Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-24

lSs4sSEJ attendants retainers to bend the
back and knee to her. She travelled
alone, In covered palanquin borne the
shoulders OF hired runners, beside whom the all,
lank figure of her father strobe. They set her
down in the heart of the city, the rest of the
journey being made on foot. When she had last
visited her fathers home he had carried her on
his back, after he had dismissed the palanquin
for she was then but small girl of ten. Now
she walked silently, dumbly, by his side. As
they reached and passed through the silent little
village that had impressed her as a child, strange
fancies fitted in and out of Wstarias mind
There was none Of that strange up-leapng of the
heart, experienced on returning to a home not
seen for years, The old mystic horror and fear
Of the place had taken possession of Wstaria
but now, with woman's wide-open eyes, her
wonder and fear began to form themselves into
vague fances.
Slowly passing along the silent, spiral streets,
climbing up and around hillock after hillock,
they came finally before the small, whitewashed
house with its dark, empty, cold interior. The
old old woman who had fondled and sung to
the child Wistaria came hobbing and mumbng
to the door. She wept over Wistaria's hands,
caressed them and drew her head to her bosom
with a grooming laugh that was almost sob.
II am very weary and would fain retire at
once" said Wistaria, she returned the old
woman's caress.
Madame Mume attended Wistaria tenderly to-
wards the stairway which led to the upper part
of the house. But as she did so, Shimadzu called
to his daughter in his hollow voice of command
"Stay," he said. 81 have much to say to you
tonight"
Bowing obediently, if YEARLY, to her father
Wistaria handed her cape to the old woman and
mechanically followed him into the ozashiki.
MY daughter" began the father, do you
know where you now areT'
This strange question surprised Wistaria but
she replied, with gentle smile:
I'm my honorable fathers house"
''That is true, but do you know where your
fathers house is situated?"
"No."
Every well; 7 will tell you, then. My house
though seemingly apart, because of its situation
on the hill, is built in the heart of an Eta set,
tlement."
"Eta?" repeated Wistaria, mechanically She
had heard the word somewhere before but lust
what it signilied her mind at the moment could
not recall So she repeated the work again. as
though it troubled yet fascinated her. "Eta!-
Eta!"
eta" repeated her father. "In other words
the social outcast the despised pariah class of
Japan"
Then silence fell like swift, blank darkness
upon them. Wistaria trembled with a creeping
horror she could not fathom grasp.
Somewhere, somehow vaguely, dimly, she had
heard of this class of people. Perhaps it was at
school Perhaps her aunt had instructed her in
their condition One thing was certain, she was
suddenly made aware of just what the one word
Eta signihed.
1t signifed a class in Japan upon whom the
ban of ostracsm and isolation had been placed
by an inviolate heritage and cruel custom. So
virulent and bitter was the prejudice against
them and the contempt in which they were held,
that in the enumerations of the population they
lA,J kIn
cattle.
Herded in separate villages, their existence ig-
nored by the communities, none but the most
degraded tasks were assigned to them-that of
burying criminals, slaughtering cattle, that of
the hangman and public executioner
Whence they had come why they We're held
in the contempt Of all other citizens, what their
origin, none could tell. When had there been
time in the history of the nation that they did
not exist? Some old histories aver that they
were originally captives from the great Armada
of the Tartar invaders who dreamed of conquer
ing the sacred realm. Others declare that they
were the descendants of the public executioners
from time immemorial; and again, more recent
students asert that they were descendants of the
family and retaners of Tara-N Masakado-H Hei.
shno, the only man in Japan who ever seriously
conspired to seize the imperial throne by armed
force. Whatever their origin, they We're the
outcast people Of the realm. They were not per.
mitted to mngle with or marry outside of their
own class. and any one who chose to marry
among them must either suffer the penalty Of
death or become one of them.
The long silence which ensued after Shimadzu
had spoken the word Eta was broken by the
Lady Wistaria.
"And why" she asked, with a tremor she
could not keep from her voice-"why does my
honorable father make his home among this
outcast people?'
''Because,' quickly came the passionate re-
ponse, "your honorable father is an Eta, as is
also my lady his daughter"
Wistara's eyes, wide with shocked surprise,
stared mutely up into her fathers tace What