'Kane thrice prostrates herself before you.
'From KANE.
'To—-SAMA.'
'Well, it is a characteristic shinju letter,' my friend comments, after a moment's silence, replacing the frail white paper in its envelope. 'So I thought it would interest you. And now, although it is growing dark, I am going to the cemetery to see what has been done at the grave. Would you like to come with me?'
We take our way over the long white bridge, up the shadowy Street of the Temples, toward the ancient hakaba of Miokoji—and the darkness grows as we walk. A thin moon hangs just above the roofs of the great temples.
Suddenly a far voice, sonorous and sweet—a man's voice-breaks into song under the starred night: a song full of strange charm and tones like warblings—those Japanese tones of popular emotion which seem to have been learned from the songs of birds. Some happy workman returning home. So clear the thin frosty air that each syllable quivers to us; but I cannot understand the words: Saite yuke toya, ano ya wo saite; Yuke ba chikayoru nushi no soba.
'What is that?' I ask my friend.
He answers: 'A love-song. "Go forward, straight forward that way, to the house that thou seest before thee;—the nearer thou goest thereto, the nearer to her [7] shalt thou be."'
Chapter Fourteen Yaegaki-jinja
Sec. 1