Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/357

Rh carvings, vases and embroideries, palace and court were all gone. All was blighted. She and her maidens were standing in the middle of a shady recess in the woods; before her gaped only the dark opening of a fox's hole; and around them, instead of the splendors of the feast table, were refuse, offal, and all manner of offensive things. At this moment a horse and rider galloped up hurriedly beside them, and told the weeping maiden that he was the real son of the neighboring prime minister. He had heard that a deceiver had made use of his name, and had carried off the lovely daughter of the minister of Mikawa. He had come to find the wretch and avenge the dishonor, but had met no one but this little group of weeping girls in the wood.

Good counsel was dearly purchased. Heart-struck, the young bride, with weak hand, motioned him to be silent, for she knew now that she had been enchanted by the cruel fox, and that all that had occurred was a wizard's revenge. Sad and ashamed, with one beseeching glance, she turned away; and with her maids and servants entered her father's house again, and recounted all that had befallen her with browbeaten air, her fair form trembling with apprehension.

The minister was shocked and overcome with emotion, but carefully commanded that the affair should be kept a profound secret; as it was considered an entailed disgrace when a samurai, or high noble, or his children, allowed themselves to be bewitched by a fox.

Despite all warnings and every precaution on the part of his minister and his retainers, the rumor of the disgraceful enchantment reached the ears of the prince. He was terribly angry. "Surely, it must be a weak-minded fool," thought he, "who could so easily fall a victim to the intrigues of a fox," and he at once determined to banish the minister and his family from his kingdom. The honorable minister waited upon his princely master, and entreated a milder punishment, but without any success; leave he must with his daughter and servants. He journeyed to a distant province and died soon after, heartbroken by the disgrace. His daughter never married. It is true, her hand was sought by other men of rank, but she had had more than enough experience with her first bridegroom, and refused all others.

This was the revenge of the fox!

The system of legalized concubinage, still existing in Japan, is far from being akin to polygamy in a social sense. In taking up this question, I am forcibly reminded of Pierre Loti's "Madame Chrysanthème." This story, while in many respects faulty in its portrayal of Japanese life, and at best revealing a rather degrading and unfortunate view, by no means typical except in seaport