Come a jostling and a hustling

O'er our billows gaily bustling:

Come, all ye boats, and anchor in this spot!

(ANON.)

Lines to a Friend.

Japan is not a land where men need pray,
For 'tis itself divine :-

Yet do I lift my voice in prayer and say:
May ev'ry joy be thine!

And may I too, if thou those joys attain,
Live on to see thee blest!"

Such the fond prayer, that, like the restless main,
Will rise within my breast.

(HITOMARO.)

[Japan is the dwelling-place of the gods, and the whole nation claims divine ancestry. Thus prayer, with them, were doubly useless. The gods are already on earth, therefore no petitions need be lifted up to heaven. Also the heart of man,-at least of Japanese man,-is naturally perfect: therefore he has only to follow the dictates of his heart, and he will do right. These are the tenets of Sintooism,* claimed by the Japanese as their ab original religion, but in which any person conversant with the writings of the Chinese sages will not fail to detect the influence of their ways of thought. The believers in Sintooism, morcover, are by no means consistent; for, while deprecating the use of prayer, they have numerous and lengthy liturgies. A translation of some of these liturgics and an account of the modern attempt

Properly Shin-tau ("the Way of the Goda ").

to infuse such new vitality into Sintooism as might enable it to cope with the more potent influence of the Buddhist religion, will be found in some learned essays by Mr. Ernest Satow, printed in the "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan."]

The Bridge to Heaven.*

Oh! that that ancient bridge
Hanging 'twixt heaven and earth were longer still!
Oh! that yon mountain-ridge

So boldly tow'ring tow'red more boldly still!
Then from the moon on high

I'd fetch some drops of the life-giving stream,t—
A gift that might beseem

Our Lord the King, to make him live for aye!

(ANON.)

A Very Ancient Ode.

Mountains and ocean-waves
Around me lie;

For ever the mountain-chains

Tower to the sky;

* The poet alludes to the so-called ama no ukihashi, or “floating bridge of heaven,"—the bridge by which, according to the Japanese mythology, the gods passed up and down in the days of old. The idea of such bridges seems to have been common in early times in Japan, for there are several traditions concerning them in various widely-separated provinces.

+ The translator can discover no reference elsewhere to this lunar river or spring. The commentator Mabuchi says: "The poet uses this expression on account of the watery nature of the moon."

Fixed is the ocean

Immutably:

Man is a thing of nought,
Born but to die!

(ANON.)

The Seventh Night of the Seventh Moon.

[The following poem requires some elucidation. The "Heavenly River" is the Milky Way. The Herd boy is a star in Aquila, and the Weaver is the star Vega. The fable of their being spouses or lovers who may never meet but on the seventh night of the seventh moon is extremely ancient, apparently owing its origin to some allusions to the movements of the two stars in question in the "She King," or "Book of Ancient Chinese Poetry," edited by Con. fucius. As might be expected, the legend has taken several forms. According to one version, the Weaver was a maiden who dwelt on the left bank of the River of Heaven, and was so constantly employed in making garments for the offspring of the Emperor of Heaven (God), that she had no leisure to attend to the adorning of her person. At last, however, God, taking compassion on her loneliness, gave her in marriage to a Herdsman who dwelt upon the opposite bank of the stream. Hereupon the Weaver began to grow slack in her work; and God in his anger made her recross the river, at the same time forbidding her husband to visit her more than once every year. Another story represents the pair as having been mortals who were married at the ages of fifteen and twelve, and who died at the ages of a hundred and three and ninety-nine respectively. After death, their spirits flew up to the sky, in the river watering which, the supreme divinity was un fortunately in the habit of performing his ablutions daily. No mortals, therefore, might pollute it by their touch, excepting on the seventh day of the seventh moon, when the deity, instead of bathing, went to listen to the reading of the Buddhist scriptures. Japanese literature, like that of China, teems with allusions to

the loves of the Herdboy and the Weaver; and till within the last three or four years, the seventh day of the seventh moon was one of the most popular festivals in town and country. Traces of it, as of almost everything else that was picturesque and quaint, must now be sought for in the remoter provincial districts.]

Since the hour when first begun

Heaven and earth their course to run,
Parted by the Heav'nly River

Stand the Herdboy and the Weaver:
For in each year these lovers may
Meet but for one single day.
To and fro the constant swain
Wanders in the heavenly plain,

Till sounds the hour when fore and aft
He's free to deck his tiny craft
In gallant trim, and ship the oar
To bear him to the opposing shore.
Now the autumn season leads,
When through the swaying, sighing reeds
Rustles the chill breath of even,

And o'er the foaming stream of heaven,
Heedless of the silv'ry spray,
He'll row exulting on his way,
And, with his arms in hers entwin'd,
Tell all the loving tale he pin'd
To tell her through the livelong year.
Yes! the seventh moon is here;
And I, though mortal, hail the night
That brings heav'n's lovers such delight.

(ANON.)

Recollections of My Children.

[To the verses are, in the original, prefixed the following lines of prose :

"The holy Shiyaka Muni, letting drop verities from his golden mouth, says, 'I love mankind as I love Ragora.'* And again he preaches, 'No love exceedeth a parent's love.' Thus even so great a saint retained his love for his child. How much more, then, shall not the common run of men love their children?"]

Ne'er a melon can I eat,

But calls to mind my children dear;
Ne'er a chestnut crisp and sweet,

But makes the lov'd ones seem more near.
Whence did they come my life to cheer?
Before mine eyes they seem to sweep,
So that I may not even sleep.

Short Stanza on the same occasion.

What use to me the gold and silver hoard ?
What use to me the gems most rich and rare ?
Brighter by far,-ay! bright beyond compare,-
The joys my children to my heart afford!

(YAMAGAMI-NO-OKURA.)

* Properly Rahula, Buddha's only son. Shiyaka, a corruption of Sakya, is the name commonly employed in Japan to designate the Indian prince Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, whom Europeans usually call Buddha,