Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/178

166 epic, went across the sea to visit his ancestor and thereby gain immortality by means of the magic herb. That and similar tales may be set down as mythology, if you so choose. But we know that the Chinese actually did go in search of the Isles of the Blest where they would find givers of life in abundance. Major Yetts, in his paper on the Chinese Isles of the Blest, has made it clear that the Chinese sent out expeditions to seek for them. He says, "In the fourth century the notion was sufficiently established to lead a feudal prince to make search for the Isles of the Blest." Again he says, "at that time when China had become united under the rule of Shih Huang of the Ch'in dynasty, the Emperor travelled to the sea coast. Then magicians in countless numbers discussed the Three Enchanted Islands. The Emperor feared lest, if he himself embarked upon the sea, he might not succeed in reaching them. So he commissioned some one to make the search, whom he provided with a band of young folks, boys and maidens. Their ship sailed across the mid-ocean. The excuse they gave for failure was the plea of contrary winds, declaring that they had been unable to get to the isles, though they had seen them from afar." Other emperors that succeeded him were likewise obsessed with the desire to find the way to the place where they could obtain immortality by virtue of the magical substances there to be found. It is claimed that colonies were thus formed by the Chinese in the Philippines and Japan. The Japanese have a story of one Wasobiowe who reached the Isles of the Blest after long voyages, and found there another mortal, Joiuku, who had fled from a tyrannical emperor under the pretext of seeking for the herb of immortality. It was a land of immortality, without sickness or decay. The men were wise and the women beautiful, and there was much music, song and laughter. After a time, however, he, like Bran of Ireland, returned home.