Tales of Old Japan - Maybe You Like It

which will be its lot. Poor fool! it has been lured to its destruction, like
the insect of summer that flies into the flame. Summoning the winds to
its aid, it puts out the lights, and disappears.
The Suit of Feathers is the title of a very pretty conceit which followed.
A fisherman enters, and in a long recitative describes the scenery at the
sea-shore of Miwo, in the province of Suruga, at the foot of Fuji-Yama,
the Peerless Mountain. The waves are still, and there is a great calm; the
fishermen are all out plying their trade. The speaker's name is Hakuriyô,
a fisherman living in the pine-grove of Miwo. The rains are now over,
and the sky is serene; the sun rises bright and red over the pine-trees and
rippling sea; while last night's moon is yet seen faintly in the heaven.
Even he, humble fisher though he be, is softened by the beauty of the
nature which surrounds him. A breeze springs up, the weather will
change; clouds and waves will succeed sunshine and calm; the fishermen
must get them home again. No; it is but the gentle breath of spring, after
all; it scarcely stirs the stout fir-trees, and the waves are hardly heard to
break upon the shore. The men may go forth in safety. The fisherman
then relates how, while he was wondering at the view, flowers began to
rain from the sky, and sweet music filled the air, which was perfumed by
a mystic fragrance. Looking up, he saw hanging on a pine-tree a fairy's
suit of feathers, which he took home, and showed to a friend, intending
to keep it as a relic in his house. A heavenly fairy makes her appearance,
and claims the suit of feathers; but the fisherman holds to his treasure
trove. She urges the impiety of his act—a mortal has no right to take that
which belongs to the fairies. He declares that he will hand down the
feather suit to posterity as one of the treasures of the country. The fairy
bewails her lot; without her wings how can she return to heaven? She recalls
the familiar joys of heaven, now closed to her; she sees the wild
geese and the gulls flying to the skies, and longs for their power of flight;
the tide has its ebb and its flow, and the sea-breezes blow whither they
list: for her alone there is no power of motion, she must remain on earth.
At last, touched by her plaint, the fisherman consents to return the feather
suit, on condition that the fairy shall dance and play heavenly music
for him. She consents, but must first obtain the feather suit, without
which she cannot dance. The fisherman refuses to give it up, lest she
should fly away to heaven without redeeming her pledge. The fairy reproaches
him for his want of faith: how should a heavenly being be capable
of falsehood? He is ashamed, and gives her the feather suit, which
she dons, and begins to dance, singing of the delights of heaven, where
she is one of the fifteen attendants who minister to the moon. The
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