race-soul, though? One would have to recollect having been two at the
same time. This seems to me a defect in the popular theory--still the
Japanese hold, or used to hold, that the soul is itself a multiple--that
each person has a _number of souls_. That would give an explanation.
Scientifically it is true. We are all compounds of innumerable
lives--each a sum in an infinite addition--the dead are not dead--they
live in all of us and move us,--and stir faintly in every heart-beat.
And there are ghostly interlinkings. Something of _you_ must be in _me_,
and of both of us in Kajiwo.

"--I wonder if this also be true of little Dorothy. It is a curious
thing that you tell me about the change in colour of the eyes. I only
saw that happen in hot climates. Creole children are not uncommonly born
with gold hair and bright blue eyes. A few years later the skin, eyes,
hair seem to have entirely changed,--the first to brown, the two last to
coal-black.

"--I am writing all this dreamy stuff just to amuse my sweet little
sister,--because I can't be near to pet her and make her feel very
happy. Well, a little Oriental theory may have some caressing charm for
you. It is a very gentle faith--though also very deep; and you will find
in my book how much it interests me.

"Take very, very, _very_ good care of your precious little self,--and do
not try to write till you feel immensely strong. Setsu sends sweet words
and wishes. And I----!

"With love,
"LAFCADIO HEARN.

"_Kumamoto, June_ 2, '94."

CHAPTER XX
OUT OF THE EAST

"So Japan paid to learn how to see shadows in Nature, in
life, and in thought. And the West taught her that the sole
business of the divine sun was the making of the cheaper kind
of shadows. And the West taught her that the higher-priced
shadows were the sole product of Western civilisation, and
bade her admire and adopt. Then Japan wondered at the shadows
of machinery and chimneys and telegraph poles; and at the
shadows of mines and of factories, and the shadows in the
hearts of those who worked there; and at the shadows of
houses twenty storeys high, and of hunger begging under them;
and shadows of enormous charities that multiplied poverty;
and shadows of social reforms that multiplied vice;