Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan.pdf/165



Long, long ago, on a mountain there lived a Goddess who was very beautiful. She was the Goddess of Beauty, of Love, and of Jealousy.

All the youths and maidens who lived in the vicinity of this mountain, which could be seen clearly in fair weather, prayed to the Goddess, when they had found a mate, for success in their love. As their love grew and gradually increased, they offered grateful thanks to the Goddess, but when their love affairs did not run smoothly they forgot everything but their own troubles. They even forgot the favours which the Goddess had bestowed upon them. When this happened, she at once changed herself into the Goddess of Jealousy and unexpected evils came suddenly upon them, and their love ended in tragedy.

Old people who had so many times witnessed these unhappy endings, shrugged their shoulders with pity, and sighed, for when a young couple was swept away in the ecstasy of a romance, the aged and more experienced could foresee a tragedy looming ahead. But the old people no longer had the power or influence to prevent the young ones from falling violently in love, and they had to stand by and watch a great many youths and maidens rushing into danger and could only shake their old heads sadly when they saw them falling headlong down the cliff of their doom.