Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/162

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. AUG. 17, 1907.

In this case likewise maru, at first a term of en- dearment, became later one of high esteem (8), and hence its inapplicability to any boat of small dimensions (9)

(1) The reader is warned that all the changes the use of maro or maru underwent were never actually in so precisely lineal an order as the text would have them. More- over, once developed, none of the varied applications has ever come to a complete close. For instance, the ' Ookagami,' written c. 1124-41 (ed. Hakubunkwan, 1892, p. 180), mentions a crown prince in the last decade of the tenth century who styled himself maro before his consort, but it shows that prior to this, a grandee, Fudjiwara no Sanesuke, had already his infantile name Taikakumaru (p. 70).

(2) Maro as a suffix to personal names apparently came into vogue in the seventh century : the two persons first made the " Left " and " Right " Ministers, 665 A.D., both had their names ending with maro ('Annals of Japan,' 720, lib. xxv.). The eighth century witnessed its employment pervading all the people, regardless of caste or rank (see Kume, ' Narachoshi,' 1907, passim ; cf. Dickins, op. cit., p. 324, note). After the ninth century, however, the change of fashion brought about its general desuetude, its place, though to a much less extent, being taken by maru, e.g. Semimaru (a renowned blind bard who flourished early in the tenth century, and for whom see ' A Japanese Thoreau of the Twelfth Century,' by Minakata Kumagusu and F. V. Dickins, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, April, 1905, p. 250, note 7), and Kidomaru, Chobuku- maru, and Tasuimaru (the three notorious brigands, about 1000 A.D.).

(3) The unexcised text of the ' Konjaku Monogatari ' (eleventh century) has saru- maru for saru, or ape. A particular breed of game fowl introduced in recent times from abroad receives the appellation tomaru, or foreign maru ; and the sushi, or rice and vinegar preparation, eaten with roast eel caught in the river Udji, is celebrated as Udjimaru.

(4) Besides the objects, both animate and inanimate, which MB. PLATT says Prof. Chamberlain has enumerated as sometimes to be individualized with maru, I find many draught oxen and several gamecocks thus called (' Shungiu Ekotoba ' in Hanawa's ' Collection,' reprint 1894, vol. xviii. pp. 919- 943 ; Tachibana no Narisue, ' Kokon Cho- monshu,' 1254, sec. xxx.). But contrari- wise, out of the 232 famous horses recorded

in Dohi's ' Honcho Saibashu,' 1761, onljr two have such names, viz., Fushimaru (tenth century) and Shishimaru (twelfth century).

(5) Many adults, without going through the ceremony of initiation, retained the- maru. They mostly followed their masters to the field as pages, and were not seldom distinguished no less for prowess than for personal beauty.

(6) Chigos, or infants, originated in the Buddhist system of keeping in the cloisters the young novices with unshaven heads, who steadily became the sincere attendants on their instructors. Thence, down to the commencement of the present regime, they acted as inveterate corrupters of clerical morals. See Xavier, ' Lettres,' traduites par M. Leon Pages, Paris, 1855, 1. vi. p. 151 ; Caron, ' Account of Japan,' in Pinkerson, ' Voyages and Travels,' 1811, vol. vii. pp. 630 631 ; G. Candidius, ' Some Curious Remarks upon the Potent Empire of Japan,' in Churchill, ' Voyages and Travels,' 1752, vol. i. p. 485. Cf. Henri Estienne, ' Apologie pour Herodote,' ed. Ristelhuber, Paris, 1879, torn, ii.'p. 29, where it is said :

" On fait aussi plusieurs contes de Cordeliers et de Jacobins surpris en menant avec eux leurs putanes habillees en novices ; et de faicts g'a este une subtile invention de se faire permettre de mener des novices, pour sous ce titre avoir toujours ou un bardache, ou une garse " ;

and Voltaire, ' Dictionnaire Philosophique,' ed. Touquet, 1822, torn. i. p. 281, with the remark :

" Les moins charges d'elever la jeunesse ont et toujours un peu adonnes a la pederastie. C'est la suite necessaire du celibat auquel ces pauvres gens sont eondamnes."

Now we have a curious anthology, ' Zoku Monyo Wakashu,' dated 1304, preserved in Hanawa's ' Collection,' wherein not a single poem occurs either composed by or addressed to the fair sex, its place being throughout occupied by the chigos, whose verses, together with those of the prelates and priests, make up the whole contents. And I find in it the names altogether of forty-nine boys, suffixed with maru without a single excep- tion, which indicates amply how the spread of the honorific word went pari passu with that of the vice italien.

( 7 ) The primitive Japanese deemed naviga- tion an affair of very serious moment. The Chinese ' History of the After Han Dynasty ' says :

" When the Japanese go on a voyage, they choose a man whom they tabu in their interest. He must abstain from combing and washing as well as from