"With swords it would be very easy," responded a third; "but they are more skilful than we in the use of guns and cannon."
"We can learn all that," said the first speaker. "When we have learned Western military matters, we need not care for Western soldiers."
"Foreigners," observed another, "are not hardy like we are. They soon tire, and they fear cold. All winter our teacher must have a great fire in his room. To stay there five minutes gives me the headache."
But for all that, the lads were kind to their teacher, and made him love them.
(1) Apish mythological beings with red hair, delighting in drunkenness.
(2) Mythological beings of several kinds, supposed to live in the mountains. Some have long noses.
(3) There is a legend that when Toryoko, a great poet, who was the teacher of Sugiwara-no-Michizane (now deified as Tenjin), was once passing the Gate called Ra-jo-mon, of the Emperor's palace at Kyoto, he recited aloud this single verse which he had just composed:—
"Clear is the weather and fair;—and the wind waves the hair of
young willows."
Immediately a deep mocking voice from the gateway continued the
poem, thus:—
"Melted and vanished the ice; the waves comb the locks of old mosses."
Toryoko looked, but there was no one to be seen. Reaching home, he told his pupil about the matter, and repeated the two compositions. Sugiwara-no-Michizane praised the second one, saying:—