Page:Insect Literature by Lafcadio Hearn.djvu/222

Rh gods;—and I quickly returned it to the shrub on which it had been reposing……This particular kind of dragon-fly is said to haunt only the neighborhood of a clear stream near the town of Yaidzu. It is, however, but one of many lovely varieties.

But the more exquisite dragon-flies are infrequently seen; and they seldom figure in Japanese literature;—and I can attempt to interest my reader only in the poetry and the folklore of dragon-flies. I propose to discourse of dragon-flies in the old-fashioned Japanese way; and the little that I have been able to learn upon the subject,—with the help of quaint books and of long-forgotten drawings,—mostly relates to the commoner species.

But before treating of dragon-fly literature, it will be necessary to say something regarding dragon-fly nomenclature. Old Japanese books profess to name about fifty kinds; and the Chūfu-Zusetsu actually contains colored pictures of nearly that number of dragon-flies. But in these volumes several insects resembling dragon-flies are improperly classed with dragon-flies; and in more than one case it would seem that different names have been given to the male and female, of the same species. On the 註