A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

5^6 Japanese Miscellany
ing to the castle. She appeared to have a child
in her arms, and to be waiting for somebody.
Only the most extraordinary circumstances could
account for the presence of a woman in that
lonesome place at so late an hour ; and Umetsu
remembered that goblins were wont to assume
feminine shapes after dark, in order to deceive
and destroy men. He therefore doubted whether
the seeming woman before him was really a
human being; and when he saw her hasten
towards him, as if to speak, he intended to
pass her by without a word. But he was too
much surprised to do so when the woman called
him by name, and said, in a very sweet voice : —
"Good Sir Umdtsu, to-night I am in great
trouble, and I have a most painful duty to per-
form: will you not kindly help me by holding
this baby for one little moment.?" And she
held out the child to him.
Umetsu did not recognize the woman, who
appeared to be very young: he suspected the
charm of the strange voice, suspected a supernatural
snare, suspected everything — ; but he
was naturally kind; and he felt that it would
be unmanly to repress a kindly impulse through
fear of goblins. Without replying, he took the