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HOW
CHAPTER IV.
THE DREAM-WORLD.
does the world look to a
Japanese child?
Who live in "it ? Who inhabit the strange
corners, the woods, hills, valleys, roofs, high places,
the air and the night, and dwell in the hazy distance
? Who and what influence him in the visible
and the invisible universe ?
In a word, what is the Japanese child taught and
told to believe ? How is he charmed or frightened ?
What are his own fancies ? How does he dream ?
In the Rai family the father made it a point to
teach his children to know the difference between
fact and fancy, between what was known and proved,
and what was dreamed or imagined. The stories he
told to his children were from history, or, if funny
and only amusing, were of a good, healthy sort.
Even Mrs. Rai was careful as to what entered the
children's minds ;
but neither she nor her husband
could always control what Uhe'i, and Taka the
cook, and O-gin (Miss Silver) the nursemaid, told
the children. Neither were grandma and cousins
and uncles and aunts so strict or careful as the
parents. Besides, Echizen was an old land, full of
relics underneath, and wonders above ground, and
was rich in history, tradition, legend, and story. Air