Page:Kwaidan; Stories and Studies of Strange Things - Hearn - 1904.djvu/219



Besides these specimens of poetry about butterflies, I have one queer example to offer of Japanese prose literature on the same topic. The original, of which I have attempted only a free translation, can be found in the curious old book Mushi-Isamé (&quot; Insect-Admonitions &quot;); and it assumes the form of a discourse to a butterfly. But it is really a didactic allegory,—suggesting the moral significance of a social rise and fall:— 193