighboring temples, he\nblithely followed the trail of the witch over the river, through the\nwoods and mountains and in and out of the cemeteries, until he had\ndriven her to her final refuge\u2014the Temple of Tokiwa, wherein no man had\nstepped since the accursed blood spilt before the eye of the eternal\nLord.\u201d\n\nHere the Daimio\u2019s high officer reverently bowed to the floor, ere he\ncontinued his narrative, his eyes gleaming more fiercely as he\nproceeded.\n\n\u201cAs he hesitated upon the threshold, divided between a desire to\npenetrate its mysteries, and an instinct which peremptorily bade him\ndepart, she came forth from the temple doors dancing, as the nuns of old\ndanced for the gods, with her wild, unbound hair outmatching the sun,\nand her hungry, vivid, smiling lips scarlet as the deadly poppy. He,\nhaving looked upon her face, became blinded to all else on earth.\nInfatuated and maddened, he sought to touch, to seize the creature, when\nshe fled suddenly before him, mocking him with the silver laughter of\nthe sea-siren and hiding her face in the glimmering veil of her hair.\n\n\u201cThus they sped on, she ever before him, with her luring hair streaming\nlike a gilded cloud in the wind, springing as lightly as a breeze from\nrock to rock, over brooks and slender streams that melted in between, up\nthis cliff and down that dell and through this valley, on and on she led\nthe infatuated seeker.\n\n\u201cSuddenly, while his dazzled eyes were fastened solely upon her, and he\nreached forth a hand to seize her, she darted like a nymph over some\nunseen chasm of the mountains. He stumbled in her tracks, reached out\nvainly to seize her, saw not the gulf at his feet, and plunged headlong\ndown into the abyss.\u201d\n\nThe mask-like face of the Daimio\u2019s officer quivered. He wiped his face\nwith a hand that shook visibly. Then, rejecting his breath in that\nhissing fashion so peculiar to the Japanese, he added fiercely:\n\n\u201cThis, honorable sir, is the story of Gihei Matsuyama and the Fox-Woman\nof Atago Yama. It belongs not to the lips only of the children, as you\nname them, but is true, well-authenticated history, which any one in\nFukui can prove to you.\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san was silenced. He had followed the officer\u2019s story with\nunabated interest. He had no word now in defense of this Japanese\nLorelei. His voice was grave, stern:\n\n\u201cWhat did she do\u2014when the boy disappeared?\u201d\n\n\u201cThere are different stories, honored sir. Some say she not even stopped\nin her flight. Others that she came of nights and hung over the edges of\nthe chasm, shrouding her mouth in her hands and calling to her victim\nbeneath as if she had the power to lure him back. But we have no certain\nversion of this part of the tragedy. For the first part, we have the\ntale, four times repeated, from the body-servants of Gihei Matsuyama,\nwho dutifully had followed their master upon his wild quest.\u201d\n\nThe Daimio\u2019s high officer arose and made several profound obeisances to\nthe Tojin-san. His face had resumed its immobile melancholy. As he was\nbacking formally toward the exit, bowing at every step, the American\nsuddenly remembered his name. He took a step toward him, his hand\nimpetuously outstretched:\n\n\u201cPardon me, the boy you speak of was\u2014near and dear to you, was he not?\u201d\n\nSlowly the officer raised his head. Not a quiver broke the stony\nimpassivity of his face. His eyes met the Tojin\u2019s blankly:\n\n\u201cHe was\u2014my son!\u201d he said.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                   V\n\n\nTHE sense of discouragement and gloom which had seemed to take full hold\nupon the Tojin-san on his first night in Fukui was, after all, but\ntemporary. He awoke the following morning, feeling refreshed and\ninvigorated. The sun was pouring into his room, gilding even the\nfarthest corner with a friendly touch. He jumped out of bed, donned a\nwarm bath-robe and shoved his feet into fur slippers. Crossing the room\nin a few quick strides, he threw open one of the latticed sliding doors.\n\nIt was a clear, cold day, but the snow, enshrouding trees and ground,\nglistened with the warm sun upon it. The army of crows on the roof of\nthe go-down were chattering and fighting among themselves like magpies,\nand a monkey, swinging by one foot from a camphor bough, shook its fist\nplayfully in his direction, screwing up its face in apparent derision.\n\nFrom the direction of the narrow river, which threaded its ribbon-like\nway in the valley below, a rollicking voice was heard in song, and,\npresently, the owner of the voice climbed up the crest of the slope,\nskirted the sunken garden hard by the Tojin-san\u2019s windows and moved\nacross the lawns toward the kitchen regions in the rear. She was a\ngreat, fat girl, whose enormous, muscular arms were balancing on either\nside huge pails of water. As she waddled along, wheezing and singing,\nshe resembled, to the Tojin-san\u2019s humorous sense, a bag of jelly, her\nbosoms and thighs shaking at every step, her fat soft cheeks keeping\ntime in unison. Close upon her heels, and, himself carrying two smaller\npails of water, the cook\u2019s diminutive heir toddled solemnly after her.\n\nIt was he who first perceived the Tojin-san at the opened door, and he\npromptly dropped his pails upon the serving-maid\u2019s heels, causing her to\nkick backward in squalling alarm as the cold water splashed about her\nbare legs and drenched her scanty skirts. Doubtless she would have\npunished her small charge, had she not at this juncture also perceived\nthe Tojin. Her thick red lips fell instantly agape. She stared at him in\na stunned wonder. Then her knees began to wabble, and she attempted to\nmake an obeisance. With every kowtow she essayed, the waters from her\npails bounced up and merrily splashed her. The Tojin-san burst into\nhearty laughter, and after a moment maid and youngster joined in his\nmirth. They then scuttled off like a pair of panic-stricken rats, their\nshining, wet heels flashing like snowballs in the sun behind them.\n\nThis simple domestic incident put the Tojin-san into an excellent humor\nat once. As he looked after the comical pair, and then turned back to\ngaze, entranced, at the magnificent view on all sides of him, his garden\nexquisite even in its winter dress, he marvelled at his gloom of the\nprevious night. Then his glance went upward, travelled across the pure\nblue sky, and rested upon the snowy bosoms of Atago Yama and Hakusan.\nSuddenly he thought of the fox-woman. There was something chill,\nforbidding, sinister in those great, beautiful mountains of snow,\nlooming out there in the sunny sky. He pictured this forsaken creature\nthreading her bleak way under the towering frost-incrusted pines. The\ngloom of the previous night fell upon him again like a shadow.\nShivering, he went indoors, snapping the closed latticed doors behind\nhim.\n\nA fine horse had been provided for the American teacher, and he rode\nabroad through the streets of Fukui, under an escort sent by the Prince\nof Echizen himself. Everywhere the friendly and curious citizens ran out\nto see the white-faced teacher, and bows and smiles were the general\nrule on all sides.\n\nOccasionally, however, he met the scowling, threatening glance of some\nroving samourai, who, the interpreter explained, under the new order of\nthings, was out of office and consequently a ronin. It was one of the\nunfortunate effects of the Restoration that so many men of the sword,\nwho had previously been supported by the people as retainers in the\nservice of princely houses, now found themselves without aristocratic\nemployment, and, too proud to turn to trade, or other equally debasing\nlabor, they wandered about the provinces, voicing their discontent of\nthe order of things, picking quarrels on the slightest provocation, and\nprophesying dread things for the empire when it should fall under the\ndominion and patronage of the nations of the West. The ronins were all\nJo-i (foreign haters), and they alone the Tojin-san need fear. Happily,\nthe Prince of Echizen had furnished an adequate guard for his\nprotection, and the students of the college, themselves samourai, or\nsons of samourai, were all pledged to protect the Tojin-san from harm.\n\nPresently they arrived at the school, an enormous building, once the\ncitadel of the Castle, and here nine hundred students received the\nTojin-san with a veritable ovation.\n\nAs he stood straightly before them, looking across at that sea of bright\nfriendly faces, is it any wonder he recalled another scene in America,\nso similar, yet dissimilar, and that his heart went out yearningly to\nthe youths facing him?\n\nThese intelligent, eager-faced boys were looking to him to guide and\nlead them. And, in turn, already they had pledged themselves to be his\nvital friends and allies. He felt emboldened, courageous, proud, elated.\nNot for a moment would he have retraced his steps to that other land he\nhad regretted.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                   VI\n\n\nIN the Tojin-san\u2019s absence several aggravating accidents had happened in\nhis house. While little Taro, the cook\u2019s youngest child, was sitting on\nthe doorstep in the sun, nibbling on a sammari sembei (thunder cake),\nsuddenly from behind an adjacent pine-tree the fox-woman had appeared,\nand before the frightened child could open its mouth to scream she had\npounced upon him, nipped the cake cleanly from his hand and was off.\n\nThe child\u2019s nurse (who was none other than the fat wench of the\nmorning), who adored her charge, and had already herself suffered at the\nhands of the mountain witch, rushed out valiantly at the child\u2019s loud\ncry of alarm. Her fury getting the better of her fear, she started in\npursuit of their tormentor.\n\nThe latter she discovered serenely seated upon the topmost bough of a\nbamboo-tree, where she was demolishing the rice cracknel at her leisure.\nFrom this perch she threw white pebbles, with which her sleeves seemed\nloaded, down upon the head of the irate Obun, and while the latter was\nexecrating her and calling upon Ema (the Lord of Hell) to come to her\nassistance the fox-woman slid down the bamboo trunk so swiftly and so\nsilently she was beside the terrified serving-maid before the latter\nknew. She felt her arms caught in a sudden squeezing grip. Sharp fingers\nsank into her thick, fat flesh, crept up along her arms to her\nshoulders, nipped at her breast, her neck, her cheeks, her great\nmuscular legs, and with a last vicious tweak at her nose, the fox-woman\nhad again vanished.\n\nThe kitchen was in an uproar, the cook\u2019s wife in hysterics, and Obun\nherself reduced to such a state of stunned terror it was impossible to\nget her to stir from a corner of the kitchen whither she had fled like a\nwhipped dog for refuge.\n\nThe Tojin-san, as master of the house, was besought to lend his\nhonorable assistance and advice. He ordered that Obun be brought before\nhim.\n\nAfter some delay there was a sound as of scuffling and shoving in the\nhall, and presently the perspiring face of the cook was seen through the\nparted screens. He was pushing something which looked like a great soft\nball along before him, and, in turn, ordering and pleading with the\nobject in question to stand upon its feet and help itself. He was\nassisted in his pushing endeavors by a small army of lesser menials of\nthe kitchen, who took turns in pushing and shoving the unwilling Obun\ninto the presence of her dread master, the Tojin-san. Presently she was\nat his feet, her face hidden on the floor.\n\n\u201cCome, come!\u201d said he, suppressing his inclination to laugh. \u201cStand up,\nmy good girl.\u201d\n\nThis was translated in sharp peremptory tones by his interpreter:\n\n\u201cThou worm of a slattern! Rise to thy degraded and filthy feet. How dare\nthee bring agitation into the chamber of the Guai-koku-jin [outside\ncountryman] guest and prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of His Imperial Highness the terrible\nPrince of Echizen.\u201d\n\nWhereupon Obun came tremblingly to her feet, and shaking from head to\nfoot, raised a pair of eyes that rolled with terror to the face of the\nTojin-san. What she saw there must have reassured her. The rugged\nfeatures of the giant foreigner were softened humorously. In the keen\ngray eyes bent upon her she saw nothing but kindness and understanding.\nInstantly she began to whimper, like a great baby unexpectedly\ncomforted.\n\n\u201cYou are in trouble, my good girl,\u201d said the Tojin, in his deep, kindly\nvoice. \u201cPray tell me what ails you.\u201d\n\nAnd the interpreter translated:\n\n\u201cRepeat to your terrible and inflexible master the incidents of the\nmorning, and arouse not his dreadful wrath with vain exaggerations and\nlies.\u201d\n\nShe opened her lips to speak, encouraged by his smile, closed them\nagain, and mutely uncovered first her arms, then her neck, and finally\nher great soft breast.\n\nThe Tojin-san, his brows now drawn in a slight frown together, examined\nthe girl\u2019s wounds, and with the quick eye of a surgeon instantly\nperceived their nature. She had been pinched sharply by little\nrelentless fingers which had evidently flown with lightning swiftness\nfrom one portion of the hapless maid\u2019s body to the other, and finally\nwith a last mischievous tweak had left their mark upon the round bit of\nputty which served Obun for a nose. The Tojin-san whistled under his\nbreath. Obun had certainly been the victim of a most curious and\nspiteful antagonist.\n\nHe gave some brief directions for healing the wounds, and then turning\ngravely to his interpreter admonished his servants for their excitement\nand foolish fears.\n\nUndoubtedly, Obun had got the worst of her fight with this fox-woman, as\nthey chose to name her; but probably, had she not permitted herself to\nbe overcome with fears, she might have left her own mark upon her\nassailant also. It was vain and foolish to regard this troublesome one\nwho annoyed them so often in the light of a spirit or witch or ghost, as\nthey believed her to be. There were no such things in the world.\n\nThe interpreter repeated these instructions with personal\nembellishments, and the little army of servitors with sidelong glances\nof wonder and awe at their master sucked in and expelled their breaths,\nand, with final servile bumping of heads to the floor, retreated\nkitchenward.\n\nThe Tojin-san remained for a moment apparently plunged in puzzled\nthought. Suddenly he turned toward his interpreter, who was regarding\nhim with popping eyes of interest. Indeed no move, no word, no action of\nthe white man escaped the notice of Genji Negato, who found him an\nobject of absorbing interest and wonder. His manner of eating, his\nmanner of sleeping, his manner of thinking, talking\u2014all things about\nhim, were a source of wonder and entertainment to the young samourai,\nwho was more than satisfied with this interesting position he had\nobtained.\n\n\u201cGenji,\u201d now said the Tojin-san abruptly, \u201cyou have seen something of\nthe world. At all events you have lived in the open ports among people\nof other lands. You speak English excellently and must have read\nconsiderably. Tell me what is your opinion of this fox-woman?\u201d\n\nGenji Negato was all flattered smiles. He drew up his well-groomed\nshoulders in a profound French shrug.\n\n\u201cIt would give me supreme pleasure to agree with your excellency,\u201d he\nsaid ambiguously, and smiled apologetically.\n\n\u201cI see,\u201d said the Tojin-san, \u201cyou, too! Why?\u201d\n\nThe stiff expression on the interpreter\u2019s face relaxed. In a blurt of\nconfidence he said:\n\n\u201cI have felt the fox-woman\u2019s touch also, honored sir,\u201d and blushed like\na boy at the admission.\n\nThe Tojin-san was smiling broadly.\n\n\u201cAh! When?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe first night in your service, excellency\u2014a month before your\ncoming.\u201d\n\n\u201cIndeed. Tell me about it.\u201d\n\n\u201cI was changing duty with Samourai Hirata. As a large amount of\nprovisions had been put in the storerooms it was necessary to mount\nguard at various points of the Shiro and the grounds. I was assigned by\nthe Daimio\u2019s officer to the lodge gates, and there, to my humiliating\ncondemnation be it said, I fell asleep. I carried with me a box\ncontaining my rations for the night, and this was strapped upon my back.\nI am addicted to sleeping on my honorable belly, which your excellency\nis aware is the proper position for all sleeping animals\u2014to which\nkingdom I unworthily belong.\n\n\u201cWhile I slept, I dreamed I was climbing down a mountain-side when\nsuddenly an avalanche of rock and earth swooped down upon my defenceless\nback, pinioning me to the ground with the excess of its weight. I sought\nto throw off the burden, shaking my shoulders from side to side, and as\nI cast back my hands, the better to seize it, something caught them in a\nquick, elastic grip. I rolled over bodily, and, as I opened my eyes,\nperceived the fox-woman leaning over me. She had cut loose the straps of\nmy luncheon-box and was drawing it from under my back when, with a cry\nof rage, I caught her by the shoulders and pulled her down upon me in a\nvise-like grip. The blood rushed to her unearthly white face, her\npiercing wild eyes blazed upon mine till my own eyeballs felt afflicted\nas if with fire. I felt her breath, sweet as the Spring, coming yet\nnearer and nearer to my face. I was like one inebriated by sak\u00e9, with\nbut one impulse, one desire, to feel the actual touch of her unhuman\nface against my own. As finally we touched cheek to cheek, honored\nexcellency, my fingers released their grip. Just as they did so a sharp\npain stabbed me in the cheek. Before I could regain my wits the witch\nwas gone.\u201d\n\nHe passed his hand nervously across his cheek.\n\n\u201cFor weeks afterward my face was marked with the imprint of teeth sharp\nas a marmoset\u2019s, your excellency.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd the luncheon?\u201d queried the American, smiling in spite of himself.\n\n\u201cGone, too,\u201d said the interpreter, aggrievedly.\n\nThe Tojin-san laughed.\n\n\u201cWhat a curiously greedy elf it is! All its expeditions among mere\nmortals seem to be solely for the purpose of food-getting.\u201d\n\nGenji opened his little black eyes with an expression of surprise.\n\n\u201cBut that is natural. Even a fox-woman needs sustenance.\u201d\n\n\u201cCome to think of it, a fox-woman has the body of a human?\u201d\n\n\u201cCertainly.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen why not make proper provision, and thus protect yourselves from\nher pilfering?\u201d\n\n\u201cYour excellency forgets that the fox-woman\u2019s origin is malign. No clean\nJapanese would undertake to nourish an evil spirit. The priests of our\ntemples give us certain charms which protect us, to a certain extent,\nand we heed their advice, which is ever to avoid and forsake her.\u201d\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  VII\n\n\nTHEY had told the Tojin-san in Tokyo that he was to be the first white\nman to set foot upon Echizen soil since that historical period when the\nJesuit fathers in the sixteenth century had come near to Christianizing\nthe nation. The subsequent edicts which expelled all foreigners from the\nempire and made the study of Christianity a crime to be punished with\nfire, crucifixion or torture, had had their due effect. All this was\nlong before the coming of the Tojin, however, and Japan had broken its\nhermit-like seclusion, and now was fearfully and curiously holding out a\ngrudging hand to the Western nations pressing her on all sides.\n\nThe foreigner was already a familiar figure in the open ports, but so\nfar, in the interior at least, no white faces were to be seen. It was\ntherefore with amazement that the Tojin-san first discovered signs that\none of his race had lived recently in Fukui before him.\n\nIt was in the Season of Rain-water, the end of February, a dreary\nperiod, when the inexhaustible store of drizzling gray rain dribbled\nunceasingly from the skies. To break up the monotony and depression of\nthe period he had undertaken, with three favorite students, a short\npilgrimage up the Winged Foot River for the purpose of examining a cave\nat the base of the mountains wherein, they said, had once been a curious\nimage. The country people had believed it to be the image of Buddha\u2019s\nmother, with her babe in her arms, and pilgrimages were made from all\nparts of the country because of its supposed healing abilities.\n\nAs the Tojin-san examined the cave, with the interest and eagerness of\nthe born scientist and arch\u00e6ologist, the youths explained to him the\nfate of the image in question. A learned Bonze of the Nichiren sect had\nrecognized it as an image of the \u201cCriminal Faith,\u201d and, in an excess of\nrage, had broken it into fragments.\n\nOver the entrance of the cave a large board was nailed, and on this was\nemblazoned the same notice the Tojin had seen wherever he had\ntravelled\u2014in every city, town or hamlet, at every entrance to temple or\npalace, roadside or mountain-pass. He had often inquired what the notice\nwas, but his questions had always been politely evaded, and once he was\nsomewhat curtly told it was simply one of the laws of old Japan, now\nrapidly becoming obsolete. Now he turned abruptly upon the young\nstudents, who were all deeply devoted to him, and imbued with the new\nspirit and thirst for knowledge sweeping like a fever over all the\nempire. They, at least, would answer him.\n\n\u201cHigo, just what is this notice? Translate it for me, will you not?\u201d for\nthe three youths accompanying him spoke the English language with\nfluency.\n\nHigo replied with a slight flush of embarrassment:\n\n\u201cIt simply refers to the Criminal God, your excellency.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Criminal God? You are very vague.\u201d\n\n\u201cCondescend to pardon the allusion, honored sensei,\u201d said the boy,\napologetically. \u201cTo-day, we are ready to repel all such unworthy\nreferences to your exalted nation\u2019s faith.\u201d\n\n\u201cIndeed,\u201d put in earnest-eyed Junzo, \u201cwe are not prepared to name any\nreligion or god criminal. Our august Emperor has set us a divine\nexample, since he has honorably thrown open the doors to any and all\nsects, however odious.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd for my part,\u201d contributed Nunuki in his brusque and somewhat surly\nmanner, \u201cI agree with our ancient philosopher: \u2018Dogma is a box in which\nsmall minds are kept.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cDogma is a form of superstition,\u201d said Junzo, \u201cand superstition awakens\nthe meaner, crueler passions. Do you not agree with me, honored sensei?\u201d\n\nBut the latter, his brows drawn in puzzled wonderment, was examining\nsomething which had been cut into the wood of the board on which the\nnotice appeared.\n\n\u201cWhat\u2014\u201d he began, when in a singsong voice, after a slight shrug of his\nshoulders, Higo began translating the text:\n\n\u201cIt reads thus, honored teacher: \u2018The evil sect called Christians is\nstrictly prohibited. Suspicious persons should be reported to proper\nofficers and rewards given,\u2019 but be not afraid,\u201d he added hastily, \u201cfor\nit is an old law, and even if still in force to-day your excellency is\nexempt.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am trying to decipher what is written under it\u2014in English!\u201d said the\nTojin-san slowly. He took out and applied a magnifying glass to the\nboard.\n\nA swift, oblique look passed from one student to the other; but when the\nAmerican turned toward them for enlightenment, their faces were as\nimpassive as their feudal ancestors.\n\n\u201cIt appears to me,\u201d said he, thoughtfully, \u201cas though some one had cut\nwords into the woodwork, and that\u2014there are marks as if an attempt had\nbeen made to blot out the words. Now let us see: \u2018On\u2014this\u2014Thomas\nMor\u201418\u2014\u2019 Why, it is recent\u2014within the last ten years!\u201d\n\nHe turned about in a state of intense excitement. Something in the\naverted faces of his companions increased his curiosity and suspicions.\nEre he could frame another question, Nunuki spoke up abruptly:\n\n\u201cIt is well you should know the truth, Mr. Teacher. A Guai-koku-jin\n[outside countryman] lived in Fukui before your time.\u201d\n\n\u201cRecently?\u201d demanded the Tojin-san eagerly.\n\n\u201cSeven years since,\u201d said the boy shortly.\n\nThe Tojin-san drew a great breath. His eyes kindled. He looked\nwonderfully pleased.\n\n\u201cThen that is why some of you students speak English so creditably?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, teacher. Many of us studied in Yokohama. Many have learned by the\nbook alone. After the coming of your exalted Lord Perry, it became the\nchief ambition of all thoughtful men of the New Japan to learn the\nEnglish language and its sciences.\u201d\n\nHigo volunteered the above information, but the gruff Nunuki quickly\nfollowed him:\n\n\u201cBe not deceived, excellent sensei, in regard to the baku [fool] who was\nhere before you. He was not like you, honored sir.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo? What was he, then?\u201d\n\n\u201cHe was\u2014damyuraisu,\u201d blurted the boy angrily.\n\nThe Tojin-san burst into laughter. It was a colloquial word well known\nin the open ports, and was applied to the foreign sailor of whatever\nnationality. It was the Japanization of the sailor\u2019s favorite\nexpression: \u201cDamn your eyes.\u201d\n\nSuddenly his face went grave, remembering how the sailors of the white\nnations had misrepresented their nations! How, in a constant condition\nof drunkenness, they rioted around the open ports. The gravity in his\nface was reflected in that of the students.\n\n\u201cIt is a subject,\u201d said Junzo gently, \u201cignored by common consent in\nFukui, because it is painful to our Daimio. He was the fellow\u2019s patron\nand protector till the time when the honorable beast betrayed him. Pray\nthee, honored sensei,\u201d he added almost pleadingly, \u201cdo not seek to know\nfurther in the matter.\u201d\n\n\u201cAt least tell me what became of him.\u201d\n\n\u201cYour excellency\u2019s honored feet are surely tired. Your honorable insides\nmust be entirely empty. Food is good in that event. Let us call the\nkurumma.\u201d\n\nThey were moving along the road toward the waiting vehicles, which were\nto carry them back to the little boat that had brought them down the\nriver. It was indeed chilly and dreary, and their rubber-coats and hats\nof straw were dripping. The Tojin-san, his arm linked in that of the\ngentle Junzo, cast a look back at the dimly shadowed mountains, and, as\nhe did so, the boy dreamily remarked:\n\n\u201cThe Fox-Woman of Atago Yama will find wet passage back to Sho Kon Sha\nthis night. It is said the streams and rivers are all billowing over,\nand not even a sprite may spring across them.\u201d\n\n\u201cHave no fear,\u201d said Nunuki gruffly, looking back over his shoulder.\n\u201cThe fox-woman will find wings suitable to her degraded feet. She\u2019ll not\nlack the shelter so illy deserved.\u201d\n\nThe words were so brutal, the tone of the boy so full of animus and\nhatred that the Tojin-san stopped abruptly. He laid a firm, kindly hand\non either lad\u2019s shoulder.\n\n\u201cWho was it spoke this afternoon of superstitions engendered by a\nfanatical dogma?\u201d\n\nFor a moment neither of the students answered, then growlingly Nunuki\nsnarled:\n\n\u201cIt is hard to spit against the wind. Facts cannot be altered.\u201d\n\n\u201cBy facts\u2014you mean the fox-woman?\u201d\n\n\u201cHer origin, learned sir. It is impossible for the offspring of so vile\na union to be otherwise than unclean, as says the law.\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san said solemnly, his hand emphasizing with its pressure on\ntheir shoulders his words:\n\n\u201cI know nothing of her origin, but to quote a favorite proverb of your\nown Japan, remember: \u2018The lotus springs from the mud!\u2019\u201d\n\nThe Japanese were silenced, deeply moved.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  VIII\n\n\nIT became common knowledge in Fukui that the fox-woman had taken up her\nresidence on the Matsuhaira estate. The palace grounds covered nearly\ntwenty acres, and were surrounded like a veritable wall on all sides of\nthe estate by smaller buildings, which had once housed the retainers of\nthe Daimio, but which had not been occupied for years and were in a\ndishevelled and forlorn condition of ruin and decay. Two of these\ndwellings had been put in order, and these were occupied by the samourai\nguard, the aged gateman who guarded the road leading to the mansion and\nthe family of the Tojin-san\u2019s interpreter, who, himself, however, had an\napartment in the Shiro.\n\nIt was, therefore, quite possible for the fox-woman to find lodging in\nalmost any of the remaining structures, and she could, if she desired,\nmove from one to the other, and when unduly pressed, return to her old\nrefuge of the woods and foot-hills of the mountains that bounded them on\ntwo sides of the estate.\n\nMore than one of the household had thought they had seen and recognized\nher. On a still, hazy night, when the golden moon barely showed an\ninquiring face in promise of the summer nights to come, Genji Negato had\nshown her to the samourai guard. Just a white, fleeting face glimmering\nout like that of some hunted thing between the slender, towering trunks\nof a grove of bamboo. A moment only under the streak of moonbeam, and\nthen it had vanished like a mist at twilight.\n\nWas it a dream, they asked themselves, or indeed a manifestation of the\njust anger of the Buddha for sins committed in a former state. Were they\nhenceforth to be harassed, goblin-haunted?\n\nAnd in the dawn, before the sun had barely shown its first glimmer of\nlight across the eastern sky\u2014in the misty, dewy, clammy dawn\u2014the maid\nObun had again come face to face with her.\n\nObun was bent upon her usual task of the morning, the bringing of water\nfrom the pond to the house. Her eyes were swollen with sleep, she yawned\ncavernously, and as she stooped to dip the first of the pails into the\nwater, something stirred the other side the pond, and she looked across\nto gaze, with fascinated eyes, at the fox-woman, whose long, sunlit hair\ndripped in and out among the lotus and the water-lilies, as if she\nbathed it in their perfumed purity. Through this dripping veil of hair\nher face gleamed whitely. Her lips fell apart as though she listened,\nher eyes were startled, wild, and looked not at but through and beyond\nthe dumbstruck serving-maid as though she saw her not at all. Slowly,\nstealthily, the fox-woman came to her feet, still with that weird,\nseeking, listening look upon her face, and thus with backward, shivering\nglances, she retreated to the bamboo grove.\n\nTo his own amused dismay, the Tojin-san found himself constantly on the\nwatch for her. He had never seen the witch, but he had heard and felt\nher. She crept upon him in the evenings when he strolled about his\ngarden, and she seemed to follow his footsteps with the stealthiness of\na wildcat, disappearing as fleetly as the wind at his mere turning.\n\nHe was aware of her constant nearness if he merely stepped out of his\nhouse. Once when something brushed his cheek he was startled to find\nhimself believing at once that it was she who had touched him. He\nplunged into the brush at his side, and, in the dark, thrust back the\nbranches of the low-growing trees and bushes only to find himself up to\nhis knees in water where he had stepped unawares into an overgrown\nrookery and fish-pond. As he floundered helplessly about he heard her\nsoftly laughing in a weird, mocking voice, which nevertheless seemed to\noverrun with tears.\n\nHolding his breath unconsciously he found himself straining his ears to\nlisten to the sound, which indeed was so faint a whisper of a laugh he\ncould have believed he dreamed it.\n\nSometimes as he drove abroad through the country she called to him from\nbehind sheltering hillocks, and sometimes it seemed her voice floated\ndown to him from some height\u2014some giant tree-top, heavy laden with\nfoliage; for it was the time of \u201cLittle Plenty\u201d (May) and all the land\nwas green and warm.\n\nHe found himself listening for her call\u2014stopping, waiting for it, and\nreturning with a sense of bitter disappointment when he heard it not.\nThe servants gossiped, the samourai whispered among themselves. They\nsaid the fox-woman had put a spell upon him. Genji Negato repeated this\nto him, and was rewarded by a look of startled contempt and anger.\n\n\u201cSpell!\u201d The man of science repelled the very thought; but he began to\navoid the mountain-sides of his estate, and turned in preference to the\nriver-road, whither she could not follow unless she revealed herself.\n\nLate that month, with no advance warning of its coming, whatever, a\ntyphoon swept venomously across the province, leaving in its wake a\nshattering storm that shook and beat upon the aged Shiro for a day and\nnight; and, in the night, one encountered the shadow of the fox-woman in\nthe great deserted halls of the Matsuhaira mansion.\n\nA wildly shrieking housemaid, calling \u201cHotogoroshi!\u201d (murder) at the top\nof her voice, gave the alarm, and from all parts of the palace the\nmenials scuttled like frightened rats, taking refuge in the great\nkitchen in the rear.\n\nEven Genji Negato, with blanched face and shaking knees, followed the\nlast agitated obi into this dubious shelter. Here fortifying himself\nwith heavier, if not trustier, implements than his swords he recovered\nhis wits sufficiently to attempt to rally the panic-stricken army of\nservitors. Each in turn was ordered, urged, besought to go to the\nTojin-san\u2019s apartment. It was dastardly, so he averred, to leave the\nforeigner alone to face the unknown peril menacing him. For plain it was\nto be seen that she who had hitherto confined her malign activities to\nthe large outdoors, had stepped at last across the threshold of the\ndoomed palace. Undoubtedly, the typhoon which had crushed half the city\nso cruelly had been summoned by the witch in token of her power over\nthem. Something horrible, sinister, was about to happen. Who could tell\nexactly what; but the signs were evil, evil!\n\nHe forgot the difference in his state and rank to these creatures of the\nkitchen, and found himself confiding to them his worst fears.\n\nThe Tojin-san slept from north to south, the position proper for a\ncorpse alone! Genji Negato had pleaded with him to change, but the\nforeigner had laughed and insisted it was the true, scientific position,\nfrom pole to pole, in harmony with the electric currents of the\natmosphere.\n\nThe night before all four of the samourai guard had heard the plaintive\nhowling of a dog; an owl was seen black athwart the moon; a tail-less\ncat fled under the Uki (goblin-tree). The samourai had dutifully\nreported all these happenings to the Tojin-san, and now, when the blow\nseemed about to fall upon him, this stalwart guard, provided by their\nprince, were sleeping comfortably in their yashiki on the very edge of\nthe estate. It was the workings of the gods!\n\nGoto, the cook, found his fluttering tongue.\n\n\u201cThis very morning,\u201d said he, \u201cI trod thrice upon an egg-shell.\u201d\n\n\u201cI miserably entangled my obi when dressing,\u201d said another.\n\n\u201cAnd I, alas! bit my tongue when eating. My mistress said it was a sign\nsome one begrudged me my food. Who indeed but this spiteful fiend of the\nmountains?\u201d\n\n\u201cTwice this week,\u201d wailed the cook\u2019s wife, \u201clittle Taro broke his\nchopsticks when eating.\u201d\n\nShe fell to sobbing violently into her sleeve.\n\n\u201cCondescend to hush!\u201d said Genji Negato. \u201cRemaining silent is good.\u201d The\ninterpreter\u2019s yellow face had turned ashen, his hair appeared to stand\nalmost on end, as he listened with suspended breathing.\n\nOutside the wild rain beat against the wind-swept trees, and dashed\npeltingly against the ancient Shiro. Jagged flashes of lightning\nzigzagged across the skies showing clearly through the walls, though the\namado were in place. It was not, however, to the sound of the tempest\nthat the interpreter was giving ear. Somewhere within the Shiro itself\nnew sounds were heard. It was as if a wind passed along the great halls\nand corridors and close upon its soft-footed flight there dashed\nsomething heavy, pursuing.\n\nSuddenly the main sliding screen or door, which led into the halls, fell\ninward with a crash. Over it something bounded like a ball of fiery\nlight, passed through the kitchen swift as a lightning flash and shot\nout into the storm, letting in a gust of rain and wind and thunder\nthrough the shaking doors.\n\nA moment later only, and panting like an animal in the chase, the great\nTojin burst into the chamber. He stopped short, staring as if confounded\nat the group shuddering against the farthermost wall. Slowly his gray\nface relaxed its tension. He tried to speak normally, but in spite of\nhimself his voice shook, though his words were terse, commanding.\n\n\u201cThere is nothing to be afraid of,\u201d he said. \u201cTranslate that, if you\nplease, to the servants,\u201d he sternly ordered his interpreter.\n\nThe latter\u2019s teeth were chattering. He could barely speak.\n\n\u201cYour excellency\u2014you yourself have seen\u2014\u201d\n\n\u201cI saw nothing,\u201d said the Tojin-san, doggedly, \u201csave the figure of\na\u2014woman!\u201d\n\n\u201cA woman!\u201d cried the interpreter, almost in tears at the evident\nstubbornness of this fool-white-man. \u201cAh, most high-up sir, would you\nhave condescended pursuit of a mere female creature?\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san looked care-worn, haggard, as if he struggled within\nhimself. His deep, stern voice quivered in spite of himself.\n\n\u201cShe was pressed against my wall, and fled fleetly as a wild thing when\nI threw the doors open. The halls were unlighted. I could barely see\nher. My eyes were dazzled at the sudden darkness. I may have been\nmistaken. And yet\u2014and yet\u2014it seemed to me\u2014her hair was\u2014_gold_!\u201d\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                   IX\n\n\n\u201cI AM determined to satisfy my\u2014call it curiosity if you will\u2014in regard\nto this fox-woman,\u201d the Tojin-san told the three students who were his\nalmost constant companions outside the school.\n\n\u201cI can get no help whatever from my servants and less from the guard.\nGenji Negato is worse than a woman, and the Daimio\u2019s officer has point\nblank refused to give me a guide to direct me to her home on Atago\nYama.\u201d\n\nHe paused and looked at the embarrassed faces of the students. They were\ndevoted to him he knew, eager to serve and please him; yet even they,\nsons of the new, sane Japan, feared the fox-woman. He was determined to\nwin them over.\n\n\u201cSo I want your help, Junzo, and yours, and yours, Nunuki and Higo. You\ncan help me if you will.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn what way?\u201d demanded Nunuki cautiously.\n\n\u201cIn any way you wish. Devise some scheme to trap this creature of the\nmountains.\u201d\n\n\u201cCan we trap the north wind when it raves over the wilderness? Can we\ntrap even the gentlest zephyr when it dances across sunlit paths?\u201d asked\nJunzo, wistfully.\n\n\u201cBut the fox-woman is neither the rough north wind, nor the playful\nzephyr of the south. She has a physical body, which even you will admit.\nThe wildest thing of the wildest forest can be caught,\u201d and he added,\nhalf under his breath, \u201cand tamed.\u201d\n\nHigo was considering, his young patrician face very thoughtful and\nintent; but Junzo with a burst of boyish pity put his hand timidly,\naffectionately into that of the Tojin\u2019s.\n\n\u201cAh, dear sensei,\u201d he said, \u201cyou are tortured, obsessed by this wretched\nwitch. She has put her evil spell upon you.\u201d\n\n\u201cNonsense,\u201d said his teacher, almost roughly, releasing his hand. \u201cThis\nis not helping me, Junzo.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut you have never heard the story of Chuguro. It happened in Yedo,\nmany years ago, your excellency. He was in the service of a Hatamoto\nnamed Suzuki, and seemed like any other contented and healthy ashigaru.\nThen came a time when his comrades missed him in the night, and they\nwould not again see him till just before the dawn, when he would creep\nback to his quarters looking very strange and white and exhausted. He\nbecame weaker and weaker from day to day, and at last was unable to\nleave his couch at all, though he pleaded and begged to be carried to\nthe foot of a little bridge not far from the main gateway. But his\nfriends were obdurate. They called in a great Chinese surgeon, who made\nan examination of the dying man and declared his veins had been\nliterally drained dry of blood! All declared it was the fox-woman; but\nthe Chinese doctor said: \u2018It was a frog, which took to the soldier\u2019s\neyes the form of a woman.\u2019\u201d The boy paused, eying his teacher wistfully.\n\u201cIt is only a legend you will say, sensei, but I beseech thee, honored\nsir, to avoid contact with even a stray fly, a spider, any crawling\nthing that may beat its way into your yashiki. Who knows what form this\ndreadful fox-woman may take to lure you.\u201d\n\nHigo broke in impatiently:\n\n\u201cIf indeed our sensei is tortured, why waste words on idle tales of the\npast? It is our duty to conceive some sensible scheme by which to rid\nhis excellency of the torture.\u201d\n\nHe began to talk swiftly and eagerly to his friends in Japanese, and\ngradually their resisting and doubting faces changed. With boy-like zeal\nthey discussed the adventure proposed by Higo. Then the latter turned\nabruptly back to the Tojin-san.\n\n\u201cYou will permit us free access to your grounds at all and any hours?\u201d\n\n\u201cMost certainly. I will so instruct the gateman.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd, if necessary, we may call upon the guard for assistance?\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san slightly smiled.\n\n\u201cCome now, surely you don\u2019t anticipate so hard a task?\u201d\n\n\u201cWe cannot tell. Even the guard may prove insufficient, but with Shaka\u2019s\naid we may succeed!\u201d\n\nA look of alarm came to the Tojin-san\u2019s face.\n\n\u201cI wish no harm whatever to befall her. If you can surprise her upon one\nof her nightly peregrinations in our neighborhood, and induce her gently\nbut firmly to accompany you, it will be gratifying. Once brought face to\nface with other people\u2014for I am convinced she is the same as we are\u2014I\nhope to be able to lay this bugaboo of a fox-woman.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs for that, impossible to say,\u201d said Higo vaguely. \u201cNow sinking, now\nfloating, thus is life says the poet. If disaster befall us in the\nundertaking it will be as decreed of the gods. All things are beforehand\nordained.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou anticipate hazard in the adventure?\u201d\n\n\u201cWe would not attempt it otherwise,\u201d proudly asserted Nunuki, his hand\nunconsciously caressing his sword-hilt, for these boy-samourai all wore\nthe sword. Higo indeed was of a princely house, and kin to Echizen\nhimself.\n\nAs the American looked at them, nerving themselves thus bravely for an\nencounter which to them at least was a deadly one, he suddenly thought\nof that frail, fleeing shadow which had gone before him in the gloom of\nthe unlighted halls, and, unconsciously, he smiled. Why, boys as they\nwere, any one of them could surely have crushed her between the palms of\nhis sinewy young hands. If there were a real risk to run, he knew he\nwould be the first to thrust himself in their way. But no! The\nundertaking was worth while, necessary, indeed, if only for the purpose\nof demonstrating the foolishness and cruelty of superstition. Even the\nmelancholy tones of his favorite pupil, chanting almost monotonously the\nBuddhist text:\n\n\u201cBrief is the time of pleasure, and quickly turns to pain, and\nwhatsoever is born must necessarily die,\u201d failed to move him.\n\nYoung heroic fatalists! His heart went out to them overwhelmingly.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                   X\n\n\nTHEY had dug a trench hard by the castle moat. Over this they spread a\nnet made of stout hempen rope, the edges of which were threaded in and\nout with elastic of great strength. This was stretched out and pinned,\nnot too firmly, till it encircled and covered the pit. Then the sod and\nleaves and flower petals were carefully, though thinly, replaced, and\nthe trap was ready for the Fox-Woman of Atago Yama.\n\nOver all the Matsuhaira Shiro a tense, silent excitement pervaded.\nThough the students had worked in secret, swiftly and silently on a\ndusky, rainy night, when their prey would not be likely to be abroad,\nnevertheless no smallest menial on the place but knew that measures had\nbeen taken to entrap the fox-woman. They shivered deliciously over the\ndreadful prospect, for dire things had been promised them by the too\ngarrulous Genji Negato, should any slightest inkling of the plans leak\nout from the Shiro itself.\n\nEven the Tojin-san, who had been kept in complete ignorance of the\nactual methods they had taken to entrap her, was affected by that\nnameless feeling of uneasiness and unquiet, of repressed excitement and\nstrained fear, which animated every other individual of his household.\n\nThroughout the evening he paced his great chamber in a moody, wretched\nsilence. The sense of aloneness, of homesickness that sometimes came\nupon him in this land, seemed somehow this night to be deeper, more\ndepressing. For days, indeed, he had been affected by a feeling of\nimpending gloom and disaster. He had been restless, dissatisfied,\nnervous\u2014unconsciously listening and waiting for something he seemed to\nexpect was about to happen. Now he found himself analyzing this sick\nsense of depression which had pervaded his whole being these latter\ndays, and seemed to reach its culmination on this silent night.\n\nWas it something in the look or tone of a student who recalled one of\nhis own people, or was it the letters that had come to him from across\nthe seas that made him realize they had cared for him more in that other\ncountry than he had realized? No\u2014he faced the situation. This was not\nwhat had awakened the fever within him.\n\nIt was something deeper, something very beautiful and mystic. It was the\ngolden hair of this Japanese Lorelei which had ensnared his longing! He\ncould not banish its glitter, its \u201csun\u201d as they called it here, its wild\nappeal from his mind. What was this creature of the mountains then, whom\nthe gentlest of people had outcast? And what was this spell they said\nshe had cast upon him? The words seized upon his fancy, writhed his lips\ninto a tortured smile. He, whom a mere woman had scorned, under the\nspell of a witch\u2014a wild creature of these Japanese mountains whose face\nhe had never even seen! It was preposterous\u2014fantastic! And yet!\n\nThe blood forsook his face, his lips. For days, for weeks, aye, for\nmonths he had thought of little else. Through half the luminous nights\nhe had watched and waited for her\u2014had sought her desperately, hungrily.\nDay and night he had been waiting for her\u2014waiting and listening, always\nlistening, for that appealing voice of mockery and anguish that called\nto him insistently\u2014to him alone! What mad fancies were these that had\nwoven themselves like a subtle spider\u2019s web into his clear, sane mind?\nIt was the country, the people! He was in a land of gods and spirits!\n\nThe night was very still and humid. The rain was gone, but its wet touch\nstill clung in the air and was moist upon the grass and trees. The shoji\nof the chamber had been removed entirely on the garden side, so that he\npractically was out-of-doors in an open pavilion or verandah. He could\nsee the moon-tipped branches of the trees under whose shade myriad\nfireflies flickered in and out, rivalling the distant stars above them\nin brilliancy.\n\nA cherry grove, from which blew fairy flakes, like confetti at a\ncarnival, was at the extremity of the garden, and ever and anon a shower\nof these dancing-petals blew into his apartment, giving it an almost\nfestive air. Great drifts of them lay in the corners of the room, like\nsnow, and upon his couch, his tables, chairs and other furnishings,\nmarking them with a white touch. In the shadow of a bamboo grove an\nuguisu thrilled forth its liquid song, and the wind-bells on the eaves\ntinkled musically back and forth in a faint breeze, as if in unison with\nthe song of the wood-bird.\n\nFrom across the mountains came the gentle booming of the temple bells,\ntelling the hour of the night, and, as if they were a signal listened\nfor, the fox-woman crept out of the dense bamboo grove and felt her way\namong the shadows till she came to the brink of the castle moat. Along\nits edge she wended her fleet, cautious way, till she came to a narrow\nwing, and over this she stepped silently. In the vague light of the\nmoon, she seemed indeed a wraith, in her clinging gown of white,\nenshrouded in the wild veil of her hair. On and on she moved, as though\nshe travelled over known and familiar paths.\n\nSuddenly, piercingly, in the still moonlight sounded the cry of the\nfox-woman, and, as suddenly, a silence fell, still as death itself. It\nwas as if every living thing had paused to listen to that appealing cry\nof agony and terror.\n\nSilence! No one stirring. No one breathing.\n\nThen, as if brought violently into life, the Tojin-san bounded to his\nfeet, and in the light of the swinging takahiras, for a moment his great\nform loomed up menacingly. From all parts of the estate now came the\nsound of movement, and he saw the samourai guard, their gleaming swords\ndrawn fully and flashing eerily in the moonlight, charge down blindly in\nthe direction of the cry. Within the woods came the sound of battle, the\nrumble of men\u2019s savage, triumphant voices\u2014a wild stirring and crying,\nand then again\u2014the silence!\n\nPresently from out the brush they came, bearing their burden\u2014stalwart\nmen of war, all with their hands upon her. Out along the whitewashed\npaths, across the green-clipped lawns and through the garden of\nfragrant, blowing flowers they carried the fox-woman into the\ncherry-petalled chamber of the Tojin-san. There they set her down, still\nentangled, like a wild beast of the woods, in the net they had made to\nsnare her.\n\nUnmoving she lay, as one indeed in whom life was extinct; but when the\nTojin-san moved with an impulse of passionate yearning toward her, the\nboy Junzo, who loved him, sprang in his path.\n\n\u201cTouch her not, beloved sensei! She is accursed, unclean!\u201d\n\n\n[Illustration:\n\n  \u201cTOUCH HER NOT, BELOVED SENSEI!\n  SHE IS ACCURSED, UNCLEAN!\u201d]\n\n\nHe put the boy roughly, savagely aside, and in a moment was kneeling\nabove her. It was the task of a minute to cut free the bonds that bound\nher. Still she did not move. With hands that trembled in spite of\nthemselves, gently, softly, he put back from her face the glittering\nveil of her hair, and as he did so his heart came up in his throat in a\ngreat, suffocating bound\u2014for the face he uncovered was that of a white\nwoman!\n\nSo perfect, so exquisite the small, sensitive face, he could only gaze\nupon it spell-bound. The great purple eyes, wide open, and shadowed with\ntheir long, gilded lashes; the thin little nose; the lips red as a new\nblown rose, and as sweet!\u2014and crowning it all, the golden glory of her\nhair.\n\nIn this land where only the brown face and densely black hair and eyes\nhad been known for centuries, was it strange that this creature of the\nmountains seemed as of another world\u2014a sprite indeed. This persecuted,\nhunted creature, whom they had trapped with ropes, as the hunter does\nthe wild animals of the forests; this fragile, trembling, quivering\nlittle child\u2014of his own skin and blood\u2014_this_ was the fox-woman!\n\nShe spoke not at all, though her wide-open eyes never moved from the\nTojin\u2019s face. Something in their glassy stare, their curious look as of\na mist before them, brought an exclamation to his lips. He bent nearer\nto her, looked deeply, keenly into those unflickering eyes, and an\nimprecation swept his lips.\n\n\u201cAnd blind! My God!\u201d he cried.\n\nAs if his voice had moved her spirit into a sudden life, the fox-woman\nstirred soundlessly as a cat would have done. Suddenly she leaped\nblindly in the face of the Tojin. He stood unmoving, a great stolid wall\nagainst which she might hurl her puny strength in vain.\n\nPresently, gasping, exhausted, she drew backward, her fluttering hands\ncrushed upon her heart as if to stop its frantic beating. A sound that\nhad the vaguest, most piteous of human notes came from the fox-woman\u2019s\nlips, and suddenly, with the motion of a lost child in despair, she\nburied her face in the fragile shelter of her hands.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                   XI\n\n\nSHE was the daughter of the damyuraisu (foreign sailor) and of the\nNii-no-ama (Noble Nun of second rank). Bit by bit he drew forth her\nhistory from the students, who remained with him throughout the night.\nThere was little enough they could tell him, beyond the fact of her\nparentage. Her father had betrayed his friend and benefactor, an Echizen\nprince; her mother had broken her vows to the Lord Buddha. And the\ncreature herself! Now the Tojin-san could see for himself that the tales\ntold about her were by no means chimerical.\n\nShe was free to go, for he had cut the ropes that bound her. Though\nblind, she could have found any exit of the chamber unaided. She made\nnot the slightest move to go. Crouched back there against the farthest\nwall she stayed, with her wild flushed face peering out from between her\nparted hair, the eyes wide open, unblinking, scarcely moving. If she\nunderstood what they spoke, she made no sign; yet her face had a\nstrained, listening look\u2014as though she heard strange sounds that both\nbaffled and troubled her.\n\nThe dawn crept into the chamber, murky and sunless, and found them still\nthere on guard as it were, with the distance of almost the entire room\nbetween them and the fox-woman, but watching her with unabated emotion.\nIt was the Tojin-san who at last approached her. She sensed his coming\nand shrank back farther, if that were possible against the wall. Now he\nstood directly before her, studying her in a profound silence.\n\nSlowly, cautiously she raised herself to her knees, and then to her\nfeet. Now she stood fairly facing him, her back against the wall. A\nthin, searching little hand felt blindly before her, touched him. With a\nquick, animated movement her fingers now flew from his hand, up along\nhis arm and shoulder, paused upon his pitted cheek, moved to his lips\nand rested there, soft as a feather, fragrant as a flower.\n\nNever in all the days of his life had he looked upon such a face as\nhers. Every quivering, sensitive feature seemed alive with the\nquickened, subtle sense of the blind. Even the little feeling fingers,\nhow mortally alive they were, as they swept with their light, electrical\ntouch across him!\n\nWhen he put his great, firm hands upon her shoulders, he felt the shock,\nthe startling tremble that agitated her. She stood poised for flight,\nuncertain, fearful, with the wild defiance of her nature only in part\nchecked; but as his deep, compassionate voice addressed her, she became\ngradually passive and very still.\n\n\u201cYou may not understand my words,\u201d he said, \u201cbut you will their meaning.\nI want to help you. I am your friend.\u201d\n\nHer eyes became curiously blue, and the misty look faded like a shadow\nfrom their depths. Across the tremulous, scarlet lips a smile crept like\nthe dawn. She moved a step nearer to him, and as he regarded her,\nfascinated, thrilled, the student, Junzo, broke the spell of silence. He\nhad thrust himself forward with an impetuous, imploring motion.\n\n\u201cSensei!\u2014honored sir, teacher\u2014!\u201d\n\nShe turned her head craftily in the direction of the new voice, then\nslowly back to the Tojin-san. There was a low, accusing note in her\nvoice:\n\n\u201cTo-o-jin-san! Thou too!\u201d she said.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  XII\n\n\nTHE Palace Matsuhaira, wherein the courteous Prince of Echizen had\nhoused the foreign teacher, had lost all but two of its tenants. The\nodorous kitchens where but lately the army of servants had happily and\nnoisily labored were now quite empty. So were the vast, cool halls, and\nthe great, bare chambers. Like an army of rats, one and all, they had\ndeserted the place, leaving the Tojin-san alone, save for that unseen\none, who alternatively teased and entreated him.\n\nEven the faithful students, who had brought about her capture, had\nceased to visit the Shiro, having vainly implored the Tojin-san to\nabandon the place. With a grim and stubborn patience, he kept doggedly\nto the course he had set himself.\n\nAll over the house he found traces of her. Now she had slept in this\nchamber, now in that. Here she had prepared her diminutive, stolen meal\nof fruit, honey, and rice.\n\nHe was aware of her constant nearness, and had he so desired, at almost\nany moment, he could have again seen her; but he was taking a more\nsubtle means this time to entrap her. She must come forth of her own\nfree will; then he would know he had her confidence, that she knew him\nfor a friend. He found himself talking to her, sometimes sternly, in the\nchiding, coaxing tone one uses to a child. He would move from screen to\nscreen as he talked, until he knew behind which one she pressed; but he\nmade no effort to force her from her hiding-place.\n\nNever a word would she speak in response until he was seated far removed\nfrom the sheltering screens, then she would begin reiterating the one\nappealing, accusing sentence:\n\n\u201cTojin-san, thou too! thou too!\u201d\n\nIt was as if she knew no other words of her father\u2019s language. He\npondered their meaning. What was it she asked of him? Of what accused\nand reproached him? Did she hold him responsible for the manner of her\ncapture\u2014its cruelty? He told her in slow, forceful words that he had\nknown nothing of this, and waited in anxiety for some word or sound from\nher to indicate that at least she understood. She only laughed, that\nsoft, mocking, tremulous little laugh with its inner sound of tears.\n\nThe burning, humid days of June slipped by on drowsy wing. School was\nclosed for the season, and the foreign sensei was at liberty to travel\nif he wished upon his vacation. The samourai body-guard were anxious to\nattend him upon any expedition that would take them away from the Shiro.\nGenji Negato was available, outside the place. Every cringing, fearful,\ncowardly servant, who still drew wages from the Daimio\u2019s high officer,\nwas anxious again to serve him. They made up deputations and committees,\nwhich fearfully approached the mansion, and threw their messages in\nlittle balls that pelted against the paper summer walls of the shoji and\npierced their way into the Tojin-san\u2019s apartment. And still not once did\nhe venture forth.\n\nEvery sliding door and screen he had himself put in place. He did not\nventure outside the house, even to step into the grounds. And a strange\nrestless rumor began to float about the little town below, which told of\nthe spell which chained the white man.\n\nMeanwhile within the mansion itself, the Tojin-san was winning a strange\nvictory. Timidly, like a fascinated wild bird, now approaching, now\nretreating, nearer and yet nearer, had come the fox-woman. There came a\nday when, though he did not turn to look at her, fearing instantly to\nlose her, she stood at last revealed. Only a few paces from him, there\nof her own free will, timorous, trembling, but unafraid.\n\nHer name was Tama (Jewel). She told it to him voluntarily, her hand upon\nher breast. He had not even asked her, nor did he by the slightest\nmotion reveal the eager emotion her words aroused when he found they\nwere spoken in his own tongue. Haltingly, uncertainly, like a child for\nthe first time feeling for its words, she essayed to speak.\n\n\u201cI am Tama,\u201d softly she said, and then, as if enchanted by her ability\nto speak actual words to one who might hear and understand, she lapsed\ninto excited, trembling speech, wholly unintelligible to the Tojin-san,\nfor it was a medley of both her father and her mother tongue, neither of\nwhich she could properly speak.\n\nSuddenly she stopped abruptly, as if affrighted by her own bravado, and\nher fears again besetting her panically she retreated behind the\nscreens. For the rest of that day, at least, he saw nothing further of\nher. But he was well pleased with matters as they were. It was worth\nwaiting for this, he told himself. As he paced his chamber, he made no\neffort to curb the exhilarating excitement that pervaded his whole\nbeing.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  XIII\n\n\nTWO days later she again came forth from her hiding-place. He had been\naware of her hovering nearness all through the morning, but made no\neffort to induce her to come to him. One may entrap a wild bird; one\ncannot make it sing. He knew the course he was taking with her was\nright; he was exuberantly, boyishly happy at its evident success.\n\nShyly, trustingly, of her own free will, again she had come to him. On\nthe sensitive questioning face there was scarcely a trace of the wild,\nimpish defiance that had seemed on that first day its only expression.\nShe even smiled tentatively, pleadingly, as though she sought in this\nwise to win his approval. He spoke to her quietly, as though her\npresence there were but natural:\n\n\u201cWon\u2019t you be seated?\u201d he said.\n\nShe hesitated a moment, sat a moment, rose to her knees uncertainly, and\ngradually subsided to the mat. Her face was down-drooped, the little\nwhite hands folded meekly in her lap.\n\n\u201cYou are not Japanese,\u201d said the Tojin-san, gently. It was a simple,\nclear statement. If she understood anything of his language, it would be\nplain to her what he meant. A marvellous flush spread over her eager\nlittle face. The humid, misty eyes were clear as blue-bells now. A sound\nlike an excited sob, half laugh, escaped her.\n\n\u201cNipponese?\u201d she said. \u201cNo\u2014me? I am\u2014To-o-jin-san!\u201d\n\nHer hands went out to him in a sudden impulsive motion. She moved on her\nknees nearer to him.\n\n\u201cAh,\u201d she cried, \u201cspeag those words of my father! Thas\u2014beautiful!\u201d\n\nHe was deeply moved, and took the little hands closely in his own. They\nwere soft and small, clinging and confiding as a child\u2019s. How they\ntrembled and fluttered at first; then rested still, as if with a joyous\nnew confidence.\n\nHe could not bear to look at her beseeching face. In all the days of her\nlife he knew he was the first she had not held at bay. She knew mankind\nonly as creatures of prey. Was this the mocking sprite of the mountains,\nwho even when entangled in the ropes of the hunter had fought so\ndesperately, so savagely? What could he say to her, what words of\nassurance that would penetrate her full understanding? As he pondered\nthe matter, he saw the startled change that swept suddenly across her\nface. The hands in his own grew tense, rigid, clung to his own in a\npassionate frenzy of fear.\n\n\u201cYou are afraid of something? What is it?\u201d\n\nThe old hunted, listening look was upon her face again. She was\nshivering, trembling violently. Her voice came in a whispering gasp:\n\n\u201cI hear\u2014those sound!\u201d she said, her head uplifted.\n\nOnly a lazy breeze was stirring, and moving the wind-bells to and fro.\nSuddenly he saw the silhouetted shadow on the shoji wall. It moved\nsilently, cautiously. Then the screens were slid soundlessly open, and\nthe student Junzo appeared. For a moment he remained staring down upon\nthem, his young face becoming gray and stern.\n\n\u201cSensei! Then it is true!\u201d he burst out, and the look of despair on his\nface deepened.\n\nThe Tojin-san arose to his full gigantic height. His hand fell like a\nheavy weight upon the shoulder of the youth. His voice was rough,\ncommanding.\n\n\u201cLook at this child, Takemoto Junzo. What is there you see in her to\nfear\u2014to hate?\u201d\n\n\u201cAh, you, beloved sensei,\u201d cried the boy passionately, \u201care bewitched,\nenchanted. Do I not see with my honorable eyes the change that has\nbefallen you? It is spoken of all over Fukui that you are in the toils\nof this siren. I could not longer bear it, and, against my honorable\nparent\u2019s stern command, I came here to see for myself. Alas, it is too\ntrue! You are bewitched, obsessed!\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san curbed his temper. His voice, though stern, was calm, as\nthough he sought to humor the boy.\n\n\u201cWhat is the change you observe in me then?\u201d\n\n\u201cYour eyes are weak and soft like the dove\u2019s. There is a melting, tender\nlook unfit for man upon your face. Your voice is gentle, like unto a\nwoman\u2019s. It is as if\u2014as if\u2014the enamored weakness of a love possessed\nyou!\u201d\n\n\u201cA love!\u201d repeated the Tojin-san, as though the very word were new to\nhim. Suddenly a look of anguish came into his face, giving it a\npoignant, withering expression.\n\nThe fox-woman had crept softly across the room. Now she leaned upon the\nfarthest shoji, her head lifted in a dreaming trance.\n\n\u201cLeave this accursed place with me to-day,\u201d urged the boy entreatingly.\n\u201cMy honorable father will gladly receive you as our honored guest. Throw\noff the burden of this foul witch of the mountains. She can only soil\nyour excellency, and Fukui is prepared to mete out to her at last her\nproper fate.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am a white man,\u201d said the Tojin-san slowly, in a deadly voice, and\nnever had his student seen such an expression upon his face before. \u201cAs\nsuch I protect, not abandon, the women of my race. It will not be well\nfor Fukui if harm comes to either me, your guest and teacher, or to her,\nwhom I choose to befriend.\u201d\n\n\u201cSayonara, then, excellent sensei,\u201d said the boy brokenly, \u201cI have done\nmy best.\u201d\n\nAs he pushed back the doors, the fox-woman glided soundlessly across his\npath. The boy found himself looking directly into that shining face that\nhad distracted all who had gazed upon it. Breathing heavily, almost as\nif he sobbed, he drew backward from her, his young face drawn and\nshaken. She spoke not at all, though she touched him with a timid,\nquestioning hand. Something in the expression of the upturned face, in\nthe tears that stood like dew in the wide, sightless eyes, aroused a new\nstrangling emotion in the Japanese youth\u2014reached at last his innermost\nsense of chivalry. He threw up his arm, with a sudden motion almost as\nof defense. Then, without a word or look backward, he jumped into the\ngarden below, and fled along its paths.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  XIV\n\n\nTHE days stole by with light tread. Without the Shiro Matsuhaira events\nof great national import were taking place. Fukui was disrupted, torn by\nthe new tide of events that was to alter its destiny, for the Yaku doshi\n(evil years) were again upon them.\n\nNo longer were the provinces to be ruled by individual princes, for one\nand all had come under the dominion of the Emperor.\n\nPeople were packing their household goods in haste and wending their\nambitious ways toward the greater cities. In a single month Fukui lost\nhalf its population, and those left behind seemed to move about the\naffairs of life as if in a dream, from which presently they would awake.\n\nThus the political upheaval served for a time, at least, to distract the\npeople\u2019s mind from the Tojin and the fox-woman. It was but a temporary\ndistraction. A whispering, sinister voice was at work. It ran in and out\nthe houses of Fukui, and breathed its suggestive message to the\ndisaffected, impoverished ones, and pointed out the cause of the\ncalamity that had befallen them; for so sudden and drastic a change of\ngovernment was bound to react disastrously upon the people at first, no\nmatter how fortunate its ultimate end. The people of Fukui, like those\nof other feudal strongholds, were at present feeling only the first\nblighting, threatening touch of coming poverty.\n\nFor hundreds of years the samourai and their families had been dependent\naristocrats, who shared the rich fortunes of their lords. Now they found\nthemselves suddenly thrust out of service; in the same position as the\ndespised merchant or farmer, forced to seek employment no matter how\nrepugnant or menial. Many of them chose what they considered the noblest\nand most heroic solution of the problem\u2014suppuku! The entire destruction\nof themselves and families. Many sought the larger cities intent on\nobtaining lucrative positions under the new government; many families\nwere reduced to the direst poverty, and became dependents upon their own\nservants and tradespeople.\n\nFukui had known the noblest of princes, and it was with a feeling of\ndespairing confidence that the people awaited his return from Tokio. He\nwas high in the councils of the Imperial Government. He could and\nwould\u2014he must do much to save his beloved province from disaster. So\nthey waited patiently, helplessly. Hope is at best but the comforter of\ndespair, and as the days passed drearily by a new feeling took its\nplace.\n\nA sullen, rebellious hatred for the white nations who had brought this\nnew state of affairs about\u2014a murderous, resentful impulse of revenge. It\nwas the same feeling that had animated the misguided patriots of\nSatsuma, when they fought the allied fleet at Kagoshima, but it was\nuglier, meaner, for its force was directed upon two individuals, who, to\nthe Fukui mind, represented the detested nations of the West. One of\nthese, so Fukui firmly believed, was directly responsible for the\ndisaster. She, the accursed outcast, who had descended from the\nmountains and taken up her abode in their very midst; who had laid her\nspell upon the great Tojin-san, who had been their friend!\n\nMany a samourai\u2019s itching hand crept stealthily to the forbidden sword,\nfor, by the new law, they were not permitted to wear the sword, as he\nmeasured his misfortunes through the blighting nearness of the\nfox-woman. Many a distracted mother crooned a promise to her sleeping\nbabe that the dread gagama (goblin) of Atago Yama that had menaced them\nfor so long was at last to be extinguished.\n\nAnd meanwhile, in the Shiro Matsuhaira, another kind of dream was\nunfolding its rose-lined wings.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                   XV\n\n\n\u201cTO what are you listening, Tama?\u201d\n\nHe had come upon her pressed closely against a latticed screen, whose\nopening looked out upon the river leading to the city below.\n\nShe started at his coming, and turned toward him, her back against the\nscreen.\n\n\u201cI listen to the noise of thad river,\u201d she said, and there was a\nconciliating, pleading note in her voice.\n\n\u201cYou cannot hear the river from here. It is very shallow\u2014barely stirs.\nThere is something else you are listening to?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is the uguisu,\u201d she said quickly, as though she sought to disarm his\nfears. \u201cIt no longer sings, Tojin-san. I listen for hees voice again.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt never sang, my child, save at night. What is it that troubles you?\nYou seem always to be listening, waiting\u2014so fearfully\u2014so anxiously. You\nare afraid of something. Tell me what it is?\u201d\n\nHis deep, lowered voice was as caressing and tender as a mother\u2019s. She\nfaltered, turned from him. Her voice overran with vague sighs.\n\n\u201cI hear even those mos\u2019 sof\u2019 of honorable whisper. I hear some noise\nof\u2014trobble! I am afraid\u2014for you\u2014kind Tojin-san.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor me! I am amply protected here in Fukui. I have a body-guard of\nsamourai, besides Genji Negato, who will come back quickly enough when\nhe has mastered his foolish fears.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe samourai gone,\u201d she said, simply.\n\nHe was silent a moment, realizing there was nothing to be gained by\nattempting to deceive her. How, when or where she learned of these\nmatters he never knew; but she knew perhaps more than he did of what was\nhappening in Fukui.\n\n\u201cEven if it is so,\u201d he finally said, \u201cand the samourai too are gone, you\nhave nothing to fear. Less than a week ago a courier brought word to me\nfrom Tokio. I am expecting friends in Fukui very shortly now.\u201d\n\n\u201cFrien?\u201d she repeated wistfully. \u201cLike unto you, kind Tojin-san?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes\u2014white men, and Japanese, too, for that matter. I have good friends\nin Tokio. They are coming here to see you, my child.\u201d\n\n\u201cAlas!\u201d she said, shrinking slightly from him, \u201cWhy do they come?\u201d\n\n\u201cI asked them to come,\u201d he said, very gravely. \u201cI feel I am right, and\nthat by a simple operation we will be able to make you see, as other\npeople do, my child.\u201d\n\nThe word appeared to trouble her.\n\n\u201cI see already, Tojin-san,\u201d she said.\n\n\u201cWhat do you see, Tama?\u201d he asked her huskily.\n\nThe words came floodingly, tumultuously to her lips. The misty eyes were\nblue as the sea and as beautiful.\n\n\u201cI see thee, Tojin-san. Thou art beautiful ad my sight, lig\u2019 unto the\ngods.\u201d\n\nA look of suffering left its mark upon the face of the Tojin. He gazed\nat the kindling face of the girl before him, and the old strangling,\nyearning emotion swept over him.\n\n\u201cGive me more sight\u2014if it is your honorable wish,\u201d she said, \u201cbud\nalready I see\u2014I know!\u201d She pressed her fingers impetuously to her eyes.\n\n\u201cI see the light\u2014the dark. It is a worl\u2019 of shadows on my eyes, and\nshadows are lig\u2019 unto our dream\u2014mos\u2019 beautiful of all!\u201d\n\nHis voice was firm, almost solemn.\n\n\u201cYou have been wandering around in a black wilderness all of your life;\nyou do not know what it is, my poor little one, to see the sun! But,\nwith God\u2019s good help, I am going to lead you out of the wilderness\u2014into\nthe light!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou are the light!\u201d she said, throbbingly, and slipped to her knees,\nputting her face against his hand.\n\nSomething bounded against the wall and came whistling through the shoji.\nIt grazed the cheek of the kneeling fox-woman, and imbedded itself\nagainst the woodwork of the opposite wall. She put up her hand with a\nquick, startled movement, but though she turned a questioning, fearful\nface upon the great Tojin, she could not see how deathly white he had\nbecome. He bent suddenly above her.\n\n\u201cMake me a promise. Repeat after me, that no matter what might befall\nus, you will remain with me\u2014you will not desert me!\u201d\n\nWith her face pressed against his hand, her eyes fervently closed, she\nrepeated the words as a veritable prayer.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  XVI\n\n\nIN the sunken garden directly beneath his rooms he saw that sinister\nthing below, waiting in a throbbing silence. It seemed as if his gardens\nwere alive with them. Who had summoned them? For what were they waiting?\n\nFrom his elevation above them he spoke, his clear voice booming out\nabove their heads.\n\n\u201cGenji Negato, I desire your services.\u201d\n\nFrom somewhere in the shadows the voice of the interpreter came back at\nhim like a cold slap in the face.\n\n\u201cWhen the evil spirit of Atago Yama shall have left the abode of the\nexalted Tojin-san, Genji Negato will humbly return for service.\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san\u2019s incisive, perfectly controlled voice continued coldly:\n\n\u201cBy command of the Prince of Echizen you are in my service. In his name,\nI order you to control your foolish fears, or take the consequences of\nyour Prince\u2019s displeasure.\u201d\n\nA strange voice, rumbling, sneering, responded to this statement. Like a\nflash, upon the retort, came the Tojin\u2019s ringing order to the\ninterpreter:\n\n\u201cTranslate the words just spoken, if you please.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe says, your excellency, that the Prince of Echizen has been summarily\ncalled to Tokio. If the new law is indeed enforced he may not return.\u201d\n\nFor a moment the far-seeing mind of the Tojin staggered before this\nappalling news, which, if true, meant the possibility of his being\nsuddenly cast adrift and left to protect himself from the Jo-i menace,\nagainst which Echizen himself had taken such precautions in his behalf.\nWhile his mind revolved all the possible perils of his position, a new\nvoice sprang ringingly out of the shadows of his garden\u2014a boy\u2019s clear,\nunfaltering voice with its reassuring note of loyalty and affection.\n\n\u201cBeloved sensei, we, your students, offer ourselves in place of your\nguard.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat may babes know of a sword\u2019s honor?\u201d snarled the samourai, who had\nalready spoken. \u201cUpon what strength may the foreign devil lean for his\nnew support?\u201d he demanded with cutting sarcasm.\n\nThe burly laugh that followed was suddenly stopped, as the student Higo\nflung himself defiantly before them all.\n\n\u201cI, Higo, kin of your absent Prince, will answer you. There are nine\nhundred students, samourai themselves, and sons of a thousand samourai\nbefore them. All of these are loyal to our teacher. They will protect\nand fight for him, if necessary.\u201d\n\nNow the answering voice snarled merely in explanation.\n\n\u201cWho spoke of harm to your sensei? It is not him we seek. We have come\nfor the Fox-Woman of Atago Yama, who blights our fortunes, who brings\nsickness, poverty, and disaster upon our ancestors and our children, and\nwhose doom has been spoken by Fukui. You have trapped her, young sirs of\nthe college, like any other female beast of the woods. Let older, more\nexperienced hands finish your honorable work. There are those of us\nwhose hands performed a like service upon the debased parents of the\ngagama, and whose palms itch now to mingle her blood with her sire\u2019s.\nLet but the Tojin-san eject this siren of the mountains, and we will be\nsatisfied.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt cannot be done,\u201d frantically cried the boy Junzo. \u201cI myself have\ntouched the wretched, helpless one, and, as the gods in heaven hear me,\nshe is but\u2014human, as ourselves!\u201d\n\nA roar of derision greeted the boy\u2019s passionate outcry, and there was a\nconcerted movement toward where the Tojin-san stood towering above them,\nhis arms crossed, his keen, stern eyes regarding them piercingly.\n\nSome one pushed forward the interpreter, and the craven, agitated fellow\nnow faced his master. He made several ineffectual efforts to speak,\ngulped at the lump which rose persistently in his throat. Before him\nloomed the grim, sardonic face of this west-countryman he had always\ninwardly feared and respected; behind him the rabble of dissatisfied\nronin.\n\nGasping, trembling, he repeated to the Tojin the verdict of the mob.\nThey called upon him to deliver into their hands the fox-woman. Failing\nto do that, they would storm the Shiro and take her by force. Whiningly,\npleadingly, he begged his master to hurl from his house the wretched\nspirit he was harboring.\n\nTo this demand the Tojin-san returned slowly, as though he carefully\nchose his words, that if one hair upon the head of the one he protected\nwere touched, the whole Fukui should feel a vengeance such as never had\nbefallen it before. He, the Tojin-san\u2014a citizen of a mightier country\nthan this\u2014was the guest of one of their princes. Not alone his friends\nat home, but those here\u2014the very Emperor himself, who had pledged\nhimself publicly to uphold the new enlightened laws, borrowed from the\nWest\u2014would avenge insult and wrong done to him\u2014the Tojin.\n\nHis answer, translated by Negato, raised a turmoil of angry discussion,\nand that one who seemed to be the leader of the company, sprang headlong\nforward, as if to show the way to those who hesitated. He climbed\nhalf-way up the steps to where the Tojin stood, and quick as a cat drew\nforward his swords.\n\nEvery eye was turned upon the Tojin-san. He was standing tautly erect,\nhis heavy, pugnacious chin thrust out. As the sword of the samourai\ntouched him he drew slightly backward, then with a swift, merciless\nbound sprang headlong upon his assailant, his great white fists flashing\nmore vividly than the steel had done. Backward went the samourai, his\nswords flying out of either hand. Without a cry, he fell upon the grass\npath beneath.\n\nAnd the Tojin-san was back in his place, facing them, waiting for them,\ncalm, still unmoved, but very terrible and mighty to look upon.\n\nIn the deadly silence that followed, the student Nunuki passed the\ncastle gates, followed by his valiant, stalwart little army of\nfellow-students. They moved in a line steadily onward, spread out on all\nsides and completely surrounded the house of the Tojin.\n\nEre the samourai could realize it they found themselves encircled by an\narmy four times their own in number. Their leader lay before them,\nunmoving; and above them towered the grim, terrible figure of this\nwest-countryman, who represented in his gigantic person all the power\nand strength they had come to know and superstitiously believe belonged\nto the West.\n\nOne by one, they moved toward the gates, broke into smaller groups,\npassing the long line of student warriors without a word or sign of war.\n\nPresently the Tojin moved a step lower down into the garden. He stood a\nmoment, staring frowningly at the still form lying at his feet. Then\nslowly, unwillingly he stooped, and turned it over. A deep breath\nescaped him. For a moment things swam dazedly before him, for the white,\nagonized face upturned was that of the Daimio\u2019s high officer, the\nSamourai Gihei Matsuyama!\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  XVII\n\n\nAS a mother seeks a lost child, so the Tojin-san frantically scoured\nevery nook and corner of the Shiro Matsuhaira for the fox-woman.\n\nIn the interval in which he had faced that threatening, blood-hungry\nmob, she had gone! He was torn with sick forebodings of the fate that\nmight have befallen her. That she had gone of her own free will, he\ncould not believe\u2014no, not after the promise she had made him!\n\nAnd so, with his wound untended, his brain swimming in vertigo, he\nstaggered from room to room, until the morning dawned dim and gray, and\nthe sun crept over the horizon with its bright, hard eye.\n\nWild and haggard-eyed, shaking as though he were afflicted with ague, he\ncame finally back to his own chamber. Here his students awaited him,\neager to show him their good-will, to congratulate him and gossip over\nthe certain punishment that would overtake those who had molested him.\nBut he heard no word that they spoke, and presently they seemed to\nrealize that something was wrong with the great Tojin, and they drew\napart, whispering, and regarding him with awed glances.\n\nThe maid, Obun, snivelling and shaking with fear, crept into the vast,\ndeserted kitchen and fell to putting it in order. In another wing of the\nhouse the voice of the lately craven Genji Negato was heard, and out\nalong the road, loaded down with their belongings, trailed the little\ncaravan of menials, creeping humbly back to their old employment.\n\nOh, these were dark, impoverished days for Fukui! Who could refuse\nremunerative employment such as this? The honorably enlightened students\nof the university had vanquished the disgruntled, fighting ones;\nSamourai Matsuyama, their leader, was desperately sick, shorn of his\npower, and deserted even by his friends.\n\nAnd the fox-woman was gone! No one knew how or when she had gone. They\ntold, in whispers, of her ghostly vanishing, and some said the\nbottom-less lake of Matsuhaira, with its white, chilly lotus, held a\nsecret all its own. But \u201cThe Lotus tells no tales,\u201d as the proverb has\nit, and how should they know, and why should they care whether the\nfiendish gagama, who had haunted their master for so long, floated\nbeneath the smiling water-flowers or not?\n\nThey gathered together, these gabbling, faithless servants, and\ndiscussed ways and means to propitiate the Tojin-san. Following the lead\nof Genji Negato, finally, they took their courage into their hands and\ncame to his apartment. Barely had they entered the room, however, ere\nthey fled again.\n\nOne look only at the distorted face was enough. Like a pack of startled\nsheep they turned tail and fled from his presence, leaving him once more\nalone, pacing and repacing, with staggering, irregular steps, the floor,\ncrunching his great hands together as if in some mortal agony.\n\nWhat weakness was this that robbed him of his manhood! What anguish that\npierced to his very marrow? Was this what the son of the Daimio\u2019s high\nofficer had endured when he had followed the fox-woman out into the\nmountains? Persistently, dazedly he thought of Gihei Matsuyama, and he\nasked himself repeatedly why\u2014why? Suddenly it was clear\u2014he knew why. He\nhad killed the Daimio\u2019s high officer! With his own mighty hands he had\nkilled the father of Gihei Matsuyama!\n\nA Chinese doctor, brought by the students Junzo and Higo, examined him\nat a safe distance, and he said the foreign sensei was afflicted with a\nmalady of the brain.\n\nOutside in the summer gardens, serious-eyed, grave-faced boys looked at\neach other with startled glances, and in the city people were telling in\nthe streets of the dreadful punishments certain to be meted out to those\nwho had molested the guest of their absent Prince; for word had, at\nlast, come from Tokio that he had started on his way back to Fukui.\n\nThe day with its sun and fragrance passed away unseen to the great,\nblank-minded Tojin. But when the night came, with a whispering breeze\nabout the ancient Matsuhaira, he raised a listening head.\n\nAs on that first night in Fukui, plainly, distinctly he heard the\nfluttering, human knocking upon his shoji. Holding his breath, treading\non tiptoe, he found his way to the doors, drew them apart and looked out\ninto the dusky woods beyond. How his ears tingled now, straining for\nthat old caressing call:\n\n\u201cT-o-o\u2014jin-san! Too-jin-san!\u201d\n\nGently, softly, wooingly, he answered the fox-woman, breathing her name\ninto the still air about him:\n\n\u201cTama! Tama!\u201d\n\nAnd, as on that other night, again he dropped down into the garden. Over\nthe green-clipped lawn he went, across the wing of the moat, into the\nbamboo grove, and on and on into the beckoning, luring woods of Atago\nYama.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                 XVIII\n\n\nTO awaken on an afternoon in summer upon a bed of moss and fragrant\nleaves; to rest tired, aching eyes upon a clear, pale sky, which smiled\ndivinely through interlacing boughs of towering pines and hemlocks; to\nhear the whistling calls of the wood-birds; the murmuring, sobbing\nlaughter of some fairy brooklet close at hand; to feel the touch of a\nfugitive gentle breeze upon one\u2019s brow\u2014this was the fate of the\nTojin-san!\n\nFor how long he could not have told he lay unmoving, staring dreamily at\nthe sky above him, a sense of contentment, of rest, of comfort\u2014such as\none might feel after a long, exhausting race, permeating his whole\nbeing.\n\nThen suddenly upon his consciousness there stole another sense\u2014the dim,\nexquisite feeling of a loved presence close at hand, and he raised\nhimself slowly, weakly upon his elbow. It was like music in his ears,\nthat faint, caressing voice he had listened for for so many days:\n\n\u201cTo-o-jin-san! Goran nasai!\u201d (august glance deign).\n\nShe was kneeling by his side, her questioning, wistful face hovering\nabove his own; her soft, timid little fingers touching his brow, his\neyes, his lips.\n\nHe felt himself falling backward again, as if in some delicious swoon,\nfrom which there could be no awakening. Then like the dimly remembered\nscenes of a vague dream, he seemed to recall a time wherein he had\nwandered through some unending woods, seeking, seeking! Now the dream\nhad ended in this\u2014this that was part of the dream itself!\n\nShe stirred ever so slightly, and as if he feared she might vanish by\nher mere stirring, he reached up the great, once mighty arms, and sought\nto envelop her within them.\n\nHer hair had the odor of the pine woods; upon her lips there was the\nbreath of some sweet incense. She remained passive within his grasp, but\npresently her voice, with its tremulous tone of tears, broke the spell\nbetween them\u2014reached him with the gentle appeal of a child distressed.\n\n\u201cHonorable water good for thirsty throat,\u201d she said.\n\nNow he released her, and she drew back to find the little cup beside\nher. He let her raise his head and bring the cup to his lips, and with\nhis eyes still hungrily upon her he drank the water.\n\nHe was content merely to gaze at her, though it troubled him that she no\nlonger smiled. She said in a very stricken voice:\n\n\u201cAugust food also good for Tojin-san. Bud, alas! I god nudding bud rice!\nThas good enough for Tama\u2014bud nod for you, Tojin-san.\u201d\n\nEven in his weakness he laughed joyously at the mere notion of food fit\nfor her being unfit for him, and at the sound of his low laughter her\nface lighted up wonderfully.\n\n\u201cYou gittin\u2019 better!\u201d she exclaimed joyously. \u201cNow I bring you thad\nrice. Too bad\u2014bud thas all I got! I go ad grade temple at top those\nhill. Priest too fat run quick to catch at me.\u201d She laughed with an\nelement of her old mischievous defiance.\n\nAs he did not speak, too intent upon gazing at and marvelling on the\nfairness of her face, her expression changed to one of melting anxiety.\n\n\u201cI am lig\u2019 unto those foolish karasu [crow], who mek chatter all thad\ntime. Condescend forgive me, Tojin-san. I nod speag agin mebbe for\u2014for\ntwenty hour\u2014yaes?\u201d\n\nNo one had ever kissed her hands before. The sound, the touch aroused\nher wonder, her apprehension. She drew her hands instinctively from his,\nand for a moment held them up before her, almost as if she looked at\nthem. Then with an impetuous, laughing little sob she thrust them back\nupon him:\n\n\u201cDo agin ad my hands, Tojin-san! I lig\u2019 those,\u201d she said.\n\nIt was not alone the pallor of bodily illness, but of some mental pain\nthat swept over his face, as he set the little hands back into her lap,\nreverently, gently.\n\nLater, when strengthened with the simple meal she made for him, she told\nhim how the night before she had come upon him in the Atago Yama woods.\nIt was but two days since the terrible events at the Shiro had driven\nthem both forth into this enchanted wilderness. He had been ill but a\nnight; yet it seemed to him many days.\n\nNo, she had not heard him calling her, nor had she called him. This,\ntoo, was part of the dream; but something louder than any human cry had\nreached her in her hiding-place in the mountains, the intuitive, certain\nsense of the blind. She had retraced her steps down the mountain-side,\nand had gone cautiously seeking in the woods for him; and the gods had\nguided her aright. Ah! to his very feet.\n\nShe humbly begged him to pardon her for leaving him; but she had thought\nthis was the only way she could save him from those who hated her.\nNow\u2014now she wished to repeat the prayer and promise she had made him\ndown in the old Shiro. Never again would she desert him. She would\nalways abide by his side. She humbly entreated that he would permit her\nto remain with him, even if she must follow him throughout the world as\na slave, the meekest and lowliest of servants.\n\nHe did not reply, so obsessed was he still with the vision of her\nloveliness. Throughout the golden afternoon he lay there watching her\nevery little movement, her slightest change of expression; thrilling\nunder the touch of her hands, the sound of her voice; obeying her\nslightest request; permitting her to serve him as if he were a babe and\nshe his mother.\n\nGradually the murmuring of the crickets in the grass, the soft chirping\nof the birds, even the babbling of the brook, the sighing of the gentle\nbreezes seemed to soften their tone to one concerted murmuring lullaby.\nA veil crept gently over the sky, shutting out the sun and its light.\n\nShe put a pillow of pine needles beneath his head, and she covered him\nover with a downy, silken mantle that smelled of temple incense and was\ngorgeous beyond words with the golden embroidery of some sacred order.\n\nAnd presently as he drowsed deliciously under the warm fragrant silk, he\nfelt her stirring at his feet, and her tired little voice came\nwhispering to him as if from very far away:\n\n\u201cSayonara, Tojin-san! Imadzuka!\u201d (Now we rest).\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  XIX\n\n\nONE does not always count the gilded days of summer in the mountains. It\nmight have been a month, a week, or a few days in which the Tojin-san\nand the fox-woman wandered over Atago Yama. But the season of Little\nHeat passed into that of the Great Heat, and they did not know it.\n\nThe mountains were cool; there was a green wonder world about them. Soft\nshadows flickered across the sun-burned paths; intangible breezes fanned\nthem with their scented breaths. They trod a carpeted paradise that was\nall beauty, all harmony. They felt like the birds which blew over them,\nor came shyly, timorously at her calling to share her morsel of rice and\nberries.\n\nEven had he desired to do so, the Tojin could not have found his way\nback to the city. Seven-eighths of the province is mountain land, and\nshe had led him over paths she alone knew, and indeed had made\u2014narrow,\nhidden little paths that traced their unending way in and out the\ndensest portion of the wooded mountains.\n\nThey passed no humblest lodge, no smallest temple even, though he knew\nthat there were many in the mountains, and the music of their bells\nreached them at times like the tingling call of a familiar voice very\nfar away.\n\nShe knew every secret corner of the mountains. The purest springs,\nhidden pools and lakelets, caves of unbelievable wonder and beauty, she\nshowed now to the Tojin-san.\n\nClouds of sacred pigeons followed her as if they knew her. They were of\nher own Temple Tokiwa, she told him, and were part of her heritage from\nthe ancestors of her mother who had founded the temple. She knew them\nall\u2014every single bird, so she told him proudly; knew, too, why they were\nwandering thus far from home. They were seeking her, their guardian, who\nhad been gone for so many, many days.\n\nFor the first time she recoiled from him when he suggested that they\nutilize the birds for food. Up till then they had depended entirely upon\nthe seemingly inexhaustible stores of rice she seemed to have hidden in\na hundred different places in the mountains, and upon the fish trapped\nin the streams, the fruit and wild vegetables which were plentiful\nenough. She had never dreamed of the pigeons as an addition to their\ndiet, and her expression was quite tragic and piteous.\n\n\u201cThey are of the temple,\u201d reverently she said. \u201cThe gods love them, and\nI\u2014I may not eat the forbidden meat.\u201d\n\n\u201cForbidden meat?\u201d\n\nShe looked at him timidly with a new expression in her face. It was as\nif a flame had crept into her eyes and set its touch upon her lips. She\nhad crossed her hands upon her bosom.\n\n\u201cI, too, am Ni-no ama, like unto my mother,\u201d she softly said. \u201cFor both\nour sin I got mek thad atonement unto Buddha!\u201d\n\nHe regarded her in a spell-bound silence. There was something about her\nwords, her actions, withal their simplicity, that held a sacredness.\nShe, against whom the hostile hands of an entire Buddhist community had\nbeen raised, a priestess of the Buddha! It was impossible, preposterous!\nShe had been but a child when her parents were killed. What could they\nhave taught her thus early?\n\nShe seemed to realize from his silence his doubts, and suddenly she\nstepped back, raising her hands high above her head, bringing the tips\nof the fingers together. A moment she stood with her face upraised, her\neyes closed.\n\n\u201cFor you, oh Tojin-san, I will danze! It is as my mother have tich me\nthe danze for the gods. Haiken suru!\u201d (Adoringly look).\n\nFrom side to side she swayed, her small, exquisite hands moving in the\nlanguorous motions of the dance. Never in even the greatest temples of\nKioto or Nikko had he seen a priestess perform as she was doing. He\nthought of the glittering robes of the hundred nuns chanting their\nsplendid ritual before some gorgeous altar, of their impassive, stony\nfaces, their ebony hair, their narrow, inscrutable eyes. But she, with\nher unbound hair of gold, her bosom and face of snow!\n\nYes, they were right, they of Fukui! She was an incarnation of the Sun\nGoddess, tripping like the Spring upon the earth, and inspiring in the\nhearts and eyes of all who saw her sensations of adoration, and of those\nwho dared not look, of fear\u2014fear and hatred!\n\nShe had stolen the face and vestments of the goddess, so they had said;\nbut her soul was that of a fox!\n\nThere burst upon him suddenly a realization of the impassable gulf\nbetween them, and with the knowledge came an overwhelming sense of\nrevolution, the mad, irresistible passion of the primitive man who knows\nonly his desires.\n\nBut a moment later she was at his feet, her pure, trusting face smiling\nappealingly up at him.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                   XX\n\n\nNOW came the Season of White Dew. The days were unbelievably beautiful.\nThe first russet touch of the autumn barely cast its shadow upon the\ngreen about them, the yellow tints of leaf and flower mellowed into a\ndull crimson glory.\n\nBut the nights turned chill, and in the early mornings there was the\nheavy print of the frosted dew upon the ground.\n\nUnconsciously they quickened their lagging footsteps, and turned into\nshorter paths that would bring them sooner to Sho Kon Sha, the cemetery\nof \u201cSoul Beckoning Rest,\u201d which was to be the end of their journey. This\nwas her home, so she said\u2014the gardens of the temples of her ancestors.\nOnly a few hill-lengths from the cemetery was the Temple Tokiwa,\ndeserted, almost in ruins, but\u2014her home!\n\nThere her parents had lived\u2014and died! Here she had been happy in her\nsolitary childhood, hidden and sheltered by fearful but loving parents.\nHere her mother had taught her to dance for the gods and entreat them\nwith her prayers; here her father had told her of another God, another\nheaven. After her parents were gone, the aged temple had been her only\nsure place of refuge, a sanctuary wherein even the stoutest of hunters\ndared not penetrate; for the wrathful gods still stared with their\ndreadful eyes upon the affronted altar, and at the very portals the\ndemons Ni-o, guarding the sacred gates, might no longer be propitiated.\n\nNow confidently, happily, with the pride of a child thither she was\nleading the Tojin, eager to show him this beautiful shelter she wished\nto share with him forever. But, ah! how sweet had been the mountain\npaths this summer, and why need they hasten? The restless, vindictive\nlittle city was very far away, and the fox-woman trod upon territory all\nher own, hers by right of every instinct, and by the very law of the\nland, did she but know it, which made her proper heir to her ancestors\u2019\nproperty.\n\nNow they were very near to the temple, and soon she would spread forth\nher arms and say to the Tojin:\n\n\u201cBehold, dear exalted one, here is my honorable home. Condescend to step\nupon its floor.\u201d\n\nAnd in her mind she fancied the face of the Tojin would shine with a\ngreat light of happiness.\n\nNow he said to her dreamily, as he followed her through a shadowy\nby-path which crept into a sunlit forest of dripping willow-trees:\n\n\u201cSome day I shall awake. It cannot be true that I am here with you alone\nin these wild mountains, wandering along in this aimless bliss!\u201d\n\nBecause she put back her hand, and he took it perforce in his own, he\ncontinued in his low, wooing voice:\n\n\u201cAnd when I wake, little Tama, I will know the truth of what you once\nsaid to me: that our dreams are the most beautiful of all.\u201d\n\nShe stopped and turned back to him, with the tall foliage and grass\nalmost burying her in its thickness:\n\n\u201cYou god no udder dream more beautiful?\u201d she questioned wistfully.\n\n\u201cNo other,\u201d he answered softly. \u201cHave you?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo. This is mos\u2019 bes\u2019 dream of all\u2014jost be \u2019lone wiz you ad those\nmountains! Thas bes\u2019 dream in all the whole worl\u2019, Tojin-san!\u201d\n\nIn the silence that fell between them, and as he still clasped her\nhands, a momentary shadow flitted across her face, and she stood\nwide-eyed, as though she saw a vision.\n\n\u201cAlas!\u201d she said in such a mournful tone: \u201cDreams like unto thad mist.\nNow here so sweet, so\u2014so beyond our touch. Next hour gone\u2014gone perhaps\nforaever! Nod even the gods know where they gone!\u201d\n\nHe scarcely knew his own voice, so full of a deep encompassing\ntenderness and yearning was it:\n\n\u201cOur dream is to be different from others,\u201d he said solemnly. \u201cIt will\nnever end. Not for a lifetime, little Tama!\u201d\n\n\u201cIt surely goin\u2019 last foraever ad this worl\u2019?\u201d she asked with sceptical\nwistfulness.\n\n\u201cIf you wish it,\u201d said he huskily.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhen the sun was dipping down in the west, and but half its red face\nshowed above the shadowy hills of Hakusan, the fox-woman felt the fears\nseize her in their throttling grip again.\n\nShe stood like one under some spell, her back against the trunk of a\ngiant oak, her hair like a veritable aureole above her.\n\nDown in a little ravine, but a few feet from where she stood, the\nTojin-san was gathering dried sticks to build their evening fire. She\ncould hear him as he moved from point to point. Sometimes he whistled\nsoftly to himself, sometimes hummed vague snatches of song.\n\nFarther away\u2014at a distance beyond her sight, even if she could have\nseen\u2014she knew, with that intuitive certainty of the blind, that others\nwere passing over their tracks.\n\nHer hand sought her heart, and clung to it, as if to stop its beating.\nFear lent sudden wings to her feet, as with a little gasping cry she\nfled downward to the hollow where the Tojin labored. She was beside him\nbefore he had heard or seen her, and now in surprise he looked at her\nwhite little face of anguish.\n\n\u201cTama!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou speag right,\u201d she said, and could not smile with her white lips so\ntremulous, \u201cthas only\u2014beautiful dream. Thad mist gone\u2014away!\u201d\n\n\u201cDream! No, it\u2019s a beautiful reality. We are here, together, and nothing\nin the world shall ever tear us apart again.\u201d\n\n\u201cNothing in the worl\u2019,\u201d she repeated.\n\nSuddenly she covered her eyes, as if the light pained them. From behind\nher little sheltering hands came her voice, still with that note of\npleading terror:\n\n\u201cThey come\u2014tear you \u2019way from me now, Tojin-san! All the way\u2014how many\nmiles I kinnod say\u2014I see them! In my heart I know! Ad my ears I hear!\nThose feet\u2014ah, cannot you hear them also, kind Tojin-san? Listen!\u201d\n\nShe put up her hands, and they stood in a silence, straining for the\nsound that only she could hear, or believed she did.\n\nHe knew she was right. Her instinctive sense was keener than mere sight.\nSimply, with a tender strength that could not be resisted, he took her\nlittle hand in his.\n\n\u201cCome, Tama. We must reach Sho Kon Sha to-night.\u201d\n\n\u201cYaes,\u201d she murmured, and now there was a note of plaintive weariness in\nher voice. \u201cI thought she said the gods were good, an\u2019 that perhaps they\ngoin\u2019 forgit us here in those mountains.\u201d\n\nShe sighed and moved along step by step beside him.\n\n\u201cNow I know,\u201d she said, \u201cI god new visitor ad my heart!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is it, little Tama?\u201d\n\n\u201cFear,\u201d she said, \u201c\u2014for you!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat blessed nonsense!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou are Tojin, like unto my father,\u201d she said, in a voice of anguish,\n\u201cand oh, all those days my life how I kin forgit what happen unto my\nfather!\u201d\n\n\u201cThat was many years ago,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a New Japan we live in\nto-day, and I have friends\u2014even in Fukui!\u201d\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  XXI\n\n\nA NEW impulse drew them now more closely together. Side by side, pressed\nclosely to each other, they travelled swiftly toward Sho Kon Sha. They\ndared not wait to eat, to sleep, to rest but a moment, and the night\nfound them still moving onward.\n\nThey spoke scarcely at all to each other; but she rested like a child in\nthe curve of his arm, her head against his breast. Once she sighed, ever\nso faintly\u2014a little breath of weariness that escaped her almost\nunconsciously.\n\nInstantly he stopped, lifted her face in his hands, and, in the dark\nwoods, anxiously examined it.\n\n\u201cYou are crying, Tama.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo-o,\u201d she said.\n\n\u201cBut your face is wet.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is the dew upon my face,\u201d she said.\n\nAgain they moved onward. About them towered the giant trees, silhouetted\nagainst the starlit skies. Sometimes as the ascent became more steep,\nthey clung to outjutting shrubs and bushes, and once when he fancied her\nfootsteps slightly dragged, he lifted her bodily in his arms and carried\nher for a space. But she begged to be permitted to walk. There was still\na great distance to go. He must not be hampered by her burden. She\nwished to help\u2014not hinder him.\n\nThe night grew more still, and a penetrating chill descended about them.\nHe drew off his coat, to put about her; but she showed him where she had\nstrapped to her back, with the string of her obi, the quilt. He had\nthought it part of her sash, and was all compunction that he had\npermitted her to carry even so slight a load. She laughed in her little\ntremulous way, and challenged him to untie the knot. In the dark his\nbig, clumsy fingers picked at it in vain. Again she laughed,\ncaressingly, with a teasing tenderness, and she drew the little bundle\nround in front. It fell at her feet in a soft, silken heap.\n\nHe was for wrapping it several times around her; but she insisted she\nwould not proceed even the fraction of a step unless he shared the quilt\nwith her. And so, his arm again about her, under the down-padded temple\nquilt, they moved along in the chilly darkness, defying with the new\nwarmth of their hearts and bodies the cold of the autumn night.\n\nThus all night long they travelled, their feet moving mechanically, but\nnever unwillingly, pausing not at all to look backward over the paths\nthey had followed, but pressing steadily onward toward their goal. And\nthe first pale streak of dawn found them climbing up the last height,\nwithin the very sight of Sho Kon Sha.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  XXII\n\n\nAS the laggard sun crept stealthily out of the east, a vision of\nextraordinary loveliness burst upon them. There, within but the length\nof a single hill and field from them, the ragged peaks of the old Temple\nTokiwa raised a lordly head above the sun-flecked pines.\n\nStripped of its wealth, but not its beauty, showing the ravages of fire\nand assault upon its burnished walls, deserted, falling to the decay of\nneglected age, it was more compellingly majestic than any of the famous\nstructures the Tojin-san had seen.\n\nThe approach was over terraces made of countless stone steps, many of\nthem now loose and entirely overgrown with grass and weeds.\n\nThe pagoda was of seven stories, its crimson eaves still fringed with\nshattered wind-bells.\n\nA swarm of pigeons flew about its eaves and roof, and came to meet them\nin a voluble, almost intelligent cloud. She ran to meet them, holding\nout her arms and calling and chirping to them. Dipping into her long\nsleeves, she brought up handfuls of the rice she had not forgotten to\nbring with her, and threw it generously among them. They pecked at her\nhand, seeking scoldingly for the food, and sprang upon her shoulders,\nher head, her hands. Presently, chidingly, she drove them off, shaking\nher sleeves at them and waving them back.\n\nNow she drew the Tojin into the temple, pushing back its rusty doors\nwith a careful hand.\n\n\n[Illustration:\n\n  TAMA AT THE TEMPLE TOKIWA]\n\n\nHe was struck with the empty majesty of the interior. It had been\nstripped of all its treasures, save the great stone images, which still\nsat inscrutably upon their thrones.\n\nThe altar was devoid of vestments; no twinkling lights or swinging\ncensers burned their incense for the delectation of the gods; yet the\npenetrating odor of sandalwood and the dim fragrance of umegaku and the\npine seemed to cling about the very air.\n\nBy the great main altar, the hideous old god Bunzura glared at them from\nbeneath his sleepy eyelids, resting fatuously upon his haunches. Before\nhim was the bar where once thousands of slips of paper containing\nwritten prayers, were tied. Now it was entirely stripped and glittered\nup in the face of the god in a mocking irony.\n\nTama moved softly by the image, pausing only to put her hand upon its\nknee, caressing it gently, as if with a conciliating, loving pat. It was\nevident she did not stand in awe of the gods. She had been born among\nthem; knew them as part of her own silent family, exiled like herself\nupon the mountains.\n\nShe even put her cheek against the head of a peculiarly sinister-looking\nimage, who was attended by three smaller gods. The Tojin-san recognized\nthe group. They were in every Buddhist temple. Ema, the Lord of Hell,\nwith his assistant torturers, one of which wielded a sword, one a pen,\nand one a priest\u2019s staff.\n\nNow she made her first prostration, bowing lowly, and slipping devoutly\nto her knees. She was in a little alcove wherein no image whatever was\nto be seen.\n\nAs he stood wondering why she should choose this empty corner for her\nprayers, he perceived upon the wall a curious print or scroll. It was a\nfaded paper chromo, apparently many years old, the picture upon it\nalmost obliterated, the ends of the paper showing charred marks where it\nmust have once started to burn.\n\nA curious sensation stirred within the Tojin, such a feeling as one\nmight only know when in a land of gods one sees for the first time an\nemblem or a token of one\u2019s own true God; for the tattered, shabby scroll\nupon the wall was a picture of the Christ!\n\nShe seemed to sense his emotion and excitement, and, still kneeling,\nraised a pair of smiling eyes:\n\n\u201cIt is my father\u2019s God,\u201d she said. \u201cTo him, mos\u2019 of all; I speag me my\npetitions.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy to him?\u201d he asked, deeply moved.\n\n\u201cBecause,\u201d she answered simply, \u201che, too, lig\u2019 me, knew trobble. Thas\nwhy I speag to him my heart\u2014account I _know_ he\u2014listen!\u201d\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                 XXIII\n\n\nTHE Tojin-san took what measures he could for their future protection.\nAn exploration throughout the seven-storied pagoda brought to light some\nold weapons\u2014a rifle and a sword, once evidently her father\u2019s. They were\nout of date, and in bad condition, but better than nothing, he decided.\n\nAs she had shown him a small exit in the rear, of which the outside of\nthe pagoda gave no inkling, he decided to barricade the main entrance.\nThis he did, after a gigantic effort, by piling several of the images\nbefore it until they effectually blocked the entrance. As their faces\nwere turned outward he surmised their weird effect upon the marauders\nwhen, after forcing the doors, they should find themselves fronted with\nso formidable a guard as these.\n\nNo one, so she said, had stepped across the threshold since that\nfrightful day when, in their fanatical hatred, the danka had murdered\nher parents.\n\nShe had always been kept hidden in one of the upper stories of the\npagoda, and at this time no one had seen her save her parents.\n\nOn that day she had fled to the very roof in her first impulse of mortal\nterror; but even from there, with her ears covered by her hands, she had\nheard the cries of her father and her mother, and the wild, brutal,\ntriumphant shouting of those who had killed them.\n\nA strange sense of quiet came suddenly upon her. She crept stealthily,\nbut fearlessly, back down the seven stories of the pagoda, and opened\nthe great doors that gave ingress to the temple. There for the first\ntime the people of Fukui saw her, standing like a flame upon the altar\nof the great Shaka, whither she had leaped from the door in a single\nbound.\n\nHer hair was more glittering than the altar itself; her eyes, her skin\nwere of a color no man in Fukui had ever seen before. She seemed to\ntheir dazzled eyes a vengeful spirit, whom the Lord Buddha had uplifted.\nThey stood as if petrified, staring at her as she swayed before them on\nthe very lap of the god. Then, with a concerted cry of superstitious\nfear and horror, they slunk from the temple, leaving her alone\u2014with her\ndead!\n\nAs the Tojin looked about the great chamber, he felt himself almost\nunconsciously rehearsing that grim scene of the past. He knew why her\nhand had been set against the whole world, why she had terrified and\ndefied her tormentors. Even now, as she repeated the tale to him her\nface was white and fixed.\n\n\u201cNow you know,\u201d she said, \u201cwhy I am call the fox-woman! Perhaps thas\ntrue \u2019bout me. Mebbe I am gagama!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou are not,\u201d he said, \u201ceven in spite of them.\u201d\n\nShe was silent, staring out before her in some abstracted trance.\nSuddenly she sighed:\n\n\u201cI nod lig\u2019 udder people! Thas bedder nod come near unto me. I mek the\ntrobble, and sometimes\u2014the death for those who seek me! Down in Fukui\nperhaps already they have tol\u2019 you of thad\u2014Gihei Matsuyama?\u201d\n\n\u201cThey told me,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I do not believe them.\u201d\n\n\u201cThas true,\u201d she said, and there was a plaintive note of weariness in\nher voice. \u201cHe cum lig\u2019 unto a storm that fall down from those sky wiz\nno warning. When I am come from my door, he there to await me. He speag\nmy name sof\u2019\u2014kind\u2014lig\u2019 you, Tojin-san! No one aever speag unto me lig\u2019\nthad before. No! They bud cry to me those name and curse and throw the\nstone upon me! Bud he! he speag lig\u2019 you augustness.\n\n\u201cAd firs\u2019 my heart stan\u2019 still\u2014it \u2019fraid. I thing of my father\u2014my\nmother, and I am \u2019fraid he come kill me also. Then again he speag my\nname sof\u2019 and kind, an\u2019 I say ad my heart: \u2018Thas god come veesit me!\u2019\nAn\u2019 so\u2014an\u2019 so\u2014for him I mek the sacred danze. But when I am through, I\nknow I mek meestake\u2014thas nod god ad all! Thas jost man from Fukui!\n\n\u201cThen my heart laugh wizin me, and my feet carry me quick across those\nmountain. I loog nod bag, though I hear his voice, for I am thad \u2019fraid\nagin. I know nod why, Tojin-san.\u201d\n\nHer voice faltered. She went a timid step nearer to him, touched his\nhand questioningly with her own.\n\n\u201cThe blind see wiz one thousand inner eye, bud, ah, alas! they see nod\nalso for another. How could I know thad the foolish one would nod loog\nupon his steps?\u201d\n\nShe shuddered and covered her face with her little shaking hands.\n\n\u201cHow many days I waiting ad thad pool\u2014jos\u2019 waiting, Tojin-san, wiz the\nhope that mebbe some day he goin\u2019 come bag out those water.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou must never think of it again,\u201d he said. \u201cYou were entirely\nblameless.\u201d\n\n\u201cSometime I thing,\u201d she went on wistfully, \u201cthad mebbe those Fukui\npeople right, an me?\u2014I am truly a fox-woman. For see what trobble,\nwhat\u2014death I mek for those who see me. Even for you, kind Tojin-san,\nalas! I mus\u2019 bring you those pain!\u201d\n\n\u201cNo\u2014that is not so,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cI know nod when or how firs\u2019 I have hear of your comin\u2019. They talk of\nnothing else at Fukui, an\u2019 I am always listen, though they see me nod.\nSomething tell me, when you come all those worl\u2019 goin\u2019 change for me!\nThas\u2019 why I wait, wait, all thad winter for your comin\u2019.\u201d\n\nA smile, wistful, yet joyous, crept over her lips.\n\n\u201cYou din know,\u201d she said, \u201cthad firs\u2019 day in Fukui, thad I too am ad\nyour house to welcome you. Bud me? I am nod wizin thad house. I am out\nin thad snow. I kinnod speag unto you lig\u2019 those others. I may nod even\ntouch you honorable hand. Bud all same I know you are Tojin\u2014lig\u2019 unto my\nfather! Oh, how glad\u2014how joy I am! Though my feet, my hand, my nose, my\nhonorable ears perish wiz those cold, still I am wait for you. When all\nthose honorable exalted ones gone\u2014then\u2014then I, too, call you name!\nTo-o-jin-san!\u201d\n\nShe made a little shivering motion.\n\n\u201cBud sup-pose I bring you also thad\u2014thad death?\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is nothing to fear,\u201d he said steadily, \u201cand if there were, I am\nstrong enough to face any peril with you at my side!\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, my mind travel bag on thad past! I hear again my father\u2019s voice\u2014my\nmother\u2019s cry! I am toaching their beloved body. I am tek them in thad\nblack night unto the Sho Kon Sha, and wiz these liddle hands, all alone,\nI am put them in their\u2014grave! Tojin-san! Ah-h!\u201d\n\nShe hid her face against his arm.\n\n\u201cIf they should do to you the same!\u201d she said.\n\n\u201cFor myself I have no fear,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cWhy nod leave me now?\u201d she urged. \u201cGo bag alone down those mountain. No\none speag hard to you who so moch mek respect. Wiz me there is moch\ntrobble, an\u2019 mebbe worse!\u201d\n\n\u201cWithout you,\u201d he said, \u201cthere is more trouble, and a deep pain\u2014an\naching void that could never again be filled. With you here alone, cut\noff from all the world, holding your little hands in my own, looking\ninto your face, why, even facing death, I am content\u2014happier than I had\never dreamed it possible to be.\u201d\n\n\u201cThas beautiful word you speag,\u201d she said. \u201cBud if the gods\u2014\u201d\n\nShe folded her hands across her breast and closed her eyes in prayer.\n\n\u201cTemmei itashikata kore maku!\u201d she whispered lowly. (From the decree of\nheaven there is no escape.)\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  XXIV\n\n\nTHE rapping on the temple doors was not loud or menacing, but it was\ninsistent, questioning. The Tojin-san drew the fox-woman to the winding\nstaircase which led up the seven stories to the tower above.\n\nOnce before Tama had been sent up yonder. Then she had gone willingly,\neven frantically. Now she made no movement up the stairs. Instead, she\nturned her back upon them, and faced the Tojin fairly. Upon her face a\nsmile shone luminously as a star. Simply, steadily, she laid her hands\nin those of the man.\n\nFor a moment he held them in his own, his eyes fixed yearningly upon her\nface, and even while the knocks resounded louder upon the door the\nclouds cleared from his mind.\n\nLooking into those uplifted, adoring eyes he forgot all else. A sound\nthat was half a sob, half a passionate cry escaped him. He reached out\nirresistibly and took her into his arms. For the first time his lips\nhungrily, passionately found her own, and clung in a kiss that over all\nthe years of a lifetime neither he nor she might ever forget. They saw\nnothing, heard nothing, felt only that close, encompassing embrace that\nmade them one indeed.\n\nThen upon their dream at last broke the lowly calling, almost whispering\nvoice of the one without. They drew apart, though their eyes and hands\nstill clung unconsciously together.\n\n\u201cSensei. Sensei! Sensei!\u201d\n\nIt was the voice of the student, Junzo!\n\nWith a low cry, the Tojin was at the doors, wrenching and tearing the\ngreat images away with the strength of a veritable giant. At last the\ndoors were reached, and these in turn thrust aside.\n\nThere, with their anxious, faithful young faces pale with apprehension\nin regard to his fate, were his three loyal boys, Junzo, Higo, and\nNunuki. They fell literally upon him with tears and shouts of joy. They\ndevoured him with their youthful embraces. Higo clung to one hand, Junzo\nto the other; and at the back of him Nunuki hovered, seeking to examine\nthe wound upon his neck where the sword of the Daimio\u2019s high officer had\npierced. It was healed, so well had the fox-woman cared for it.\n\nNow, step by step, slowly, uncertainly, she crept toward them,\nwhite-faced, wild-eyed, every nerve in her thrilling, and reaching out\nblindly for the arms that had held her, the lips that had clung to her\nown. But she stopped with her tragic little face clasped on either side\nwith her hands as the joyous voices of the students reached her. They\nwere telling the Tojin of the coming of his friends to Fukui; of the\nreturn of the Echizen Prince; of the punishments to be meted out to\nthose who had attacked him; the rewards for those who had defended.\n\n\u201cEven we,\u201d said Higo, with boyish pride, \u201care to have our due reward,\nfor we have honorably been chosen as the body-guard of the Be-koku-jin\n(American), who has come to Fukui to minister to the unfortunate one,\nand to take her, if your excellency is willing, to the capital.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe unfortunate one?\u201d repeated the Tojin dully. \u201cTo whom do you refer?\u201d\n\nThe boys stared at him in round-eyed amazement.\n\nThe fox-woman of course! Who else? That unfortunate one to whom the\nwhole heart of Fukui had melted like the snows of her native mountains\nin the Spring. It was the work of the Tojin himself that had\naccomplished the miracle; for he had pointed out to them all the\nabsurdity, the wrong of the ancient superstition, which had been kept\nalive chiefly throughout the years by the hatred of those who were\nignorant or fanatic.\n\nNow the Prince himself was convinced a wrong had been committed, and\nFukui was taking its cue from him. The friend of the Tojin coming at\nsuch a time had also had its effect upon the people; and now the\nremorseful ones were prepared to atone for the past if that were\npossible. It was the suggestion of the Be-koku-jin, however, that the\ngirl should be taken out of Fukui.\n\nHer history had created a sensation among her father\u2019s race in Tokio,\nand there they were eager, anxious to receive her among them. But it was\nfor the Tojin alone to say. The change of heart in Fukui was complete.\nThere was nothing further to fear.\n\n\u201cEven I,\u201d said Nunuki with Spartan-like courage, \u201cam prepared to look\nupon her. We have learned from the tongue of our own Prince and from the\nBe-koku-jin that many females of your race have her skin and hair and\neye-color. Is it not so, honored teacher?\u201d\n\nBut the Tojin-san was silent. His face had turned strangely gray; his\narms hung limply by his side. He was staring out before him fixedly as\nthough he saw a vision.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  XXV\n\n\n\u201cBUD speag to me as before! Touch me wiz those hands\u2014those lips!\nAdoringly look upon me! My honorable heart and body are cold. Condescend\nto warm them!\u201d\n\nShe had followed him down a declivity, unmindful of the students who\npressed with their grave, wondering young faces closely about her.\n\nShe could not understand why now no longer she might travel beside him,\nhis sheltering arm supporting her; why she might not even take his hand,\nor rest her wet cheek against his sleeve. In the three days they had\nbeen upon the journey back to Fukui, he had seemed to avoid her, almost\nas if he feared her.\n\nOnce he tried to explain, stupidly, and with a forced coldness.\n\nThings were very different now. When alone, they were like lost children\nand the silent woods and mountains had put strange dreams and fancies\ninto their heads, so that they had wandered along in a blind, gilded\ndelirium. Now they had awakened. They must go back to the city, where\nthey would be like other people, and where, shortly, their ways must\nseparate. It was for her good. She would understand some day.\n\nShe must forget the mountain days, or think of them only as a dream that\nhad vanished, as she herself had predicted it would, like the mist.\n\nShe was very stupid, very stubborn, pathetically dense. She did not wish\ntheir paths to separate\u2014she would not have it so. No, though they tore\nher from him by force. She would return to him. Did he not recall the\nwords he had spoken when he declared the dream would never end unless\nshe wished it. She did not wish it. She never would. Patiently,\npersistently she entreated him, until he was beside himself and felt his\nstrength of mind weakening, and in desperation turned to his students\nfor help. He bade them explain to her more clearly than he could do the\nnew life she was soon to lead\u2014of the change in fortunes that had come to\nher.\n\nManfully, but in the bungling, uncertain language of boys they tried to\nobey him. The unfortunate one, as unconsciously they called her, was\nsoon to see, promised the gentle Junzo. There was to be an honorable\noperation upon her eyes. These western wizards of science, said the\nJapanese student, had given sight to hundreds in their own land. The\nTojin, himself once a doctor, had diagnosed her trouble as an invisible\ncataract of a congenital nature, not uncommon nor difficult of removal.\nHe had sent for a great and eminent surgeon who was sojourning in the\ncapital. He had come all the way to Fukui, at the bidding of the Tojin.\nHe was a miracle-worker, whose fame encircled the globe, said the boy\nwith a kindling eye.\n\nA hundred friends awaited her in Tokio, so Higo courteously informed\nher. They were eager and anxious to receive her\u2014Japanese as well as\nforeigners. To them Tama was to be sent; for Fukui had been unkind to\nher, and she would be happier away from it. She would understand\nby-and-by, they promised her.\n\nShe listened patiently, but densely, as if what they told her but half\nreached her understanding. That she was to be sent away into some\ndistant country\u2014very far from the Temple Tokiwa and Atago Yama\u2014an\nimmeasurable distance away from the Tojin-san\u2014this alone she\ncomprehended.\n\nHer mother had taught her that the life of a Buddhist nun must be one\nlong act of expiation for sins and faults committed in some former\nstate. She tried dazedly to conceive of the terrible crimes of which she\nmust have once been guilty that now she was to be punished so\ndreadfully; and she reached out blindly for the only comfort possible\nfor her in the world now\u2014the voice, the touch of the Tojin-san, who had\nheld her in his arms!\n\nThey travelled by the public roads of the mountain that she had so\ncarefully avoided. They passed the nights as guests of the priests of\nthe mountain temples, who read the letters of the Prince of Echizen,\nwhich the students proudly exhibited, and with courteous and profound\nobeisances welcomed the travellers, even regarding the fox-woman with\neyes that were more speculative than resentful. Perhaps they alone of\nEchizen had best understood this little creature who had lived among\nthem, yet beyond their pale, for so long; for though they had not sought\nher, neither had they persecuted her, as they could readily have done.\nIndeed for years she had practically subsisted upon the food she\nsurreptitiously obtained from the temples\u2014some of which was\nunostentatiously placed as if prepared for her.\n\nThe journey back to Fukui was long and tortuous. Summer was gone\ncompletely. The days were cold; wind and rain came about them and drove\nthem constantly into refuges of one sort and another; but after many\ndays they came at last to the foot-hills of the mountains, passed\nthrough these into the pine woods, through bamboo groves and camphor\ngroves, till they came to the Winged Foot River, which brought them to\ntheir destination.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  XXVI\n\n\nTHE last courteous and obsequious emissary of the Prince of Echizen had\nbowed himself out of the apartment of the Tojin-san, having sonorously\ndelivered the speeches of regret of their master.\n\nThe room was piled with the rich gifts sent by the now soon departing\nPrince, who was to take office directly under his imperial master. Now\nhe was sojourning in Echizen merely for the purpose of setting his\naffairs in order, and to do what lay in his power to set his former\nvassals in the new path they were to follow. Because he was the soul of\nchivalry and of justice, he was righting the wrong and slight paid to\nthe foreigner he had himself invited to his province.\n\nThe Tojin was inexpressibly weary. One deputation after another of the\ncitizens of Fukui had been arriving all day. They had commenced coming\nbefore daybreak, for the earlier a Japanese makes a call the greater he\nexpresses his respect.\n\nDelegations from the college presented petitions asking him to continue\nin Fukui, despite the change of government, and promising to make his\nstay there as happy and prosperous as lay within their power. He\nlistened to them all a bit grimly, making no effort to emulate their\npoliteness. Through the new interpreter who had entered his service, he\nmerely signified that he would take the matter under consideration. It\ncould not be decided at once.\n\nAt last he found himself alone with the Be-koku-jin, as they called his\nAmerican friend, who was in fact what the Japanese youth had said, an\neminent surgeon, with whom the Tojin had once been associated.\n\nHe was a small, but very dignified and important individual, whose most\nnoticeable features were his bright eyes, which twinkled incongruously\nbeneath a pair of fierce and uncompromising eyebrows. In his\nwell-fitting English clothes he was as out of place in the Tojin\u2019s great\nchamber as was the awkward furniture the deluded Genji Negato had chosen\nfor his master.\n\nNow he wandered about the room examining this and that article, and\nfingering the gifts brought by the Japanese with anticipatory fingers.\nHis eyes, however, turned constantly toward his friend, who, now that\nthey were for the first time alone together, had nothing to say.\n\nThe American surgeon was blessed with more than an ordinary\nintelligence, and he had learned a great deal from the students. A man\nseemingly absolutely wrapped up in his work, he had for years secretly\ncherished what he had become to believe was positively a vice. He was in\nfact as sentimental as a girl. When supposedly he was deeply engrossed\nin the study of some scientific work, locked in his study with stern\norders without that on no account was he to be disturbed, he was in fact\nreading some love-story\u2014or some romance of adventure usually enjoyed by\nvery youthful persons.\n\nNow he felt himself, as it were, part of a moving captivating drama cut\nout of life itself. No written page had ever absorbed him quite like\nthis love-story of the fox-woman and his friend the Tojin-san.\n\nThere was something appallingly tragic in that little listening, waiting\nfigure crouching there in the hall against the Tojin\u2019s door! The\nBe-koku-jin knew very well indeed what it was this forlorn little\ncreature of the mountains wanted; he knew, too, why it was that the\nTojin believed he could not give it to her.\n\nHe had come to Fukui chiefly because he had been unable to resist the\nlure of the story of the fox-woman as the Tojin-san had written it to\nhim. Now here he had stumbled upon a more entrancing story still.\n\nHe looked at his friend with his bright, clear eyes, and it occurred to\nhim that there was something wonderfully attractive about the man\u2019s\nface, grim and stony as was its expression, marked and marred as were\nthe features. The mouth was that of the revolutionist, grim, unyielding,\nalmost bitter; but the eyes were those of the poet, full of vague dreams\nand tenderness. The Be-koku-jin, assuming his most professional and\nuninterested manner, drew up a chair before his friend, and settled his\nplump little body comfortably into its depths.\n\n\u201cWhat are your plans?\u201d he asked abruptly.\n\nThe other did not look up.\n\n\u201cThat depends on you,\u201d he said quietly.\n\n\u201cYour refusal or acceptance of the position here depends on me?\u201d\n\n\u201cAbsolutely.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san leaned forward in his chair. His eyes were no longer dull,\nthere was a flame behind them.\n\n\u201cIf you are successful\u2014I remain here, in Fukui.\u201d\n\n\u201cAh. Er\u2014you mean as regards the operation?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\nThe Be-koku-jin regarded the tips of his fingers, which he had brought\nprecisely together, reflectively. He purposely avoided the other\u2019s\nalmost pleading glance. He cleared his throat gruffly, and frowned as he\ncrossed and recrossed his legs.\n\n\u201cWhy stay in any event?\u201d he demanded shortly, and put up his hand before\nthe other could answer. \u201cYour attitude is sentimental moonshine. You\nhave nothing to fear\u2014even if the operation is successful. I don\u2019t agree\nwith\u2014er\u2014what you have upon your mind.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is because you do not understand,\u201d said the Tojin wearily. \u201cShe is\nindeed what these people have imagined her\u2014a creature almost of another\nworld. She has lived only in her exquisite imagination, and because she\nis so beautiful and good and pure, to her all things too are fair. I was\nthe first to treat her humanly. She has made me something in her mind\u2019s\neye that it is preposterous even to think of. To her I\u2014_I_\u2014think of\nit!\u2014am a thing of beauty\u2014a flawless, perfect god!\u201d\n\nHe glared in a fierce sort of anguish at his friend, then stood up\nsuddenly and began pacing the floor in long irregular strides, to bring\nup suddenly again before the other.\n\n\u201cI do not wish her to see me\u2014at all! It will not be necessary. I ask you\nto take her for me to Tokio. There my sister will meet you, and take her\nwith her to America.\u201d He smiled for the first time. \u201cAt least I can do\nthat for her. I claimed the right to care for her, and refused even the\nsmallest help from Echizen and others. I have means\u2014other than my work;\nand what I have will be hers. I want no one else to do for her,\u201d he\nadded jealously. \u201cI can give her everything she needs or may want.\u201d\n\nThe Be-koku-jin was still studying his finger-tips, and there was a\ncurious expression upon his face. Suddenly he looked up directly at the\nTojin-san.\n\n\u201cWhy have the operation?\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san had turned very pale, but his voice was steady and strong.\n\n\u201cI have been through all that, my friend\u2014have wrestled, tortured my very\nsoul threshing it out. That\u2019s the solution of a coward. I am a man!\u201d\n\nSaid the other:\n\n\u201cI decline to perform the operation.\u201d\n\nThe Tojin-san stared at him as if he could not believe his ears. Then he\nbrought his hand so heavily down upon the other\u2019s shoulder that the\nsmaller man jumped under the touch.\n\n\u201cYou prefer to leave it to my bungling hands? Is that what you came to\nFukui to tell me?\u201d\n\n\u201cAs I said,\u201d said the other, wincing still under the Tojin\u2019s hand, \u201cin\nany event you exaggerate the effect upon her. Just as you say\u2014you are a\nman!\u201d\n\nHe stood up abruptly.\n\n\u201cYou will do it?\u201d demanded the Tojin hoarsely.\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d said the other, blinking angrily, \u201cI suppose I must.\u201d\n\nHe glared for a moment at his friend and then for the first time\npermitted himself to show some emotion in his voice and expression:\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ll fight it out between us. Sight or no sight, I know you will be\nthe same to her!\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is not alone my physical deformity,\u201d said the Tojin, steadily, \u201cbut\nthe fact that I am old enough to be her father. I have no longer the\nsplendid courage of youth to take her in spite of my misfortune. \u2018Old\nGrind,\u2019 that was what they called me, even in America!\u201d\n\n\u201cStuff!\u201d grunted the other. \u201c\u2018Old Bones\u2019 was the affectionate term\napplied to me. At this rate you\u2019ll put us in our dotage. A man under\nforty is in his best youth. I never felt younger in my life!\u201d he snorted\nindignantly.\n\n\u201cBut she is only a child,\u201d said the Tojin softly, \u201c\u2014a child in years\u2014and\nin heart!\u201d\n\n\u201cIf you could see her,\u201d said the other, with intense earnestness, \u201cas I\nhave had occasion to since last night, you would say differently. Child!\nwhy, man, she is a suffering, neglected, forsaken little woman! Open\nyour door to her. Don\u2019t let her think it as stony as your heart!\u201d\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                 XXVII\n\n\n\u201cTAMA!\u201d He opened the sliding doors at last. She did not stand, even\nwhen he spoke to her, but with a mute, wordless sob moved a pace nearer\nto him on her knees, and put her head submissively at his feet.\n\nHe stooped above her, his face working, his hands trembling. Gently he\nlifted her to her feet, only to release her instantly.\n\n\u201cStand there,\u201d he said, \u201cwhile I speak to you. You must do whatever the\nBe-koku-jin wishes of you. He tells me you have resisted his attempts to\nhelp you. If I tell you it is my wish, my very dear wish, you will go\nwith him, will you not?\u201d\n\nShe had put out her hands in the old blind way, and would have found him\nhad he not stepped back soundlessly as she approached him. She sighed in\nher distress, sighed and sobbed, like a tortured child. As he looked at\nher he felt his resolve far from weakening, becoming even more fixed. He\nwould not have her this way, blind in mind and in sight. She must know\nthe truth.\n\n\u201cThe Be-koku-jin will help you, Tama. Soon you are going to see, and\nthen things will appear very differently to you. What you believe now to\nbe beautiful may prove to be otherwise. For example,\u201d he continued\nsteadily, \u201cyou believe me other than I am in fact. My face is horrible.\nIt may even frighten you, as it did another woman once!\u201d\n\nA hush fell between them. Her eyes, very wide and dark, were fixed upon\nhis face, almost as though they were endowed with sight.\n\n\u201cThough all keep dark foraever ad my eyes, still I would know your\nface\u2014ad\u2014my heart!\u201d she said.\n\n\u201cIf you could really see\u2014\u201d he murmured hoarsely, almost imploringly.\n\n\u201cTojin-san!\u201d she said, \u201cthough all the worl\u2019 come before my eyes, I\nwould know you only! I would follow you\u2014yaes to thad worl\u2019s end\u2014if you\nbud would permit me.\u201d\n\nHe made a motion toward her, and with that smile still upon her face she\nwent blindly to meet him; but as quickly he had drawn back again, and a\nmoment later turned desperately toward the doors. She heard him slide\nthem open, felt the cold draught of air enter; then they closed again,\nand she heard only the sound of his steps as he passed along the paths.\n\nShe stood unmoving, listening until even the faintest sound of him was\ngone. Then suddenly she ran forward, feeling her way with her hands till\nshe came to his chair. Upon her knees she sank, sighing, sobbing, and\nburied her face upon her arms in the lap of the chair. Here the\nBe-koku-jin found her, sleeping her first sleep in many, many days,\nexhausted, but with a strange look of peace upon her face at last!\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                 XXVIII\n\n\nTHE whole of the city of Fukui had turned forth into its streets.\nJostling, pushing, shoving each other aside they elbowed their way to\nthe front. Children were raised to the shoulders of parents, boys\nclimbed upon roofs and poles and trees to see the spectacle.\n\nThe runners could hardly make a passageway through the throngs; but\nthere was no disorder, nor the slightest trace of antagonism, as the\nnorimono passed slowly down the streets. A respectful silence\u2014a silence\nthat had in it an element of torturing remorse more than curiosity\u2014fell\nupon the throng.\n\nThe bamboo hangings had been drawn back from the norimon, for it was the\ndesire of the Tojin that all of Fukui might see the fox-woman\nthemselves, see and judge what manner of creature was this they had\noutcast and persecuted through all her short life.\n\nBeside the Be-koku-jin, who had performed the miracle upon her eyes, she\nsat, her face white as snow, her wide, dazzled eyes gazing bewilderedly\nabout her, as if she were but half conscious of what she saw, but half\ncomprehended its meaning. They had confined most of her golden hair in\nsome shimmering gray veil that floated about her like a cloud, but\nlittle moist curls clung about her brow and blew from beneath the veil\nin tender, kissing tendrils about her cheeks.\n\nAt her feet, with her fascinated, infatuated eyes pinned upon her face,\ncrouched the maid Obun, who was pledged to her service by the Tojin-san.\n\nThe carriage was full of flowers that those friendly inclined had sent\nher, and the white hands of the fox-woman now aimlessly held a sheaf of\npoems and of love-letters penned her by ardent and impetuous youths, who\nfound their warm hearts and imaginations suddenly fired by her appealing\nhistory and beauty.\n\nShe spoke not at all, neither to answer the occasional word of\nre-assurance from the Be-koku-jin, nor the sometimes sobbing utterances\nof Obun, who seemed to find in her triumphal progress through the city\nan occasion for tears.\n\nIt grew darker, the air chillier. It was the Season of Cold Dew, when\neven the last gasping, fading beauty of the autumn ceased to appeal.\n\nAs the cort\u00e8ge reached the city\u2019s limits the crowds following gradually\ndrew back, and as it passed out into the great road whereon they were to\ntravel on the long journey, the last of the followers departed.\n\nBesides the Be-koku-jin and the maid Obun there were three students,\nproudly acting as body-guard. Several dozen bearers and servants also\naccompanied the party. No halt was made until the last rays of the\nsetting sun had disappeared entirely from the sky. Then the runners\nrested, and the Be-koku-jin alighting walked with his head bent, his\nhands behind him, as if plunged in some troubled thought. The students\ndrew together in a whispering group and watched the famous surgeon, or\nthrew furtive glances in the direction of the fox-woman, whom none of\nthem, as yet, had found the courage to look upon unmoved.\n\nShe was sitting upright in her norimon. The veil had blown back partly\nfrom her head, and her hair shone like the moon above her. Obun\nentreated her to rest, and when she received no response, herself drew\nthe hangings about them, and prepared the carriage for the night. As if\nshe had been a child, she laid the fox-woman down among the quilts, and\nthen herself crept under the covers, falling into a heavy sleep which\nlasted without a break the long night through as jerking, swinging,\ntossing on high upon the shoulders of the kurumaya they travelled on and\non toward Tokio.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                  XXIX\n\n\nIN the Shiro Matsuhaira the Tojin sat alone. They had taken away the\nuntasted meal upon the trays; his pipe lay unlit upon the hibachi; upon\na table hard by his American mail and papers lay untouched, unopened. He\nsat staring at something he held in his hands. It was no larger than his\nhand, worn, ragged, and soiled\u2014a little sandal of straw! This was all he\nhad left of her. She had passed out of his life as completely as the\nmist vanishes into the clouds.\n\nWhat were her thoughts now, he wondered dully\u2014now that she knew! He had\nseen her but once, after the operation. She had come like a shadowy\nlittle spirit into his chamber; and she had said nothing at all; had\nmerely looked at him out of her wide, hungry eyes. As silently as she\nhad come, so she had gone! Passively, obediently she had gone with the\nBe-koku-jin. This was what he had wished, had required of her. Then why\nthis aching, harrowing sense of anguish?\n\nHe closed his eyes, and gave himself up to the last luxury left him\u2014the\ncasting of his mind adrift upon a sea of memories, wherein he might\nrecall her as she had been, see her again pressed against his side,\nbreathe the dear fragrance of her hair, hear the music of her voice.\n\nOutside the wind was whistling and moaning through the leafless gardens,\nand a rain began to fall, pelting against his shutters, dripping in\nmelancholy splashes from the eaves. How barren, how God-forsaken seemed\nthis Yashiki of feudal days! He recalled his first night in this same\nchamber. How cold it had been, how penetratingly desolate!\n\nNow the winter was coming again. Soon the white snow would wrap its icy\nshroud about the Palace Matsuhaira, and there would be a silence\u2014a\nsilence less bearable than the grave\u2014out there on those mountains of\nsnow.\n\nBut the people of Fukui would come to him daily with their problems,\ntheir ambitions, and questions; and they would look to him as a guide\nand supporter along the new glittering road they wished to tread; for\nthe fever of the New Japan was animating the entire nation, and Fukui\nhad caught the epidemic. And they would bestow honors and favors upon\nthe Tojin-san, fame and riches, too; for at the period of the rebirth of\na nation its teachers become its prophets\u2014its leaders! Yes, there was\nsuch a career to his hand as he could never have attained in that other\nland, whither they were taking the fox-woman now. It was this, had said\nthe Be-koku-jin, which must be his solace, his comfort.\n\nHe stood up unsteadily, his hand resting upon the table. Some one had\nknocked upon his door. He smiled, in the old grim, bitter way.\n\nHe could not be tricked by his imagination again. She was very far away\nby now, miles from Fukui, for it was past midnight, and her cort\u00e8ge\nwould take an unbroken course toward the great highway which eventually\nwould lead them to the metropolis.\n\nBut the knocking was repeated, softly, gently, a sound such as a little\ntimid bird in the wet night might have made in beating its wings upon\nthe wall.\n\nHe heard the soft moving of the doors, and still he did not stir.\n\nNow she stood between them, her eyes fully upon him, drawing, compelling\nhis gaze. Upon her vivid, passionate little face there was, at last,\nthat look of peace and rest that comes to one upon a journey\u2019s end.\n\nThe water dripped from her haori, and clung in glittering drops upon her\nhair, her lashes.\n\nHe could not even speak her name. He could only gaze at her entranced,\nas at that other time when he had come to consciousness within the\nwoods, and had found her face hovering like a spirit\u2019s above his own.\n\nShe said as if answering the question he could not speak:\n\n\u201cYaes\u2014it is I\u2014To-o-jin-san!\u201d\n\nWith a motion, inexpressibly sweet, she put out her little hands, just\nas she had done ere she could see, and a beseeching, quivering little\nsmile was on her lips.\n\n\u201cIn the honorable wet dark\u2014all those way\u2014I have come bag to you, kind\nTojin-san!\u201d\n\nHis voice shook so that he did not recognize it as his own.\n\n\u201cYou found your way\u2014\u201d\n\n\u201cWiz these my eyes closed,\u201d she said, \u201cad udder end those whole\nworl\u2019\u2014tha\u2019s same thing Tojin-san\u2014I find way bag unto you!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy?\u201d he demanded with a rough passion that yet tore and intoxicated\nhim.\n\nShe reached out her arms to him yearningly, pleadingly.\n\n\u201cTek me ad you arms again!\u201d she said. \u201cToach me on my lips wiz yours. I\nwill tell you\u2014then!\u201d\n\nHis last reserve was gone; he had no wish to hold it. Subtly,\nirresistibly, she had drawn him to her; now he had taken her back into\nhis arms!\n\nHe felt her little fingers, as of old, passing across his face until\nthey found his lips, and there she placed her own.\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n \u25cf Transcriber\u2019s note:\n\n    \u25cb Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.\n\n    \u25cb Typographical errors were silently corrected.\n\n    \u25cb Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only\n      when a predominant form was found in this book.","title":"Tama","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":29911}