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 of those islands. [In the margin: "Have the governor examine and provide for this."]

Further, he says that some three years ago father Fray Mattheo de Mendoza, of his order, implored and entreated your Majesty, in the name of that province, to be pleased to grant permission for the founding of a monastery of Recollet friars of his order, in a hermitage called Nuestra Señora de Guia, located in a place about one-quarter of a legua from the city of Manila. Your Majesty ordered your royal decree to be issued to the effect that the governor and bishop should make investigations as to whether it would be useful and advantageous to have the said hermitage granted for the said purpose, and that they should send their report, together with their opinion on the matter, to the royal Council of the Yndias. In fulfilment of this direction, the said governor has sent the said documents to your Majesty. He [Ortega] entreats you to have it examined and, in accordance with it, to provide and order what is deemed of most advantage to the service of God our Lord, and of your Majesty—considering that, if the said Recollet religious are established there, from their good instruction, life, and example great results will be obtained, both among the natives, and from the devotion of the Spaniards. [In the margin: "Let the governor undertake the establishment of whatever religious of the order of St. Augustine he thinks advisable."]

[Endorsed: "+ Fray Francisco de Ortega, of the order of St. Augustine."]


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 in giving him one, which presided in the act.

When the ass had eaten his macaroon, I press'd him to come in—the poor beast was heavy loaded—his legs seem'd to tremble under him—he hung rather backwards, and as I pull'd at his halter, it broke short in my hand—he look'd up pensive in my face—"Don't thrash me with it—but if you will, you may"—If I do, said I, I'll be dd.

The word was but one half of it pronounced, like the abbess of Andoüillet's—(so there was no sin in it)—when a person coming in, let fall a thundering bastinado upon the poor devil's crupper, which put an end to the ceremony.

Out upon it!

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Sire:

Fray Francisco de Ortega, of the order of St. Augustine, visitador-general of his order in the Philipinas Islands, by apostolic authority, and by the royal authority of your Majesty, and the authority of his general, declares that he has spent thirty-eight years in the Yndias—sixteen of them in Nueva España and the rest in the Philipinas Islands—preaching the word of God, and administering the holy sacraments to Spaniards and Indians. In this period is reckoned the time spent in voyaging to and fro between this kingdom and those districts twice (and with this last time, thrice) to your Majesty as a suppliant, and voyaging twenty-two thousand leguas and undergoing many dangers and hardships to inform your Majesty of the condition of those islands, and of what, in his opinion, by reason of his long experience in that country, was fitting for the service of God our Lord, and that of your Majesty. His purpose was that, with your royal clemency and magnanimity and most Christian zeal, you might decree a reform, and provide what should be most convenient for the aforesaid objects—which reform your Majesty decreed, and it has been placed in execution. He has conducted the religious whom your Majesty bade him take for the conversion of those natives—forty in number, except for those who died on the voyage; he has founded twelve monasteries beside the ones already there—in all, forty-three; he has visited the province and executed your Majesty's commands.


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 And now lastly, in the service of God and your Majesty, by the advice and consent of the governor of those islands, under the persuasion and with the sanction of the religious of that province, he comes again the third time, bowed down with years and labors, and with thought for the future, but disdaining the perils of this long and dangerous voyage, to inform your Majesty of what is advisable for your royal service, and for the welfare, increase, and conservation of that country. His declaration follows:

That it will be very advisable for the service of God our Lord, the merit of your Majesty, the welfare and relief of the natives of those islands, the establishment and increase of the country, and the relief of your Majesty's royal conscience, that you have a large number of religious provided for the conversion of those to be baptized, and the maintenance in the faith of those already Christians; for, because of lack of ministers, many fail to receive baptism, and to acquire a knowledge of God our Lord. Further, for temporal welfare and increase, they [the religious] are those who are of most importance; for, wherever they are, the people are orderly and quiet, even if not all converted, and there is a constant tendency for wealth to increase. But where there are none, things tend toward waste and the dissipation of wealth, which fact ample experience attests in all parts of the Yndias. It is quite sure and certain that a hundred ministers of the gospel effect more temporal and spiritual good than a thousand soldiers.

That it would be very advantageous for the service of God our Lord, and that of your Majesty, and for the welfare and relief of so infinite a number of people as there are in the great kingdom of


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 China, that you order the continuation of that which you ordered twelve years ago, and the execution of which was begun, although the effect attempted was not followed up nor attained because of the hidden judgment of God. This was for your Majesty to write to the king of China, sending him, in token of affection and friendship, certain articles of the products of this kingdom, which that kingdom does not have, with a request for him to give audience to the ministers of God, whom your Majesty should send him; to give license or permission for ministers of the gospel to enter his kingdom and preach our holy faith freely; and to grant that the Spaniards and Chinese should have trade and commerce, the former being assigned some maritime port, such as has been assigned to the Portuguese in Macan. For there is a long experience from the time when father Fray Martin de Herrera of his order of St. Augustine went there, up to the present time, that in no other way will they admit the ministers of the orders in those islands, who have gone there to strive for their relief and salvation; because, beside imprisoning and ill-treating them, and prohibiting them from residing there, they have sent them back to the city of Manila. Humanly speaking, there is no other remedy, or no remedy more mild and better suited to the justification of your Majesty than this. He regards it as beyond question that what previously had no effect your Majesty will in your most Christian conscience command to be carried out, since by this command you run risk of little loss, and there is a clear possibility of gaining much. [In the margin: "Have the papers brought that were lately examined, and what was done in this matter."]


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 cried I—but the interjection was equivocal—and, I think, wrong placed too—for the end of an osier which had started out from the contexture of the ass's pannier, had caught hold of my breeches pocket as he rush'd by me, and rent it in the most disasterous direction you can imagineso that the

Out upon it! in my opinion, should have come in here—but this I leave to be settled by

which I have brought over along with me for that purpose.


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 The said Fray Francisco de Ortega informs your Majesty that, within sight of the mainland of China, is an island called Nao, lying toward the south, where is grown and where there is a great quantity of pepper. Its inhabitants have trade and commerce with the Chinese, and although the island is not large, it is said to contain fifteen cities, most of which have from twelve to fourteen thousand citizens. They are a dull-witted race, and are given over to many kinds of vice and licentiousness. This is an argument that the entrance to this island will be easier; and therefore the information is given that one thousand Spaniards would suffice for its pacification. If there were a justifiable ground for seizure, this would be a position of great advantage for communicating with and entering the great kingdom of China.

Likewise he says that in his opinion it will be of great importance for your Majesty to write to Xapon, to the king of Firando, as he declares his wish to become a Christian and asks for religious of the order of St. Augustine, as appears by a letter written by a father of the said order there, Fray Francisco Manrique by name. This latter says that the king is very desirous of becoming a vassal of your Majesty; and, if he does so, it will be very advisable to have him for a friend, for whatever opportunities may arise for your Majesty's service.

Item: He declares that, in his opinion, it will be very advantageous to the service of our Lord, and to that of your Majesty, that an attempt, by order and command of your Majesty, should be made to conquer and settle with Spaniards one of the Maluco Islands, namely the best and chiefest, by name Terre-


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 nate, settled by the natives, and by Moros, Turks, and Javanese, who have been brought there for its security and protection—and where the doctrine of Mahoma holds sway. This would be of very great advantage to the salvation of those souls, and would prevent the inhabitants from leaving there to preach the doctrine of Mahoma in the surrounding islands, as he is informed they are doing in the island of Mindanao, which is under your Majesty's dominion and protection. In addition, your Majesty's royal exchequer would gain greatly, for your Majesty would be master of all the cloves that are taken to Persia, and to many parts of the world, besides those which come to España by way of Portuguese Yndia. From there a great quantity of the spices in that island might be exported to Nueva España, and thence to this kingdom in quicker time and at less cost than are required by way of Eastern Yndia and Lisboa—although the trade and commerce by way of Yndia ought not to cease, as that would not be advantageous to your Majesty's service.

Item: He declares that, in his opinion, it would be very undesirable for the Japanese tyrant to put into execution his proposed expedition to Manila, of which he insolently wrote to your Majesty's governor in that city; and this matter might be entrusted to Governor Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, as he is a very valorous and resolute soldier. He by his valor and prudence will succeed in the undertaking; and had Doctor Santiago de Vera, your Majesty's governor, sent, years ago, a captain of the energy, valor, and mettle of the present governor, that island and those near by would be gained and pacified, to the great gain of your Majesty's royal exchequer.


text: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman/Volume 7/Chapter 31


text: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman/Volume 7/Chapter 32


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 Item: He declares that, in order to effect the above, it will be very advisable for your Majesty to order the island of Bindanao conquered and settled. This island is located about eighty leguas from the island of Terrenate and from the others, which are separated from one another by not more than two or three leguas; and some are even nearer. Besides being advisable for the above purpose, the island is very large, and thickly populated, and contains a very abundant supply of cinnamon, which, if cultivated, will bring great gains to your Majesty's royal exchequer.

Item: He declares that it would be advisable to reënforce the city of Santisimo Nombre de Jesus, on the island of Cubu, with more troops, for its security, as well as that of the other islands near by and those of Maluco, as it is a way station between Maluco and Nueva España, and one of the best ports as yet known in those islands.

Item: The said father Fray Francisco de Ortega, in the name of that city and the island of Cubu, by virtue of the specific and general authorization given him for that purpose, humbly begs and entreats your Majesty that its title of city, given it by the governors who have ruled in that island, be confirmed by your Majesty by your royal decree, in consideration of the fact that it is the first settlement made in those islands, the place where the natives began to be converted, and where the inhabitants first rendered obedience to your Majesty; and by this they will be advantaged and favored. [In a different hand: "Let it be given the title of city."]

Item: He begs and entreats your Majesty to be pleased to order that the regidors of that city hold


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 office for life, and not for one year, as now; and that their appointment be entrusted to the governor, so that he may appoint them in your Majesty's name; for thus the regidors will be the oldest and most deserving men, and that community will be governed better.

Item: He begs and entreats your Majesty to be pleased to give license that the inhabitants of that city [Santisimo Nombre de Jesus] may build a vessel of about two hundred and fifty toneladas, in order that the said ship may be sent with the vessels sailing from Manila to Nueva España, with the wax, cotton cloth, and the other cloth made from banana leaves, called medriñaque—in which products tributes are collected by all those of this island and by the encomenderos of the island of Panae. The reason for this request is that in taking these things to Manila there is great risk and danger from the natives, because each Spaniard who goes to Manila is forced to take forty or fifty Indians, whence it happens that there are more than four hundred Indians in Manila for three months of each year and longer, who are outside their native place. This is to the great damage and loss of the natives, and if your Majesty grants this permission, it will be avoided. [In the margin: "Let this be referred to the governor, so that if there is no special disadvantage, and it does not conflict with his present orders, he may grant permission for the sailing of this vessel."]

In what pertains to the island of Luçon, where the city of Manila has been founded, and the other islands of that archipelago, the said Fray Francisco de Ortega declares that everything is improving since the arrival of Governor Gomez Perez Das-


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 mariñas in that country; for he is very vigilant and painstaking in all matters touching the service of God our Lord, and of your Majesty. Thus all things are peaceful and tranquil; and by his prudence, good example, and good government, that state and the spread of the holy gospel are increasing rapidly.

Likewise, with zeal for the service of God and of your Majesty, according to what he saw, learned, and heard asserted by persons zealous for the service of your Majesty, he declares that the galleys that are [at] the Havana are of little use and advantage, and a great expense to the royal exchequer, because they cost annually forty-two thousand ducados. And since they are there, they have been of no effect at all—although occasions have arisen when they might have been useful—because they were not well equipped, and lacked soldiers. Therefore it will be advisable either that they be strengthened and disposed as is necessary for the occasion that may arise, or that such excessive expenses without any profit accruing from them be avoided. [In the margin: "Already provided for."]

Item: That the port on the point at the entrance to Havana [Cavite?] is very important for the guard and defense of the entrance to the port; but it must be strengthened with more pieces of artillery, for it has very few for the defense of the entrance by sea and land, if a large force of enemies should come; and that the fort built on the headland


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, who, declining at the outset a fire, seemed to like the gruesome chill, and who now let the shadows multiply without so much as ringing for a light.

The windy lanterns flickered in the square and were reflected in the wet, and as he turned about for another prowl—his last decidedly this one—he assured himself that he had in his pocket matches for tobacco and that, should he require them, the numerous brave stiff candle-sticks of silver and brass (oh what people he knew, even Aurora herself, would have given for them!) were furnished with tall tapers. On his reaching again for his final round the first drawing-room, which occupied with its fine windows the width of the house and into which, as the curtains were still undrawn, the street-lamp before the outer door played up with a gusty rise and fall that made objects, chairs, cabinets, sofas, pictures, look the least bit equivocal and like some vague human company that blinked or grimaced at him—on his thus finding himself once more where he seemed most to hold the key of the place he resumed the pointless pacing that had occupied so much of his visit. He walked from end to end as with a problem to think out; listened to his tread on the carpetless floor, for the perfect polish of which (no material note in the whole scale being more to his taste) he had made from the first a point of commending the housekeeper; 80


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 in front of the point is very good, exceedingly strong, and very important for its object. Nevertheless, according to what he saw, learned, and heard said by military men, the work must be made smaller, for it covers a great deal of space; and, unless it be retrenched, a much greater garrison must be supplied, besides a great deal of artillery for its guard and defense, and for the object for which it was built.

[Endorsed: "+ Father Francisco de Ortega of the order of St. Augustine."]


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The King: To Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, knight of the order of Santiago, my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands. After reading what you wrote me recently in regard to the need of those islands for religious to carry out our obligation to the conversion and instruction of the natives, I have ordered the needful despatch put thereto, so that at the present one hundred religious are going there—to wit, forty Augustinians, twenty-four Dominicans, eighteen descalced Franciscans, and eighteen of the Society. Furthermore, additional missionaries shall be sent until the need is met. Now because I have learned that better results will be obtained by assigning each order to a district by itself, and more emulation will ensue among them without their embarrassing one another, or their work overlapping, as might happen if they were assigned to districts regardless of order, I command you, together with the bishop of those islands, to divide the provinces, for the said instruction and conversion, among the religious of the orders, in such a manner that where Augustinians go there shall be no Franciscans, nor religious of the Society where there are Dominicans. Thus you will proceed, assigning each


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 order to its province; taking note that the province allotted to the Society must have the same manner of instruction as the others; for this same obligation rests upon them there as upon the others, and it does not at all differ from them. Given at Aranjuez, April 27, one thousand five hundred and ninety-four.

Countersigned by Don Luis de Salazar and approved by the Council.


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In the city of Manila, on the twenty-second day of April, one thousand five hundred and ninety-four, Don Luis Perez Dasmariñas, knight of the order of Alcantara, governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands, ordered a council of war, held in his presence in the royal houses and attended by Licentiate Pedro de Rojas, lieutenant-governor; the Master-of-camp Diego Ronquillo; Captain Gomez de Machuca, factor and treasurer; Captain Don Juan Ronquillo; Captain Pedro de Chaves; Captain and Sargento-mayor Juan Xuares Gallinato; Captain Joan de Villegas; Captain Pedro de Arceo Cuevasruvias; Captain Jhoan de Laxara; Captain Francisco de Mercado Andrade; Captain Juan Esquerra; Captain Christoval de Axqueta; Captain Hernando Muñoz de Poyatos; Captain Pedro Sarmiento; Captain Diego de Castillo; Captain Antonio de Canedo; Captain Augustin de Urdiales; Captain Antonio Rodriguez Chacon; Captain Don Francisco de Mendoza; and Captain Gaspar Perez. The said governor communicated to them that Governor Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, his late father (who is in heaven), sent to Japon father Fray Pedro Bauptista and other Franciscan fathers, together with Pe-


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 dro Gonçalez. The latter returned from that kingdom of Xapon a few days ago, and brought for the said governor a letter from the king, which was shown to them, and its contents read, after it was translated into the Spanish language. It was as follows:

Father Pedro brought me letters from which I learned the customs of your country, as also from what Father Pedro told me particularly, and from what Father Cobo had stated before. When I was born, the sun shone on my breast; and this is a miracle, and portends that I was destined from the beginning to be lord of all between the rising and the setting sun, and that all kingdoms must render me vassalage and bow down before my door; and unless they do it, I will destroy them with war. I have conquered all the kingdom of Xapon, and that of Coria, and many of my commanders have asked my permission to go and capture Manila. Learning this, Faranda and Funguen told me that ships went there from here, and came back, and so the people there appeared not to be enemies, for which reason I did not send troops. I made war against the Koreans and conquered as far as Meaco, because they failed to keep their word. Afterward my soldiers killed many Chinese and many nobles who came to help the Koreans. In view of this they humbled themselves, and sent an ambassador who asked that we send some of our people to Coria, and said that the Chinese desired eternal friendship with the kingdom of Xapon. I have sent many of our people to Coria to occupy the fortresses and await the embassy.


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 Should they break their word again, I will go in person to make war upon them; and after going to China, Luzon will be within my reach. Let us be friends forever, and write to that effect to the king of Castilla. Do not, because he is far away, let him slight my words. I have never seen those far lands, but from the accounts given I know what is there. You were very discreet in coming immediately, and this pleased me greatly. I received your present. I will never fail in my friendship. Those who come from your country may come safely over land and sea without any wrong being done them, or their property being stolen. You may believe everything that the man who came with the father says, because he has seen my country and the hospitality which I tendered. Write to the king of Castilla that he is waiting there. Tell him to send a man of position so that our friendship may be stronger. The rest I have entrusted to Funguen.

The above letter being read, the governor told them that it was true that the king, on the face of the letter, offered peace and friendship to this country and ratified what Faranda negotiated with the governor's father. Yet it was also plain, the governor said, from his arrogant words, that the peace and friendship were to last only for an indefinite period; those words did not accord with the authority and good name of our king and the Christian name and reputation of the Spanish nation, because of the pride and arrogance with which he referred to his birth and his personality, saying: "I am a man destined from the beginning to be lord of all from the rising to the setting sun, to whom all kingdoms


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all was set to rights, I came down stairs again into the basse cour with my valet de place, in order to sally out towards the tomb of the two lovers, &c.—and was a second time stopp'd at the gate—not by the ass—but by the person who struck him; and who, by that time, had taken possession (as is not uncommon after a defeat) of the very spot of ground where the ass stood.

It was a commissary sent to me from the post-office, with a rescript in his hand for the payment of some six livres odd sous.

Upon what account? said I.—'Tis upon the part of the king, replied the


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 must render vassalage and bow down before my door; and, unless they do it, I will destroy them." Again, as the governor declared, not satisfied with this, he threatened us with his desire to capture the land, by saying: "Many of my commanders have asked my permission to take Manila;" and then by referring to the manner in which he humbled the Chinese in the war with Coria, to their sending him an ambassador, and to his reply that if they broke their word, he would go in person to China and would make war against it, in which case Luzon would be within his reach. From all this it was difficult to draw any meaning not ominous for us; and what sounded the worst was when he gave us to understand, deceiving himself into that belief, that the embassy and presents taken by father Fray Pedro Bautista were sent as tokens of obedience—"You were discreet in coming immediately, and this pleased me greatly. I received the present which came as specified in the letter," etc. Then the governor said that this friendship would be too dearly bought, if it cost us one atom of reputation or authority; and seeing that he must not and could not hide from our sovereign the receipt of the said letter, with which the emperor of Japan was acquainted, knowing well its contents and purpose, he deemed it fitting to answer said letter in a manner that would undeceive him in this important matter; and for that purpose he had dictated a reply which he would have read to them afterward. It begins by giving the emperor an account of the death of his father and of other events which he would be bound to learn, but which might be reported to him in a distorted form. After this he thanks him for the confirmation


text: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman/Volume 7/Chapter 33


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Runo VIII]

was the maid of Pohja,

Famed on land, on water peerless,

On the arch of air high-seated,

Brightly shining on the rainbow,

Clad in robes of dazzling lustre,

Clad in raiment white and shining.

There she wove a golden fabric,

Interwoven all with silver,

And her shuttle was all golden,

And her comb was all of silver.

From her hand flew swift the shuttle,

In her hands the reel was turning,

And the copper shafts they clattered,

And the silver comb resounded,

As the maiden wove the fabric,

And with silver interwove it.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Thundered on upon his journey,

From the gloomy land of Pohja,

Sariola for ever misty.

Short the distance he had travelled,

Short the way that he had journeyed,

When he heard the shuttle whizzing,

High above his head he heard it.

Thereupon his head he lifted,

And he gazed aloft to heaven,

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72

And beheld a glorious rainbow;

On the arch the maiden seated,

As she wove a golden fabric,

As the silver comb resounded.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Stayed his horse upon the instant,

And he raised his voice, and speaking,

In such words as these addressed her:

“Come into my sledge, O maiden,

In the sledge beside me seat thee.”

Then the maiden made him answer,

And in words like these responded:

“Wherefore should the maiden join you,

In the sledge beside you seated?”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Heard her words, and then responded:

“Therefore should the maiden join me,

In the sledge beside me seat her;

Bread of honey to prepare me,

And the best of beer to brew me,

Singing blithely on the benches,

Gaily talking at the window,

When in Väinölä I sojourn,

At my home in Kalevala.”

Then the maiden gave him answer,

And in words like these addressed him:

“As I wandered through the bedstraw,

Tripping o’er the yellow meadows,

Yesterday, in time of evening,

As the sun was slowly sinking,

In the bush a bird was singing,

And I heard the fieldfare trilling,

Singing of the whims of maidens,

And the whims of new-wed damsels.

“Thus the bird was speaking to me,

And I questioned it in this wise:

‘Tell me O thou little fieldfare,

Sing thou, that my ears may hear it,

Whether it indeed is better,

Whether thou hast heard ’tis better,

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Runo VIII]

For a girl in father’s dwelling,

Or in household of a husband?’

“Thereupon the bird made answer,

And the fieldfare answered chirping:

‘Brilliant is the day in summer,

But a maiden’s lot is brighter.

And the frost makes cold the iron,

Yet the new bride’s lot is colder.

In her father’s house a maiden

Lives like strawberry in the garden,

But a bride in house of husband,

Lives like house-dog tightly fettered.

To a slave comes rarely pleasure;

To a wedded damsel never.’”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Answered in the words which follow:

“Song of birds is idle chatter,

And the throstle’s, merely chirping;

As a child a daughter’s treated,

But a maid must needs be married.

Come into my sledge, O maiden,

In the sledge beside me seat thee.

I am not a man unworthy,

Lazier not than other heroes.”

But the maid gave crafty answer,

And in words like these responded:

“As a man I will esteem you,

And as hero will regard you,

If you can split up a horsehair

With a blunt and pointless knife-blade,

And an egg in knots you tie me,

Yet no knot is seen upon it.”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Then the hair in twain divided,

With a blunt and pointless knife-blade,

With a knife completely pointless,

And an egg in knots he twisted,

Yet no knot was seen upon it.

Then again he asked the maiden

In the sledge to sit beside him.

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74

But the maid gave crafty answer,

“I perchance at length may join you,

If you’ll peel the stone I give you,

And a pile of ice will hew me,

But no splinter scatter from it,

Nor the smallest fragment loosen.”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Did not find the task a hard one.

From the stone the rind he severed,

And a pile of ice he hewed her,

But no splinters scattered from it,

Nor the smallest fragment loosened.

Then again he asked the maiden

In the sledge to sit beside him.

But the maid gave crafty answer,

And she spoke the words which follow:

“No, I will not yet go with you,

If a boat you cannot carve me,

From the splinters of my spindle,

From the fragments of my shuttle,

And shall launch the boat in water,

Push it out upon the billows,

But no knee shall press against it,

And no hand must even touch it;

And no arm shall urge it onward,

Neither shall a shoulder guide it.”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Answered in the words which follow:

“None in any land or country,

Under all the vault of heaven,

Like myself can build a vessel,

Or so deftly can construct it.”

Then he took the spindle-splinters,

Of the reel he took the fragments,

And began the boat to fashion,

Fixed a hundred planks together,

On a mount of steel he built it,

Built it on the rocks of iron.

At the boat with zeal he laboured,

Toiling at the work unresting,

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Runo VIII]

Working thus one day, a second,

On the third day likewise working,

But the rocks his axe-blade touched not,

And upon the hill it rang not.

But at length, upon the third day,

Hiisi turned aside the axe-shaft,

Lempo turned the edge against him,

And an evil stroke delivered.

On the rocks the axe-blade glinted,

On the hill the blade rang loudly,

From the rock the axe rebounded,

In the flesh the steel was buried,

In the victim’s knee ’twas buried,

In the toes of Väinämöinen,

In the flesh did Lempo drive it,

To the veins did Hiisi guide it,

From the wound the blood flowed freely,

Bursting forth in streaming torrents.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

He, the oldest of magicians,

Uttered words like those which follow,

And expressed himself in this wise:

“O thou evil axe ferocious,

With thy edge of gleaming sharpness,

Thou hast thought to hew a tree-trunk,

And to strike upon a pine-tree,

Match thyself against a fir-tree,

Or to fall upon a birch-tree.

’Tis my flesh that thou hast wounded,

And my veins thou hast divided.”

Then his magic spells he uttered,

And himself began to speak them,

Spells of origin, for healing,

And to close the wound completely.

But he could not think of any

Words of origin of iron,

Which might serve to bind the evil,

And to close the gaping edges

Of the great wound from the iron,

By the blue edge deeply bitten.

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 Rh tion of our domestic productions, together with the causes and laws of variation, inheritance, and the intercrossing of plants, are the sole subjects which I have been able to write about in full, so as to use all the materials which I have collected. The Descent of Man took me three years to write, but then as usual some of this time was lost by ill health, and some was consumed by preparing new editions and other minor works.

The Descent of Man created an even greater popular stir than did the Origin. The large first edition was quickly sold out; and discussion and ridicule of the book became the fashionable recreation for those who had read arts of it as well as those who had not. The comic paper Punch acted as a mirror of current opinion, which in the main was adverse. One of the Darwin ballads calls to mind more recent things of the same sort in connection with the discovery of great fossil animals in our own country:

They slept in a wood,

Or wherever they could

For they didn’t know how to make beds;

They hadn’t got huts,

They dined upon nuts,

Which they cracked upon each other’s heads.

They hadn’t much scope

For a comb, brush, or soap,

Or towels, or kettle, or fire;

They had no coats nor capes,

For ne'er did these apes

Invent what they didn’t require.

From these though descended,

Our manners are mended.

Though still we can grin and backbite;

We cut up each other,

Be he friend or brother,


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 36 And tails are the fashion—at night.

This origination

Is all speculation—

We gamble in various shapes;

So Mr. Darwin

May speculate in

Our ancestors having been apes.

The main contention of Darwin, that man was developed from a lower stock, and so on back to the beginning of life, is too well known today to deserve a great deal of comment. How much natural selection may have affected that development cannot yet be said with certainty—there are too many other possible factors of which we are just beginning to learn. In that time, however, it was less known, and even more apt to excite prejudice. The mere conclusion that the minds of man and the lower animals were very similar was enough to set the theologians agog with excitement; to them it was a direct thrust at the "godliness" of the human intellect.

Indeed, the preachers did have cause for alarm. Not only was Darwin's general conclusion as to man’s ancestry at direct variance with the tenets of "revealed" religion; some of his statements contradicted the strongest arguments on which religion is based. He sees no evidence that it had played, in the remote past, any important role in the development of humanity. "There is no evidence," he says, "that man was aboriginally endowed with the ennobling belief in the existence of an omnipotent God." This was not, of course, a proclamation of atheism or agnosticism; it was not even a question as to the truth of the conception of a god, or of gods. Yet it would cause others to


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 Rh question, to examine the bases for their beliefs, and perhaps even to give some of them up. Of course, one might give up a great many beliefs and still be a Christian, a Mohammedan, or what not, but he could not be orthodox. And it was orthodoxy upon which the preachers depended for their power—or, in many cases, for their jobs.

But the most emphasized, if not the most important, feature of the Descent of Man was the section dealing with Darwin’s hypothesis of sexual selection. This hypothesis held that animals of one sex held a definite preference for certain qualities in the opposite sex. Naturally, under this supposition, the predominant number of matings would be with those individuals possessing the favored characteristics, so that in time those qualities would become established. Thus among birds the more brilliant males, or those with superior voices, were the more successful in courtship, and so left more descendants than did the unfavored ones. Eventually the advantageous coloration would be established as the character of the species, or of a new species.

This hypothesis (it hardly deserves to be called a theory) became extremely popular with the followers of Darwin. It seemed to explain a great number of things, and required only a small acquaintance with the subject and an ordinary amount of common sense to manipuate. Evolutionists actually hunted for multiple examples of favorable characters; the most insignificant features of appearance or structure were assumed to be aids in the struggle for existence. From the arguments of these


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 38 enthusiasts one would gain the idea that there were no traits in animals that were either useless or harmful, but that every structure and habit had been carefully selected with regard to their usefulness. For a while evolutionists and particularly amateur evolutionists, made a fad of sexual selection, and the more significant features of Darwin's work were slighted.

But the hypothesis contained a great weakness—it depended too much on the accuracy of the human mind as a gauge of the animal mind. It supposed that the thoughts of a man, looking upon the gorgeous plumage of a cock pheasant, were akin to those of the hen pheasant. It made possible the explanation of altogether too many things, and on a basis for which there was but the slightest psychological support. To hold that the minds of a beetle, a bird, an elephant, and a man were similarly affected by similar things was going too far, particularly when there was no way of proving the stand, or of testing it by experiment. Gradually sexual selection lost popularity, and in the reaction dragged with it the theory of natural selection. Indeed, though careful experiments in breeding have demonstrated too clearly for question the efficiency of selection, the part which selection, of whatever kind, played in evolution is far from settled. As Dr. A. F. Shull, one of the leaders among the younger zoologists of America, recently wrote, "There is no marked inclination among leading biologists to attribute to selection in nature, through the struggle for existence, anything but a minor and negative role in evolution."

In the years following 1874 Darwin wrote sev-


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 he stayed on without knowing why, only clinging to this particular room just because he could measure its length, and even a little because of the very ambiguity, half sociable and half sinister, that made its different features, as he might have said, take action. He trifled at moments with the idea of spending the night—which he was indeed spending to the extent that he so hung on. Nights spent in peculiar houses were a favourite theme of the magazines, and he remembered tales about them that had been thought clever—only regretting now that he had not heard on the retreat of his fellow-occupants (for was not that always the indispensable stroke?) the terrified bang of the door. The real deterrent to sitting up at Number Nine would just be, he lucidly reasoned, its coincidence with the magazines. Nothing would induce him, he could at least fondly convince himself, to make the place the subject of one of the vulgar experiments that pass into current chatter. He would presently go with his mind made up; but meanwhile he walked.

He walked and walked—walked till he received a check in the form of a bump from a piece of furniture. This brought him back to the fact of the complete fall of night and to more darkness in the room than his enlarged vision had for the time needed to reckon with. He looked about him and felt as cold as if he had really passed a vigil; without his certainty that he had been on 81


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 his legs he might fairly believe he had slept. He wondered what time had elapsed, but, taking out his watch to see, found its face indistinct even at the window. He then felt in his waistcoat for matches, but immediately after, in the act of striking one, had a happy change of thought. It was as if he had already proof positive of being there alone. It was vivid to him at this instant, in the flame of his match, that for reasons he didn't stop to question—the fact itself made so for intenser moments—he had been peculiarly disconnected and left, left to himself and to whatever else might be; with which consciousness he instead of consulting his watch, though he took another look about, made for the first candlestick that just showed its upright silver gleam. His match went out before he reached it, but he struck another, and it was in the act of lighting the candle that his hand told him how he trembled. This was the shake, he felt, however, of excitement—not of a baser state of nerves; an excitement that marked simply his at last knowing himself, as not yet, in possession of what he had come in for. His doubt was settled: he had asked himself if he were prepared, if he should "elect," to be; but here he was, in fine, without more question or more ado. The only ado was, with his candle lighted, to face the consequence of that particular preparation.

This act employed him, thanks to the bunchy 82


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 Rh eral books, and in 1879 he supervised the publication of an English version of Dr. Ernst Krause's Life of Erasmus Darwin, adding a sketch of the poet-evolutionist’s habits and character. But people were too much interested in the ideas of a living Darwin to devote much thought to those of a dead member of the same family, and fewer than a thousand copies of the book sold.

In 1881 the aged naturalist published his last book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms. More than forty years before he had written a preliminary sketch of the subject, and in December of the year he moved to Down he had begun an experiment which was to contribute greatly to the study. Twenty-nine years later, November, 1871, the experiment was completed. Darwin proved that bits of chalk and of harder rock could, in a period of three decades, be buried more than half a foot by the action of earthworms alone. Observations on the buried ruins of Roman towns of Britain showed that their condition was due largely to the action of these same earthworms, which year after year brought earth to the surface in the form of castings. Of the further work in this problem Mr. Brittany says:

Earthworms were not only scrutinized in their out-of-door work, but were kept in confinement and studied. It appears that they swallow earth both to make their burrows and to extract all nutriment it may contain; they will eat almost anything they can get their skin over. From careful calculation it wass shown that worms on an average pass ten tons of soil on an acre of ground through their bodies every year. It is, then, but a truism to say


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 wick, a minute or two; but no sooner was the little flame assured and he had raised aloft the glimmering torch than he was filled with the sense of a quite new relation to the house. It was but a trifle, yet he had not hitherto so much used the place even as to light a candle. This triviality made all the difference of raising him from the condition, comparatively poor, of a visitor who betrayed timidity. It registered in a single brief insistence the fact that he was master, and when he now almost waved in the air his light, of which the wax hadn't time to melt, it was in sign—tremble though his hand still might—of a confidence sharply gained. The impression was strong with him of having traversed a crisis—served, and all in half an hour, one of those concentrated terms of pious self-dedication or whatever by which the aspirants of the ages of faith used to earn their knighthood. What was it he had emerged from after this fashion of the accepted probationer? He had had his idea of testing the house, and lo it was the house that by a turn of the tables had tested him. He had at all events grasped his candle as if it had been sword or cross, and his attitude may pass for us as sufficiently his answer or his vow. It had already occurred to him that, so completely consecrated, he must make one more round. He moved to the end of the room and then moved back; it had begun to give him extraordinary pleasure thus to march with 83


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 his light. He marched out to the lobby and the staircase and then down, slow and solemn, to the hall he had supposed Jacobean and in which, illumined, he could once more, by the mere play of his arm, make due amends for his mistake. He came up again to the landing by the great room and, after a slight hesitation, continued his ascent. He revolved through the chambers above and amused himself, at successive windows, with the thought of the observation possibly incurred, out in the square, by such a wandering twinkle from floor to floor and in the small hours on the part of some soaked and sleepy policeman not already, in respect to the old house, without a working hypothesis. On his return to the level of the drawing rooms he had another of his pauses; he stood with his candle aloft and his eyes attached a minute to the door that, open at the end of the passage, would have admitted him straight to the panelled parlour.

The effect of this consideration was that he went roundabout, turning directly again to the front and the row of dark windows lashed afresh by a great gust of the rain. It was as if the wind had of a sudden grown wild in order to emphasise with its violence all the elements of his case. It was somehow too by this time—with such a stride—two o'clock in the morning and terrible weather. The forward exposure most met the assault, the small square black panes rattled in their tall white 84


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 40 that every bit of soil on the surface of the globe must have passed through their bodies many times. They were discovered to work mainly by night, when hundreds may with care be discerned, with tails fixed in their burrows, prowling round in circles, rapidly retreating into holes, and strongly resisting efforts to extract them. It was found … that they have no sense of hearing, but a most remarkable sensitiveness to vibrations of the earth or even to contact with air in motion.

This book which, like the others achieved a great and unexpected popularity, left Darwin exhausted. "I feel so worn out that I do not suppose I shall ever again give reviewers trouble," he wrote Hooker. Yet for several months he worked on, not with enthusiasm nor with the hope of carrying out another large project, yet with interest. In March and April, 1882, he felt poorly, and the action of his heart became so weak that he was unable to climb the stairs. On April 18 he was well enough to examine a specially interesting plant which had been brought him, but on the following day he died.


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 sashes, the objects around him creaked, and his candle came as near going out as if a window had blown through. The commotion was in fact so great, shaking all the place, that under the sense of the draught he wasn't for the moment sure something hadn't somewhere been forced open. He instinctively moved, half for inquiry, half for shelter, to the inner room, the second; which brought him, still with his clutched and raised light, to view of the other door of the panelled parlour, the access independent of the hall. He had after this an instant of confusion, an instant during which he struck himself as catching at a distance the chance reflection of his candle-flame on some polished surface. If the flame was there, however, where was the surface?—the duplication of his light showing, he quickly perceived, in the doorway itself. He received in those instants an amazing impression—knew himself convinced that in his absence the thing he had thought of and put away had taken place. Somebody was in the room more prodigiously still than he had dreamed—on his level, on the floor itself and but ten yards off, and now, all intelligence and response, vividly aware of him, fixed him across the space with eyes of life. It was like the miracle prayed for in the church—the figure in the picture had turned; but from the moment it had done so this tremendous action, this descent, this advance, an advance, and as for recognition, 85


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 upon his solitary self, had almost the effect at first of crushing recognition, in other words of crushing presumption, by their immeasurable weight. The huge strangeness, that of a gentleman there, a gentleman from head to foot, to meet him and share his disconnection, stopped everything; yet it was in nothing stranger than in the association that they already, they unmistakeably felt they had enjoyed. With this last apprehension at any rate the full prodigy was there, for what he most sharply knew while he turned colder still was that what he had taken for a reflection of his light was only another candle. He knew, though out of his eye's range any assurance, that the second of the pair on the shelf below the portrait was now not in its place. He raised his own still higher to be sure, and the young man in the doorway made a movement that answered; but so, while almost as with brandished weapons they faced each other, he saw what was indeed beyond sense. He was staring at the answer to the riddle that had been his obsession, but this answer was a wonder of wonders. The young man above the mantel, the young man brown-haired, pale, erect, with the high-collared dark blue coat, the young man revealed, responsible, conscious, quite shining out of the darkness, presented him the face he had prayed to reward his vigil; but the face—miracle of miracles, yes—confounded him as his own. 86


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 658–60] brought to light the alarming spread of disaffection, and showed how precarious was ʿAlī's grasp upon the Bedawi races of factious Al-Baṣra.

The spirit of disturbance and unrest was not confined to Egypt and to Al-Baṣra. In a single year, we read of some half-dozen occasions on which considerable bands of the Khawārij were impelled by their theocratic creed to raise the standard of rebellion. One after another they met the common fate of slaughter and dispersion. But though crushed, the frequent repetition of such desperate enterprises, fruit of a wild and reckless fanaticism, had a disturbing effect. The most serious of these risings was that led by Al-Khirrīt ibn Rāshid of the Beni Nājiya; and it is the more remarkable, because this chief had fought bravely with his tribe by ʿAlī's side in the battles both of the Camel and of Ṣiffīn. He was driven, like many others, by strong conviction to rebel. The position of this fanatic was that ʿAlī ought to have accepted the decision of the arbiters to refer the question of the Caliphate to a Council. ʿAlī, with his usual patience, said that he would argue out the matter with him, and arranged a meeting for the purpose. But the night before, Al-Khirrīt stole away from the city with his following. "Gone," said ʿAlī, "to the devil; lost, like doomed Thamūd!" They were pursued, but effected their escape to Al-Ahwāz. There they raised the Persians, Kurds, and Christian mountaineers, by the specious and inflammatory cry that payment of taxes to an ungodly Caliph was but to support his cause, and as such intolerable. With a band of rebel Arabs, they kindled revolt throughout Fars and put the governor to flight. A force from Al-Baṣra drove them to the shores of the Indian Ocean. But they broke out again in Al-Baḥrein, where the tribes had been withholding the taxes, and some had returned to the Christian faith. Luring the people by delusive promises, they still gained head; and it was not till after a bloody battle in which Al-Khirrīt lost his life, that the supremacy of the Caliphate was re-established in southern Persia. The Muslim prisoners in this campaign were set at liberty on swearing fresh allegiance; but 500 Christians were marched away to be sold into captivity. The women and children, as they were torn from their protectors, wailed with loud and


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282 bitter cry. The hearts of many were softened. Maṣḳala, one of the captains, touched by the scene, took upon himself the cost of ransoming the Christian captives and set them free, ʿAlī, hearing of it, demanded from him immediate payment at a thousand pieces for each captive; and Maṣḳala, unable to pay down so great a sum, fled an joined Muʿāwiya.

The defeat of the Khawārij did not at once restore peace to Persia; for Fars and Kirman threw off their allegiance and expelled their governors. To quell the spreading insurrection, ʿAlī employed Ziyād from Al-Baṣra, a man, as we have seen, of conspicuous administrative ability. He carried with him a great court and retinue; but it was mainly by setting one rebellious prince against another, and by well-appointed promises and favours, that he succeeded in restoring peace; and by his success earned the government of Fars. He fixed his court at Iṣtakhr (Persepolis), and his administration there became so famous as even to recall to Persian memories the happy age of Anūsharwān.

Though successful thus in Persia, ʿAīi was subject to trouble and molestation nearer home. Muʿāwiya, relieved now from apprehension on the side of Egypt, began to annoy his rival by frequent raids on Arabia and the cities beyond the Syrian desert. The object was various—now to ravage a Province or surprise a citadel, now to exact the tithe from Bedawi tribes, or secure allegiance to himself. Such inroads, though not always successful, inspired a sense of insecurity; and worse, betrayed the lukewarmness of the people in the cause of ʿAlī. These would stir neither hand nor foot to repel the Syrians invading villages close even at their door. To show his displeasure at their listlessness and disobedience, ʿAlī went forth himself into the field almost unattended. On this, the men of Al-Kūfa, partly from shame, partly lured by promise of increased stipends, marched to the defence of their frontier. In the year 39 there were nearly a dozen inroads of the kind. Though eventually repelled, it was not always without loss in prisoners, plunder, and prestige. On one occasion ʿAlī's commander, with a flying column, pursued the raiders back into the heart of Syria as far as Baalbek; and thence, turning northward, escaped by Ar-Raḳḳa again into Al-ʿIrāḳ. On the other hand, Muʿāwiya,


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 658–60] to show his contempt for the power of ʿAlī, made an incursion right across Mesopotamia, and for some days remained encamped on the banks of the Tigris. After leisurely inspecting Al-Mauṣil, which he had never seen before, he made his way back to Damascus unmolested.

The 40th year of the Hijra opened with a new grief for ʿAlī. When the time of pilgrimage came round, Muʿāwiya sent Busr, a brave but cruel captain of his host, with 3000 men into Arabia, to secure for him the allegiance of the Holy Places. As he drew nigh to Medīna, the governor fled and Busr entered unopposed. Proceeding to the Mosque, he mounted the sacred steps of the Prophet's pulpit, and recalling ʿOthmān to mind, addressed the people thus: "O citizens of Medīna! The aged man! Where is the grey-haired aged man whom, but as yesterday, and on this very spot, I swore allegiance to? Verily, but for my promise to Muʿāwiya, who bade me stay the sword, I had not left here a single soul alive!" Then he threatened the leading citizens with death if they refused to acknowledge Muʿāwiya as their Caliph; and so, fearing for their lives, all took the oath of allegiance to the Umeiyad ruler. Passing on to Mecca, the same scene was enacted by the imperious envoy there, and with the same result. Then marching south to the Yemen, he committed great atrocities there upon the adherents of ʿAlī. The governor, a son of Al-ʿAbbās, escaped to his cousin ʿAlī at Al-Kūfa. But two of his little children, falling into the tyrant’s hands, were put to death in cold blood, with their Bedawi attendant, who in vain protested against the cruel act. An army of 4000 men was despatched in haste from Al-Kūfa, but too late to stop these outrages; and Busr made good his escape to Syria. The wretched Peninsula fared no better at the hands of the relieving army. Many of the inhabitants of Nejrān were put to death because they had belonged to ʿOthmān's party. The men of Mecca were forced to recall the oath they had just taken, and again do homage to ʿAlī. Similarly, the citizens of Medīna swore allegiance to Al-Ḥasan, son of ʿAlī, at the point of the sword; but no sooner were the troops gone, than the leader of the


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 284 opposite faction resumed his functions. Thus bitterly was the Peninsula rent in two. The cruel death of his cousin's infant children preyed on ʿAlī more, perhaps, than all his other troubles; and he cursed Busr in the daily service with a new and bitter imprecation. The disconsolate mother poured forth her sorrow in plaintive verse, some touching couplets of which are still preserved.

Yet another grief was in store for ʿAlī. He had promoted his cousins, the sons of Al-ʿAbbās, to great dignity, giving the command of the Yemen to one, of Mecca to another, of Medīna to a third; while ʿAbdallah, the eldest, held the government of Al-Baṣra, the second city in the Empire. Complaints having reached the court of irregularities at Al-Baṣra, ʿAlī called upon his cousin to render an account. Scorning the demand, ʿAbdallah threw up the office, and, carrying his treasures with him, retired to Mecca. ʿAlī was much mortified at this unfriendly act; and still more by the desertion of his brother ʿAḳīl to Muʿāwiya.

These troubles, crowding rapidly one upon another, at last broke ʿAlī's spirit. He had no longer heart to carry on hostilities with Syria. If he might but secure the eastern provinces in peaceful subjection to himself, it was all he could hope for now. Accordingly, after a lengthened correspondence, an armistice was concluded between ʿAlī and Muʿāwiya, by which they agreed to lay aside their arms, respect the territory of each other, and maintain, in time to come, a friendly attitude. Muʿāwiya, however, assumed the title of Caliph at Jerusalem in July 660 (ii. 40 ); and it is said that ʿAlī gathered an army of 40,000 men, when the events narrated in the next chapter occurred.


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76

But the blood gushed forth in torrents,

Rushing like a foaming river,

O’er the berry-bearing bushes,

And the heath the ground that covered.

There remained no single hillock,

Which was not completely flooded

By the overflowing blood-stream,

Which came rushing forth in torrents

From the knee of one most worthy,

From the toes of Väinämöinen.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Gathered from the rocks the lichen,

From the swamps the moss collected,

Earth he gathered from the hillocks,

Hoping thus to stop the outlet

Of the wound that bled so freely,

But he could not check the bleeding,

Nor restrain it in the slightest.

And the pain he felt oppressed him,

And the greatest trouble seized him.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Then began to weep full sorely.

Thereupon his horse he harnessed,

In the sledge he yoked the chestnut,

On the sledge himself he mounted,

And upon the seat he sat him.

O’er the horse his whip he brandished,

With the bead-decked whip he lashed him,

And the horse sped quickly onward.

Rocked the sledge, the way grew shorter,

And they quickly reached a village,

Where the path in three divided.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Drove along the lowest pathway,

To the lowest of the homesteads,

And he asked upon the threshold,

“Is there no one in this household,

Who can cure the wounds of iron,

Who can soothe the hero’s anguish,

And can heal the wound that pains him?”

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Khawārij were sorely troubled at the prospects of Islām. It was not that raids and robbery, dissension and strife, had been the order of the day, for to them bloodshed was more tolerable than apostasy. To the Khāriji, the cessation of war brought no peace of mind. A settled government was the ruin of his hopes. ʿAlī, having come to terms with ʿMuʿāwiya, there was no longer room to expect that the ungodly kingdoms of the earth would be overthrown, and the reign of righteousness restored. Thus the theocratic party brooded over the blood that had been shed in vain at Nahrawān and on other battlefields, and for the present abandoned hope. Many took refuge from the godless tyranny in the sacred precincts of the Ḥijāz, where they might lament freely over the miserable fate of Islām. As three of these thus mourned together, a gleam of hope shot across their path. "Let us each kill one of the tyrants; Islām will yet be free, and the reign of the Lord appear." And so, as in the case of ʿOthmān, but under another guise and urged by bolder hopes, the three conspired against the State. The fatal resolve once taken, details were speedily arranged. ʿAlī and Muʿāwiya, both must fall; and ʿAmr also, not only as the impious arbitrator, but also as the likeliest successor to the throne left vacant by the other two. Each was to dispose of his fellow as he presided at the morning service, on the same Friday when, being the Fast, the Grand Mosques of Al-Kūfa, Damascus, and Fusṭāṭ would be thronged with worshippers. They dipped their swords in powerful poison, and separated, swearing 285


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Runo VIII]

On the floor a child was playing,

By the stove a boy was sitting,

And he answered him in this wise:

“There is no one in this household

Who can heal the wounds of iron,

Who can soothe the hero’s anguish,

To the rock can fix it firmly,

And can heal the wound that pains him.

Such may dwell in other houses:

Drive away to other houses.”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

O’er the horse his whip then brandished,

And the sledge went rattling onward.

Thus a little way he travelled,

On the midmost of the pathways,

To the midmost of the houses,

And he asked upon the threshold,

And beseeching at the window,

“Is there no one in this household,

Who can heal the wounds of iron,

Who can stanch the blood when flowing,

And can check the rushing bloodstream?”

’Neath the quilt a crone was resting,

By the stove there sat a gossip,

And she spoke and answered plainly,

As her three teeth gnashed together,

“There is no one in this household,

Who can heal the wounds of iron,

None who knows efficient blood-spells,

And can close the wound that pains you.

Such may dwell in other houses:

Drive away to other houses.”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

O’er the horse his whip then brandished,

And the sledge went rattling onward.

Thus a little way he travelled,

On the highest of the pathways,

To the highest of the houses,

And he asked upon the threshold,

Calling from beside the doorpost,

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 286 that they would either fulfil the task or perish in the attempt.ʿ‘Amr escaped. He was sick that day, and the captain of his guard, presiding at prayers, died in his stead, Muʿāwiya was not so fortunate. The blow fell upon him, and was near to being fatal. His physician declared his life could be saved only by the cautery, or by a potent draught that would deprive him of the hope of further progeny. He shrank from the cautery, and chose the draught. The remedy was effectual, and he survived.

At Al-Kūfa things turned out differently. The conspirator Ibn Muljam was able on the spot to gain two desperate accomplices from the Beni Taym. That tribe, deeply imbued with the fanaticism of the day, had suffered severely in the massacre of Nahrawān, and nursed resentment ever since against the Caliph. Ibn Muljam loved a maid of the Beni Taym, who having on that fatal day lost father, brother, and other relatives, was roused thereby to a savage ardour, "Bring me," said the damsel to her lover, "the head of ʿAlī as my dower; if thou escapest alive, thou shalt have me as thy guerdon here; if thou perish, thou shalt enjoy better than me above." So she introduced him to two accomplices, who, burning with the same spirit of revenge as Ibn Muljam, were to lie in wait on either side of the door leading into the crowded Mosque. At the time appointed, the Caliph entered the assembly calling aloud as usual, ''To prayers, ye people! To prayers!'' Immediately he was assailed on either hand. The sword of one conspirator fell upon the lintel; but Ibn Muljam wounded the Caliph severely on the head and side. He was seized. Of his accomplices one was cut to pieces, the other in the tumult fled. ʿAlī was carried into the palace with strength enough to question the assassin who was brought before him. Ibn Muljam declared boldly that the deed had been forty days in contemplation, during all which time it had been his prayer that "the wickedest of mankind might meet his fate." "Then," replied ʿAlī, "that must have been thyself." So saying, he turned to his son, Al-Ḥasan, and bade him keep the assassin in close custody: "If I die, his life is forfeit; but see thou mutilate him not, for that is forbidden by the Prophet." During the day Um Kulthūm went into the assassin's cell and cursed him, adding, what no doubt she would have fain


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78

“Is there any in this household,

Who can heal the wounds of iron,

Who can check this rushing bloodstream,

And can stay the dark red torrent?”

By the stove an old man rested,

On the stove-bed lay a greybeard,

From the stove the old man mumbled,

And the greybeard cried in answer,

“Stemmed before were greater torrents,

Greater floods than this were hindered,

By three words of the Creator,

By the mighty words primeval.

Brooks and streams were checked from flowing,

Mighty streams in cataracts falling,

Bays were formed in rocky headlands,

Tongues of land were linked together.”

the aged Väinämöinen

In the sledge at once stood upright,

From the sledge he sprang unaided,

And courageously stood upright.

To the room he hastened quickly,

And beneath the roof he hurried.

There they brought a silver beaker,

And a golden goblet likewise,

But they proved by far too little,

Holding but the smallest measure

Of the blood of aged Väinö,

From the hero’s foot that spouted.

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text: Kalevala (Kirby 1907)/Runo 8

title: Kalevala (Kirby 1907)/Runo 8


text:
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January 13, 1915.

["The Siberians have refused to have their beards cut, saying that the shagginess frightens the Germans." No doubt the adaptable enemy will not be behindhand in this method of warfare.]

The Frighten-em-to-Death's-Head Hussars, in their brilliant charge yesterday, were greatly aided by the fact that, before going into action, they had burnt-corked their faces. The effect upon the moral of the enemy was disastrous, the terrified troops flying in confusion.

The 1914 conscripts, who, as is well known, have yet to go into action, must not be supposed to be lying idle; they are being rendered irresistible by a severe training in the use of the grimace, which is likely to take the place of the bayonet as a means of clearing enemy trenches. The himself has frequently given instruction to the troops, although, in the interests of the men, it has been found necessary for the demonstrations to be carried on through sheets of smoked glass.

have largely abandoned the manufacture of big guns, and have now laid down plant for the construction of five million masks of a hideousness without parallel. Samples tested by the Black Pomeranians prove that any one of these masks has the power to drive a force of a thousand men into instant and complete insensibility.

With regard to the new crop reports, it must be remembered that fields hitherto intended for the growing of wheat and barley have, under a new order from the Imperial War Department, been planted with roots for the manufacture of the terrifying turnip-ghosts now required by the German army.

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text: Index:The Public General Acts of the United Kingdom and Church Assembly Measures 1972 Vol 1.pdf


text: Index:The Public General Acts of the United Kingdom and Church Assembly Measures 1972 Vol 2.pdf


text: Page:The Pharsalia of Lucan; (IA cu31924026485809).pdf/37


text:
Author:Charles King Van Riper

Works

 * The Nocturnal New Yorker (1916)
 * The Secret Six (1917)
 * Necessity’s Virtue (1918)
 * Bad Man Preferred (1918)
 * The Gentleman Strangler (1918)
 * Shadows (1919)
 * Two Marked Twenties (1919)
 * Dumb Luck (1919)
 * Just Her Size (1919)
 * Spaghetti (1919)
 * The Man Who Knew (1920)
 * From Behind the Fence (1920)
 * Circumstances (1920)
 * The Hole in the Doughnut (1920)
 * Ceasar's Choice (1920)
 * The Man Who Knew (1920)
 * The Puffer (1920)
 * Not Another Word (1920)
 * One Million White Beans (1920)
 * The Secret Hills (1920)
 * The Triumph (1920)
 * Pete and the Potentate (1921)
 * Reform in a Juvenile Role (1922)
 * Requiem (1923)
 * The Blue Lightning (1923)
 * Too Many Champions (1923)
 * Beckler’s Mark (1924)
 * The White Arm in the Water (1924)
 * Salvage (1925)
 * The Gateway (1925)
 * Legion Of Ships (1938)

title: Author:Charles King Van Riper


text: Index:The Public General Acts of the United Kingdom and Church Assembly Measures 1972 Vol 3.pdf


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 Manillius closely imitates Aratus in his description of the constellations of the Bears:

Aratus prefaces the first fable which he introduces with hereby shewing that he himself did not credit these fabulous notions, and cautioning his reader to distinguish between the astronomical truths and ornamental fictions of his poem. In like manner Germanicus says of the Goats in the constellation of Auriga:

There were various fables respecting the constellations of the Bears. The one adopted by Aratus is, that Helice and Cynosyra, two nymphs of Mount Ida in Crete, nursed the infant Jove, when his mother Ops secreted him for a year among the Corybantes from the cruel intention of his father


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[Makura no Sōshi]

One writes a letter, taking particular trouble to get it up as prettily as possible; then waits for the answer, making sure every moment that it cannot be much longer before something comes. At last, frightfully late, is brought in—one’s own note, still folded or tied exactly as one sent it, but so finger-marked and smudged that even the address is barely legible. “The family is not in residence,” the messenger says, giving one back the note. Or “It is his day of observance and they said they could not take any letters in.” Such experiences are dismally depressing.

One has been expecting someone, and rather late at night there is a stealthy tapping at the door. One sends a maid to see who it is, and lies waiting, with some slight flutter of the breast. But the name one hears when she returns is that of someone completely different, who does not concern one at all. Of all depressing experiences, this is by far the worst.

Someone comes, with whom one has decided not to have futherfurther [sic]


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26

Our uniform—or, if that is too military a word, our academical costume—is officially announced to be "grey-green," the colour of the sea at 7.30 in the morning, when you decide that you have forgotten your towel and had better have a hot bath quietly at home. I don't know how invisible we shall be as soldiers, but anchored off the Maplin Sands we should deceive anybody. Where are the Buoys of the Old Brigade? Ah, where indeed! Even as marines we should have our value.

Luckily, we have been practising amphibious warfare for some time. The camp is mostly under water, and when the "Fall-in" is sounded we do it quite easily. The "Emerge" is not so easily obeyed. But there were dried days in December, and on one of these I made a curious discovery.

We were having a field-day, and my side of the battle was advancing in sections under shell-fire over fairly flat country. Every now and then, however, we came to a small hill or group of hills. There seemed to be no human reason for it, and I suggested to my section that we were on the tract of some new kind of mole.

"No," said Jamnes, "those are bunkers."

We looked at each anxiously and tapped our foreheads.

"It's a golf-course," he persisted.

I could not allow dangerous talk of this kind to go on.

"Silence in the ranks," I said sternly.

A little later, when we were halted, an old, old man, the Nestor of the section, asked if he might speak to me.

"Certainly, my lad," I said.

"I think he du be right," he said, indicating James; "I've heerd tell on 'un. Great-great-grandfayther used to play."

Another man said that he had seen an old print of the game in a shop, but he thought it was called Ludo.

And then, in a most curious way, I had the sudden feeling that I myself had played the game in some previous existence—when I was a king in Babylon, perhaps, and James was a Christian caddie. It was most odd. When we got back to camp, I spoke to him about it.

"On Boxing Day, James," I whispered, "one might pursue one's researched in this matter. I should like to find out the trush about it. We might meet ath'r'm! To the left, to two paces, ex-tend!" I added this loudly for the benefit of our platoon commanded who was passing, and James (who in ordinary life extends two paces to the front) withdrew slowly into the darkness.

I won't refer to what happened on Boxing Day; one does not talk about these things. But I must tell you of its unfortunate sequel.

Last week, in the course of a route-march, we were suddenly turned on to distance-judging. I had never done this before, and a remote and lonely tree, half-hidden in the mist, conveyed nothing definite to me.

"What do you think?" I asked James.

"A drive and a mashie, about."

"S'sh," I said warningly. However, I determined to act on the suggestion. Remembering Boxing Day I allowed eighty yards for James's drive, and thirty-five for a mashie off the socket. Total, 115. It looked more, but the mist was deceptive. However, when the results were read out, the distance was given as 385 yards, and James, if you please, had said 350!

Let us leave this painful subject and turn to signalling. We are getting a little more proficient. Every message we sent now starts properly with prefix, service instructions, code time, and so on, and the message itself gets in as many hyphens, horizontal lines, fractions and inverted commas as possible. Here, for instance, is the beginning of a thrilling message (sent to the Editor of The Times) which I was receiving last Sunday.

"Fore-warned being fore-armed Lieut. Z. SMITHSON, 21st Foot on the Przemysl-Rzeszow-Olkusz road, with £3 9s. 7 1/2 d in his pocket (interest on 5 1/2 % DEBENTURES at 97—brokerage 1/8 th) proceeded at 9.25 P.M. to"

At this point the "Fall-in" sounded and we had to stop. I never heard what happened to Lieut. Smithson. My own theory is that he murdered Emma and put the blame on Lt.-Col. St. George, D.S.O., who only had three-and-a-half per cents. and had never seen the girl before. Perhaps the matter will be cleared up when the War is over.

But it was a sad blow to us to be told in a lecture that same afternoon that despatch-riding has proved to be much more useful than signalling at the Front. It had an immediate effect on James, and the advertisement in The Times beginning " a pair of blue-and-white silk flags (new) for motor-bicycle," is generally supposed to be his.

"All all the time I've spent on signalling has been wasted," he said indignantly.

"Not wasted, James. Your silhouette as you signalled an 'i' has made many a wet day bright. Anyway, it's no excuse for not coming to bayonet drill. That won't be wasted."

James made some absurd excuse about wanting to improve his shooting first.

"One is more independent with the bayonet," I assured him. "The Government doesn't like us as it is, and it's not going to waste much ammunition on us. But once you've tied the carving-knife on to the end of your umbrella, there are are."

"Well, I'll think about it," said James.

But I have heard since that he had already attended one class; and that in the middle of it James the solicitor advised James the soldier not to proceed further with the matter.

"Your time," said James the solicitor, "will be better spent on the range—where you can lie down."

And James the soldier made it so.

A. A. M.

[What would happen if we modelled our business affairs on the Yellow Book, Blue Book, White Book, Orange Book and Grey Book]

1. From Alfred Midgely, Office Manager, to James Henry Bullivant (Managing Director of Bullivants, Limited, Drysalters), temporarily abroad.

I hear from an absolutely trustworthy source that our town traveller, Mr. Herbert Blenkins, is thinking of giving notice. I have the honour to suggest that this merits the immediate attention of Your Excellency.

2. From J. H. B. to A. M.

Blenkins cannot be allowed to leave at this juncture. You should make a démarche towards the Office Boy, endeavour to ascertain from him whether pourparlers might not be opened with the Senior Typist in the direction of her using her influence with the Book-keeper to learn whether Blenkins' purpose is in the nature of an ultimatum or a ballon d'essai.

3. From A. M. to J. H. B.

Mr. Blenkins has presented his note. I have the honour to enclose a copy. The Office Boy is absent for a few days attending the obsequies of his grand-mother. I have telegraphed to his home in the sense of your despatch. No reply has come, and I have the honour to await Your Excellency's further orders.

4. From J. H. B. to A. M.

It is imperative that there should be no delay in this matter. You should

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138 dealings. One pretends to be fast asleep, but some servant or person connected with one comes to wake one up, and pulls one about, with a face as much as to say “What a sleep-hog!” This is always exceedingly irritating.

If someone with whom one is having an affair keeps on mentioning some woman whom he knew in the past, however long ago it is since they separated, one is always irritated.

It is very tiresome when a lover who is leaving one at dawn says that he must look for a fan or pocket-book that he left somewhere about the room last night. As it is still too dark to see anything, he goes fumbling about all over the place, knocking into everything and muttering to himself, “How very odd!” When at last he finds the pocket-book he crams it into his dress with a great rustling of the pages; or if it is a fan he has lost, he swishes it open and begins flapping it about, so that when he finally takes his departure, instead of experiencing the feelings of regret proper to such an occasion, one merely feels irritated at his clumsiness. …

It is important that a lover should know how to make his departure. To begin with, he ought not to be too ready to get up, but should require a little coaxing: “Come, it is past daybreak. You don’t want to be found here…” and so on. One likes him, too, to behave in such a way that one is sure he is unhappy at going and would stay longer if he possibly could. He should not pull on his trousers the moment he is up, but should first of all come close to one’s ear and in a whisper finish off whatever was left half-said in the course of the night. But though he may in reality at these moments be doing nothing at all, it will not be amiss that he should appear to be buckling his belt. Then he should raise the shutters, and both lovers should go out together at the double doors, while he tells her how much he dreads the day that is before him and longs for the approach of night. Then, after he has slipped away, she can stand gazing after him, with charming recollections of those last moments. Indeed, the success of a lover depends greatly on his method of departure. If he springs to his feet with a jerk and at once begins fussing round, tightening in the waistband of his breeches, or adjusting the sleeves of his court robe, hunting jacket, or what not,


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Rh a thousand odds and ends, and thrusting them into the folds or his dress, or pulling in his overbelt—one begins to hate him.

I like to think of a bachelor—an adventurous disposition has left him single—returning at dawn from some amorous excursion. He looks a trifle sleepy; but, as soon as he is home, draws his writing case toward him, carefully grinds himself some ink and begins to write his next-morning letter—not simply dashing off whatever comes into his head, but spreading himself to the task and taking trouble to write the characters beautifully. He should be clad in an azalea-yellow or vermilion cloak worn over a white robe. Glancing from time to time at the dewdrops that still cling to the thin white fabric of his dress, he finishes his letter, but instead of giving it to one of the ladies who are in attendance upon him at the moment, he gets up and, choosing from among his page-boys one who seems to him exactly appropriate to such a mission, calls the lad to him, and whispering something in his ear puts the letter in his hand; then sits gazing after him as he disappears into the distance. While waiting for the answer he will perhaps quietly murmur to himself this or that passage from the Sutras. Presently he is told that his washing water and porridge are ready, and goes into the back room, where, seated at the reading table, he glances at some Chinese poems, now and then reciting out loud some passage that strikes his fancy. When he has washed and got into his court cloak, which he wears as a dressing gown (without trousers), he takes the sixth chapter of the Lotus Scripture and reads it silently. Precisely at the most solemn moment of his reading—the place being not far away—the messenger returns, and by his posture it is evident that he expects an instant reply. With an amusing if blasphemous rapidity the lover transfers his attention from the book he is reading to the business of framing his answer.

From the beginning of the fifth month, it had been dark, rainy weather all the time. I became so bored that at last I suggested we


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140 had better go out and see if we couldn’t somewhere hear the cuckoo singing. This idea was very well received, and one of the girls suggested we should try that bridge behind the Kamo Shrine (it isn’t called Magpie Bridge, but something rather like it). She said that there was a cuckoo there every day. Someone else said it was not a cuckoo at all, but a cricket. However, on the morning of the fifth day, off we went. When we ordered the carriage, the men said they didn’t suppose that in such weather as this anyone would mind if we were picked up outside our own quarters and taken out by the Northern Gate. There was only room for four. Some of the other ladies asked whether we should mind their getting another carriage and coming too. But the Empress said “No,” and though they were very much disappointed we drove off rather hardheartedly without attempting to console them or indeed worrying about them at all. Something seemed to be happening at the riding ground, where there was a great press of people. When we asked what was going on, we were told that the competitions were being held, and that the archers were just going to shoot on horseback. It was said, too, that the officers of the Bodyguard of the Left were there; but all we could see, when we had pulled up, was a few gentlemen of the Sixth Rank wandering vaguely about. “Oh, do let us get on,” someone said; “there’s no one of any interest here.” So we drove on toward Kamo, the familiar road making us feel quite as though we were on our way to the festival. Presently we came to my lord Akinobu’s house, and someone suggested we should get out and have a look at it. Everything was very simple and countrified—pictures of horses on the panels, screens of wattled bamboo, curtains of plaited grass—all in a style that seemed to be intentionally behind the times. The house itself was a poor affair and very cramped, but quite pretty in its way. As for cuckoos, we were nearly deafened! It is really a great pity Her Majesty never hears them. And when we thought of the


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Rh ladies who had wanted so badly to come with us, we felt quite guilty. “It’s always interesting to see things done on the spot,” said Akinobu, and sending for some stuff which I suppose was husked rice, he made some girls—very clean and respectable—along with others who seemed to come from neighboring farms, show us how the rice was thrashed. Five or six of them did this, and then the grain was put into a sort of machine that went round, two girls turning it and at the same time singing so strange a song that we could not help laughing, and had soon forgotten all about the cuckoos. Then refreshments were brought on a queer old tray-stand such as one sees in Chinese pictures. As no one seemed much interested in its contents, our host said: “This is rough country fare. If you don’t like it, the only thing to do in a place like this is to go on bothering your host or his servants till you get something you can eat. We don’t expect you people from the capital to be shy. These fern-shoots, now. I gathered them with my own hand.” “You don’t want us to arrange ourselves round the tray-stand like a lot of maid-servants sitting down to their supper?” I protested.

“Hand the things round,” he said … and while this was going on, in the midst of the clatter, one of the men came in and said that it was going to rain, and we hurried back to our carriage. I wanted to make my cuckoo-poem before we started; but the others said I could do it in the carriage. Before going we picked a huge branch of white-flower and decorated our carriage with it, great trails of blossom hanging over the windows and sides, till one would have thought a huge canopy of white brocade had been flung across the roof of the coach. Our grooms, throwing themselves into the thing, began with shouts of laughter squeezing fresh boughs of blossom into every cranny that would hold them. We longed to be seen by someone on our way back, but not a soul did we meet, save one or two wretched priests or other such uninteresting people. When we were nearly home we made up our minds it would be too dull to finish the day without anyone having seen us in our splendor, so we stopped at the palace in the First Ward and asked for the Captain, saying we were just back from hearing the cuckoo. We were told he


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142 had been off duty for some time and had got into easy clothes; but was now being helped into his court trousers. Wouldn’t we wait? We said we couldn’t do that, and were driving on to the Eastern Gate, when he suddenly appeared running after us down the road. He had certainly changed in a marvelously short space of time, but was still buckling his belt as he ran. Behind him, barefooted in their haste, panted several dressers and grooms. We called to the coachman to drive on and had already reached the gate when, hopelessly out of breath, he staggered up to us. It was only then that he saw how we were decorated. “This is a fairy chariot,” he laughed. “I do not believe there are real people in it. If there are, let them get down and show themselves.”

“But, Shōnagon, what poems did you make today? That’s what I should like to hear.” “We’re keeping them for Her Majesty,” I replied. Just then it once more began to rain in earnest. “I have always wondered,” he said, “why when all the other gates have arches, this Eastern Gate should have none. Today, for example, one badly needs it.” “What am I to do now?” he asked presently. “I was so determined to catch up with you that I rushed out without thinking what was to become of me afterward.” “Don’t be so ridiculous,” I said. “You can come with us to the palace.” “In an eboshi?” he asked. “What can you be thinking of?” “Send someone to fetch your hat,” I suggested. But it was now raining badly and our men, who had no raincoats with them, were pulling in the carriage as quickly as they could. One of his men presently arrived from his palace with an umbrella, and under its shelter he now, with a slow reluctance that contrasted oddly with his previous haste, made his way home, continually stopping to look back at us over his shoulder. With his umbrella in one hand and a bunch of white-flower in the other, he was an amusing sight.

When we were back in the palace, Her Majesty asked for an account of our adventures. The girls who had been left behind were at first inclined to be rather sulky; but when we described how the Captain had run after us down the Great Highway of the First


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Rh Ward, they could not help laughing. Presently the Empress asked about our poems, and we were obliged to explain that we had not made any. “That is very unfortunate,” she said. “Some of the gentlemen at court are bound to hear of your excursion, and they will certainly expect something to have come of it. I can quite understand that on the spot it was not very easy to write anything. When people make too solemn an affair of such things, one is apt suddenly to feel completely uninterested. But it is not too late. Write something now. You’re good for that much, surely.” This was all true enough; but it turned out to be a painful business. We were still trying to produce something when a messenger arrived, with a note from the Captain. It was written on thin paper stamped with the white-flower pattern, and was attached to the spray that he had taken from our carriage. His poem said: “Would that of this journey I had heard. So had my heart been with you when you sought the cuckoo’s song.” Fearing that we were keeping the messenger waiting, her Majesty sent round her own writing case to our room, with paper slipped into the lid. “You write something, Saishō,” I said. But Saishō was determined that I should write, and while we argued about it the sky suddenly grew dark, rain began to pour, and there were such deafening peals of thunder, that we forgot all about our poem, and frightened out of our wits ran wildly from place to place, closing shutters and doors. The storm lasted a long time, and when at last the thunder became less frequent, it was already dark. We were just saying we really must get on with our answer, when crowds of visitors began to arrive, all anxious to talk about the storm, and we were obliged to go out and look after them. One of the courtiers said that a poem only needs an answer when it is addressed to someone in particular, and we decided to do no more about it. I said to the Empress that poetry seemed to have a bad karma today, and added that the best thing we could do was to keep as quiet as possible about our excursion. “I still don’t see why some of you who went should not be able to produce a few poems,” she replied, pretending to be cross. “It isn’t that you can’t; of that I am sure. You have made up your minds not to.” “The time has passed,” I said. “One must do those things when one is in the right mood.” “Right mood? What


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144 nonsense!” she exclaimed indignantly. But all the same, she did not worry me any more about it.

Two days afterward Saishō was talking about our excursion, and mentioned the fern-shoots that Akinobu had “plucked with his own hand.” The Empress was amused that Saishō seemed to have retained a much clearer memory of the refreshments than of anything else that happened during the expedition, and picking up a stray piece of paper she wrote: “The memory of a salad lingers in her head,” and bade me make a beginning for the poem. I wrote: “More than the cuckoo’s song that she went out to hear.” “Well, Shōnagon,” she said, laughing, “how you of all people can have the face to mention cuckoos, I cannot imagine.” I felt very crestfallen, but answered boldly: “I don’t see anything to be ashamed of. I have made up my mind only to make poems when I feel inclined to. If, whenever there is a question of poetry, you turn upon me and ask me to compose, I shall stay in your service no longer. When I am called upon like that, I can’t even count the syllables, still less think whether I am writing a winter song in spring, or a spring song in autumn. … I know there have been a lot of poets in my family; and it would certainly be very nice if, after one of these occasions, people said: ‘Of course, hers was much the best; but that is not surprising, considering what her father was.’ As it is, not having the slightest degree of special talent in that direction, I object strongly to being perpetually thrust forward and made to behave as though I thought myself a genius. I feel I am disgracing my father’s memory!” I said this quite seriously; but the Empress laughed. However, she said I might do as I pleased, and promised that for her part she would never call upon me again. I felt immensely relieved. …


text: Anthology of Japanese Literature/The Pillow Book