s that he has been absent seven years, and his living is now
held by another priest.[146]

Here, perhaps, is a fitting place to mention the Happy Islands of
Everlasting Life as known to Japanese tradition, though the story can
hardly be said to belong to the type we have just discussed,--perhaps
not strictly to any of the foregoing types. A Japanese hero, the wise
Vasobiove, it was who succeeded in reaching the Happy Islands, and in
returning to bring sure tidings of them. For, like St. Brendan's Isle in
western lore, these islands may be visible for a moment and afar off to
the seafarer, but a mortal foot has hardly ever trodden them. Vasobiove,
however, in his boat alone, set sail from Nagasaki, and, in spite of
wind and waves, landed on the green shore of Horaisan. Two hundred years
he sojourned there; yet wist he not how long the period was, there where
everything remained the same, where there was neither birth nor death,
where none heeded the flight of time. With dance and music, in
intercourse with wise men and lovely women, his days passed away. But at
length he grew weary of this sweet round of existence: he longed for
death--an impossible wish in a land where death was unknown. No poison,
no deadly weapons were to be found. To tumble down a chasm, or to fling
oneself on sharp rocks was no more than a fall upon a soft cushion. If
he would drown himself in the sea, the water refused its office, and
bore him like a cork. Weary to death the poor Vasobiove could find no
help. In this need a thought struck him: he caught and tamed a giant
stork and taught him to carry him. On the back of this bird he returned
over sea and land to his beloved Japan, bringing the news of the realm
of Horaisan. His story took hold of the hearts of his fellow-countrymen;
and that the story-tellers might never forget it, it has been
emblazoned by the painters in a thousand ways. Nor can the stranger go
anywhere in Japan without seeing the old, old man depicted on his stork
and being reminded of his voyage to the Happy Islands.[147]

FOOTNOTES:

[123] Croker, vol. iii. p. 215. This tale is given by Sikes, p. 70, of
course without any acknowledgment. It is also found in Keightley, p.
415.

[124] "Y Cymmrodor," vol. vi. pp. 174, 157, 196, 187.

[125] Howells, pp. 141, 145; Sikes, p. 73. I have not been able to trace
Mr. Sikes' authority for the last story; but his experience and skill in
borrowing from other books are so much greater