194 ALL ABOARD FOR SUNRISE LANDS.

They have a great many books, and not only the men, but the
women, have cultivated a literary taste. There is a book highly
esteemed in Japan which was written by Murasaki Shikibu, a
lady. She was asked to write some sketches, as the mother
of the emperor wished for a fresh book; and Murasaki resolved to
attempt the task. ;

“ Asthefamous Chinese author, Shomei, when he wished to execute
some literary work, put up a lofty building and then shut himself
in it, she determined to imitate his example. At Ishiyama, from
which one looks down upon the waters of Lake Biwa, a very high
retreat was built for her. In ‘the moonlight, the waters glistened
like glass, while the mountains rose up stately and grand. Murasaki
retired to the spot, and there, alone with the moonlight, the water,
and the mountains, she was so fired by a literary fever that in
one night she wrote two chapters of the Genji Monogatari, a Jap-
anese classic; and the whole work she finished in a few weeks.”

“Do not the Japanese have a great many maxims?” said Uncle Nat.

“They certainly have some ingenious sayings, and they like to
trot them round. Such are these: ‘Don’t trust a pigeon to carry
grain ;’ ‘You can not rivet a nail in potato-custard;’ ‘In mending
the horn, he killed the ox; ‘Live under your own hat;’ ‘A cur
that bravely barks before its own gate;’ ‘You might as well
scatter a fog with a fan’ A blind man walked confidently near
a deep hole, and I heard another say, as he rushed up and pulled the
fellow out of danger, .‘A blind man does not fear a snake.’”

The boys then looked at the picture of a street-scene the doctor
showed them. There were ladies, a kago and bearers, an official
on horseback, and “two-sworded gentlemen,’ as the doctor called
them. “But the day of the latter,’ he added, “has passed by, and
this is an old Japan scene.”