A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

30
Japanese Miscellany
He had but one child, a daughter called Kinume.'
Kinume was a fine-looking girl, and very strong
but, shortly after she had reached her eighteenth
year, a dangerous sickness began to prevail in that
part of the country, and she was attacked by it.
Her parents and friends then made offerings on
her behalf to a certain Pest-God, and performed
great austerities in honor of the Pest-God,
beseeching him to save her.
— ;
After having lain in a stupor for several days,
the sick girl one evening came to herself, and told
her parents a dream that she had dreamed. She
had dreamed that the Pest-God appeared to her,
and said : — " Your people have been praying to
me so earnestly for you, and have been worship-
ping me so devoutly, that I really wish to save
you. But I cannot do so except by giving you
the life of some other person. Do you happen to
know of any other girl who has the same name
as yours ? " "I remember," answered Kinume,
" that in Utarigori there is a girl whose name is
the same as mine." " Point her out to me," the
God said, touching the sleeper ; — and at the touch
she rose into the air with him ; and, in less than a
1 " Golden Plum-Flower.'