The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

236 THE PjOY travellers.
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SCENK FROM A JAPANESE COMEDY. AVRITING -V LlCTTEIi OF DIVORCE.
"Then the real acting of the piece began, and I wished ever so nmch
tliat it had been in English, so tliat I could understand it. The story was
a supernatural one, and there were badgers and foxes in it, and they had
a woman changed to a badger, and the badger to a woman again. Geutle-
raen who are familiar with Japanese theatres say thei'e are man^' of
these stories, like onr Little Red Ridingdiood, and other fairy tales, acted
on the stage, and that the play we saw is one of the most popular, and is
called 'Bnmbuku Chagama,' or 'The Bubbling Teapot.' One gentleman
has shown me a translation of it, and I will put it in here, just to show
you what a Japanese fairy story is like.
" ' (}nce upon a time, it is said, there lived a very old badger in tlie
temple known as Morin-je, where there was also an iron teapot called
Bumbuku Chagama, which was a precious thing in that sacred place. One
day when the chief priest, who was fond of tea and kept the pot always
hanging in his sitting-room, was about taking it, as usual, to make tea for
drinking, a tail came out of it. He was startled, and called together all
the little bour/jes, Ins pupils, that they might behold the apparition. Sirp-
posing it to be the mischievous work of a fox or badger, and being resolved
to ascertain its real character, they made due preparations. Some of them
tied handkerchiefs about their heads, and some stripped the coats from
their shoulders, and armed themselves with sticks and bits of firewood.
But when they were about to beat the vessel down, wings came out of it
and as it flew about from one side to another, like a dragon-fly, while they
pursued it, they could neither strike nor secure it. Finally, however, liav-
;