randah of the
old _Yashiki_, squatted, Buddha-wise, smoking a tiny long-stemmed
Japanese pipe, his little wife seated near him, relating, by the aid of
the interpreter, the superstitions and legends of the ancient Province
of the Gods.

She tells us how he took even the most trivial tale to heart, murmuring,
"How interesting," his face sometimes even turning pale while he looked
fixedly in front of him.

Under these conditions of tranquillity and well-being his genius seemed
to expand and develop. The "Shirabyoshi,"[22] or "Dancing Girl," the
finest piece of imaginative work he ever did, was conceived and written
during the course of the summer passed in the old _Yashiki_. Its first
inception is indicated in a letter to Basil Hall Chamberlain, in 1891.
"There was a story some time ago in the _Asahi-shimbun_[23] about a
'Shirabyoshi,' that brought tears to my eyes, as slowly and painfully
translated by a friend."

[22] "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan," Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

[23] The _Asahi-shimbun_ was one of the principal Japanese illustrated
daily papers, printed and published at Osaka.

The "Dancing Girl" has been translated into four foreign
languages--German, Swedish, French and Italian--a writer in the _Revue
des Deux Mondes_ declares it to be one of the love-stories of the world.
The only remarkable fact is, that it has not made more of a stir in
England.

The hero is the well-known Japanese painter Buncho; the heroine a
Geisha. There is something simple, natural, tragic and yet intangible
and ethereal in the manner in which Hearn tells it; the presence of a
vital spirit, the essential element of passion and regret, the throb of
warm human emotion, in spite of its exotic setting, brings it into
kinship with the human experience of all times and countries. There is
no attempt at scenery, only a woman hidden away in the heart of nature,
in a lonely cottage amongst the hills, with her love, her memory, her
regret. Into this solitary life enters youth, attractive, beautiful, the
possibility of further romance; but no romance other than the one she
cherishes is for her.

Unfortunately it is only possible to give the merest sketch of the story
that Hearn unfolds with consummate artistic skill. He begins with an
account of dancing-girls, of the education they have to undergo, how
they use their accomplishments to cast a web of enchantment over men.

It is one of these apparently soulless creatures, a dancing-g