St. Landry democrat., 1883-05-19


abound in the original text, but its sig
nitieance has been faithfully preserved.
One story is entitled:
MARI JOURNEY.
The great fox-god, Inari, once deter
mined that he would make a journey
through the city to find out where true
honesty and goodness existed. 1t was
a bad age of crime and corruption.
Civil wars tore the heart of the fair
island; the rich plundered the poor; the
poor could get neither justice nor repa-
ration; mems minds were atiame with
avarice, and the sun shone on as foul q
scene Of depravity as it had ever seen
since the days Of the fifth great Deluge.
The first place that Inari visited was
the counting-house of one of the great
est merchants of the city of Yeddo. cat
any rate, he said, II shall find fair
dealing and honesty here, for this mans
junks float on a hundred waters, his word
is as good as bond, and his name is a
by-word for uprightness and integrity"
He took up his figure in the shape OF
| a cobweb in a corner of the sample
| room. The tide. of customers and mer-
| chants flowed in and out; the money
| ratified into the Golfers; the clerks were
busy with pen and scroll; but no one
saw what Inari saw. His heart smote
him to see the tricks of trade and the
receptions practiced; the chests of tea
| were filled with colored leaves and dust
sweepings; the bales of silk were weight
ed with false materials, and their con-
tents dyed with false colors; lacquer and
| bronze manufactured in the next street
| were sold as the veritable production of
old times; the very scales used were
false; the entries in the scrolls were
false; and the stories told to the Gus
TONERS were false. The next day the
whole city was thrown into state Of
CONSERVATION at the news that the great
firm had failed, and that the head part
ner had gone away no one knew whittier.
Tie next journey of the god was to
the ''yashiki,' - or palace of the great
lord Of Bizen, one of the haughtiest and
prcudest of the mobiles of. the empire.
As he seated himself in the guise of a
fly on the top of sword-rack in the
banqueting chamber he said: she is too
great to be ambitious; he is too rich to
be avaricious; he has too great expenses
to be extravagant; he has nothing to
scheme for, his fame is too bright for
him to dare to sully it by dishonesty; he
is too familiar with pleasure to be vi
ciorls.s'
The banquet was spread, and the
great lord entered in gorgeous apparel.
The sweets with which the meal COM
menced were served in dishes of the
purest Nagasaki porcelain, the rice was
in the finest of old gold lacquer, the
wine-that prince of wines, the Flower
in Full Bloom Missed and dubbed in
vases of the choicest Bizen ware, while
the rarest of fish and fowl came up in
quaint dishes brought from China.
Merrily the feast proceeded, the wine
cup circled necessarily, cheeks grew
flushed, eyes began to sparkle, and
tongues wagged fast. There was moth
ing in this with which mari could find
fault, for the Prince was wealthy, and
it became his dignity to keep a su1nptu-
Gus table, but he was annoyed and dis
gusted to observe with what brutality the
Prince treated his wife, a poor, modest,
retiring creature, whose fault seemed
to be that she brooked her hus-
bands insolence too meekly. If
she spoke Bizen answered her
roughly; if she smiled he frowned, and
the poor woman knew not which way to
look or how to behave. When the
dancing girls were ushered in. a retainer,
humbly prostrating himself as he
crawled along the floor, brought the
Prince a note. Inari, who of course
could see through walls, doors and
everything, espied a poor ragged man,
evidently half dead with cold and
want, sitting in the snow outside.
.. Now said the god to himself, 81
shall see the true nature of the Prince. y
When Bizen opened the note his face
grew purple with passion, his brow was
puckered into network of frowns,
and his hand stretched out to his
sword an act at table which is only
tolerated under the most exceptional cir
cumstances. When Bizen had SO far col
lected himself as to be able to speak, he
roared: s.What does the scamp mean by
int1uding upon my privacy with his
beggarly petitions? Who let him in at
the great gate?" g What is ite'' asked
his wife, incautiously The Prince
turned on her like a wild animal.
"What is it, MADAME he Kissed.
Why, it's letter from an impostor
who declares that / have ruined him by
FORGETTING his tenure last summer; he
says he is starving, and has the I'm
heard-of insolence to ask me for the
loan of hundred riyos!" : You can
afford to let him have them, can you
not?" meekly asked his wife; so viii
go and give them to him. = The Prince
raised his hand and struck the unhappy
woman to the ground.
Inari could stay no longer. Outside,
where covered the beggar, he assumed
the guise of a retainer. Where do
you live" he asked the poor man. /" At