ppeal to the temple. Within
the week a committee of the ward waited upon him. As if expecting them,
Iemon gave ready compliance. With four or five other gentlemen he waited
upon Shu[u]den Osho[u], the famous priest of the temple of the Gyo[u]ran
Kwannon. The Lady Merciful, Kwannon Sama, seemed the fitting deity to
whom appeal should be made. A word is to be said as to this famous
manifestation of the goddess. Told by Ryuo[u] at length, of necessity
here the account is much abridged. Gyo[u]ran Kwannon--Kwannon of the
fish-basket--has several other names. She is called the Namagusai
Kwannon, from the odour of fresh blood attached to the pursuit; the
Byaku Kwannon, or the white robed; the Baryufu Kwannon, as wife of Baryu
the fisherman. The image of the Byaku Kwannon exists.[37] It is carved
in white wood, stained black, with a scroll in the right hand, and
holding a fish basket (_gyo[u]ran_) in the left hand. The story of
Baryu, and of his connection with Kwannon, is of more moment.

In Morokoshi (China) there is a place called Kinshaden. Across the bay
from Edo-To[u]kyo[u] is Kazusa with its ninety-nine villages, one of
which has the same name--Kinshaden. The fishing population of Nippon is
a rough lot. From babyhood there is little but quarrelling and fighting
between the bands which control the different wards of the villages. The
relations between the people are very primitive. One of the important
occupations is the _iwashi_, or pilchard, fishing. To pull in the nets
loaded with the fish requires the united effort of the whole village
population, men, women, even children. Among their toilers the people of
Kinshaden noted a young girl of some sixteen or seventeen years; easily
noted by the great beauty and attraction of face and figure, the willing
readiness and wonderful strength she showed in her struggles with the
weighted net. As she appeared several times at last some men went up to
her--"Girl, you are a stranger here. For your aid thanks are offered.
Who may you be; and whence from? Strangers, even in kindness, in Nippon
must not conceal their names." The girl smiled.--"I come from
Fudarakusan in the South Ocean.... Where is Fudarakusan? It is in
India.... And India? It is in the South Ocean, the Nankai." To the
wonder expressed at her coming such a distance of thousands of _ri_--"I
come, I serve, for my husband."--"Your husband? Pray who may he be, in
these parts?"--"Not yet is he chosen," answered the girl. "C