Page:Insect Literature by Lafcadio Hearn.djvu/358



Mushi yo mushi, Naite ingwa ga      Tsukiru nara? "O insect, insect!—Think you that Karma can be exhausted by song?"—Japanese poem.

I

F you ever visit Japan, be sure to go to at least one temple-festival,—en-nichi. The festival ought to be seen at night, when everything shows to the best advantage in the glow of countless lamps and lanterns. Until you have had this experience, you cannot know what Japan is,—you cannot imagine the real charm of queerness and prettiness, the wonderful blending of grotesquery and beauty, to be found in the life of the common people.

In such a night you will probably let yourself drift awhile with the stream of sight-seers through dazzling lanes of booths full of toys indescribable—dainty puerilities, fragile astonishments