A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

Songs of Japanese Children 191
Japanese fairy-tales cannot be understood. In
any event they should be read in translation only
when illustrated by Japanese artists. The il-
lustrations will explain much that the bare text
leaves in mystery.
In the next song we have the story of a
serpent assuming the shape of a certain man's
daughter. Stories of serpent-women and dragonwomen
abound in Japanese literature. Probably
both this song and the preceding one were in-
spired by the memory of some old romance or
drama — :
(Prcmnce of Sinnano.)
Muko no ozawa ni ja ga tatte, —
Hachiman-Choja no oto-musume.
Yoku mo tattari takundari,
Te ni wa nihon no tama wo mochi,
Ashi ni wa kogane no kutsu wo haki,
A yobe, ko yobe, to iinagara,
Yama kure no kure ittareba,
Kusakari tonogo ni yukiatte,
— Obi wo kudasare, tonogo-sama.
formerly to be asked of any one desiring to enter the
Buddliist Order, according to the Vinaya texts, was this:
— " Are you a human being?"