Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/323

Rh happened, and these, sprouting through the snow, were the first green-gold shoots of the Bamboo. The son was represented as old because he afterwards became one of the Twenty-four Wise Men, who all lived to a great old age. I only hope that the child who first received a gift so wrapped was old enough to appreciate it all, but the story is sure to have been told him later, if not then, as it is a great favourite in Japan.

Another well-loved tale is that of the Moon Princess, who appeared from out the shining stem of a Bamboo to an old man, a wood-cutter, who took her home and adopted her, naming her Kaguyahime (‘The Shining Damsel’). She quickly grew up to be a most beautiful woman, and had innumerable suitors, to each of whom she allotted a task, on the performance of which (generally an impossibility) she promised to marry him. Naturally, they all failed. The Mikado himself then became a candidate, but she refused him without any test, though they remained good friends nevertheless, and subsequently kept up a correspondence, consisting chiefly of sentimental verses (Tanka). She was finally taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot, which came for her from her real home in the Moon.