New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-11-08
OUT or THE ORIENT.
JAPANESE FANTASIES BY LAFCADIo
HEARN.

oTTo: Beng . JaPpn s cgri9s Nth sqnd5y
urer on English Literature II the ImPeF t9d Uni
GenJro Veto Octave. PIP vii. 25l- The Mac
milan Company.
Odd bits Of legendary lore and quaint customs
of fanciful people. transcripts from life alto
gether human and real, strange fantastic rev.
cries and Buddhstc speculations of Occi-
dental stand side by side in the brief and
perturbed chapters of this random book. There
is group of nine tales of queer beliefs taken
from old books in japanese They are only
curios." says note. There is the pathetic diary
of a young japanese wife, in a lowly station in
life, who lost in succession her three children.
She sank under her Affections and died, being
deserted at the last by her wits. The record be-
gins late 1885 but the names are changed
our of respect TO her gentle ghost" says the
author, Il have tried to the manuscript in
such way only could not cause her the least
pain if she were yet in the body and able to
read me-" Among the descriptions of Japanese
customs none is more curious than that of the
uses made of the FREELY. Children hunt these
insects in parties and know their haunts. how
they avoid pine trees and bushes and how
they swarm in weeping willows There is an
uncanny awe about a freely because of this
taste for willows. the favorite tree of the dead.
II 1t happens to be a real FREELY, and not some
dead friend the soul of a person still
alive. taking a temporary flight. Then, freflies
have their useful possibilities. There is quite an
industry Of taking them by the netfu from
ponds and trees at night and selling them in
cages. They bought by restaurant keepers
and people giving fetes. to set loose in the gar
den. But stranger than all Is the Battle of the
Firelies witnessed each summer on the Ujigawa
River by thousands Of visitors brought by spe-
cial trains from neghboring districts
The stream there winds between hills
cred with vegetation. and myriads OF nrenles
dart from either bank, to meet and cling above
the water. At moments they so swarm to-
gether as 10 form what appears TO the eye like
a luminous cloud. or like a great ball of sparks;
The cloud scatters, or the ball drops and
breaks upon the surface of the current ana
the fallen frefiies drift glitterlng away put
another swarm quickly collects in the same To-
cality. People wait all night in boats upon the
river to watch the phenomenon. After the
Hotaru- Kassen is done, the Ujigawa covered
with the still sparkling bodies of the drifting
insects. is said to appear like the Milky Way
the japanese more POLITICALLY call II, the
River of Heaven.
Less beautiful but no less characteristic is the
legendary history of crabs. One sort, caught
along the coast called DannO-Ura, where the
clan Of the Heke were exterminated in a naval
battle seven centuries ago. have grotesquely
rumpied and furrowed backs. The Japanese see
the faces of the warriors. contorted in the death
the legend goes that each Heike crab is pos
sessed with the spirit of common soldier Of
the clan, while the larger ones are the present
shape of the Heke captains. In the authors
reveries, as in his legends, one can find the
monstrous. The ugly dream with which the
book ends rs not prevented from giving sense
OF nightmare Of a hideous sort by the philosophic
Interpretation put upon it by the Baku the
creature with the body of a horse, the face Of
a lion. the trunk and tusks of elephant, the
foreIOck of a rhinocerous, the tail of COW and
the feet Of a tiger, which in the round OF his
duty as deVourer of dreams comes to the res
cue. In some of the tales, too, there is an eerie
quality. when the hapless Sekinai swallowed
a soul in a cup of tea. But with all its exotic
queerness and occasional bits of gentle horror,
this book has many passages where the brood
ing quiet and placid mental attitude of the East
dominate Take. for instance. this moment of
drOwsy sunshine:
While resting under the pines that fringed the
beach, something in the vital warmth and lumi-
nous peace of the hour-some quiVering rapture
or wind and light-Very strangely bestlrred an
old belief OF mine-the belief that all being is
One. One felt myself TO be with the thrilling
OF breeze and the racing OF wave. with every
nutter Of shadow and flicker OF sun, with the
azure Of sky and sea. with the great gre hush
OF the land.
In the same chapter. on the Gak. he contem-
plates the possibility Of reincar nation in this
fashion:
Supposing. however. that the order of the uni
verse We're really the Buddhists believe and
tnat ! knew myselt Ioredoomed by reason OF
stuplulues IN this existence, to live hereafter
the life of insect I am not sure that the
prospect would brighten me- There are insects
OF winch II IS difficult 10 tnlnk with equanimity;
but the state of an independent, highly orga-
nlz<-d. respectable insect could nor hs 81 vsr7y