Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/202

 194 The third legend was an account of a great trout that quite filled a large lake, and proved such a scourge to the people of Aino-land that the gods at last took pity, and, descending, killed it. It is to the action of such a fish that the Ainos refer all earthquakes, the land indeed being supposed to rest on its back. The fourth legend relates how Okikurumi and Samai (that is, as Mr. Batchelor believes, Yoshitsune and his servant Benkei) harpooned a large sword-fish, and, after long struggling, finally conquered it. The tale seems intended to preserve the fame of Yoshitsune as a benefactor to the Ainos, and point the moral that a new comer or stranger should not be despised. The fifth legend tells of Yoshitsune in love—how, through taking just one glance at a beautiful woman, he got exceedingly love-sick, retired to his hut in sullen despair, and would not be comforted. "Though two bad fish and two good fish were put before him he could not eat." The news of his condition is brought to the beautiful woman by a water-wagtail, which called upon her to have mercy upon Aino-land; for, if Yoshitsune should die, the soul of Aino-land will depart. So an unreal woman is made in the likeness of the beauty, and introduced into the hero's hut, where she proceeds to put things in order. "Then Yoshitsune looked through his sleeve and saw the beautiful woman. He got up greatly rejoiced, he ate some food, strength came back to his body, and the woman was gone. Yoshitsune saw he had been deceived, but there was nothing to be done, and nothing to say, so he got well." The moral the Aino draws is, "Be not too easily deceived by woman's love, for it soon passes away like a mere unsubstantial phantom or shadow." The sixth legend recounts the exploit of Yoshitsune and his wife in cutting down a "metal pine-tree" which had resisted all the strokes of the Aino ancients. The moral the Aino teach from it is, let not the younger laugh at the elder, for the very old people can teach their juniors a great deal, even in so simple a matter as felling trees.

The seventh legend was of a very different style from the preceding ones. It was called by a name which indicated the subject-matter, whereas the titles of the others all seemed to refer to the tune or tone in which the legend was chanted. To the philologist the legend was especially interesting, as it contains many old and now disused words.