THE RAIN. aa

his sword, he dedicated it as an offering to the gods, and cast it into
the tumbling surf. The water swallowed up the golden-hilted
sword.

“The next morning, as the story goes, the water had flowed back,
and the army with Nitta at its head tramped on, reaching Kamakura,
and attacked it to conquer it. The story has been a favorite one
for illustration by Japanese artists and on bank-notes Nitta has
had a place. The truth probably is that Nitta was favored by a
very low tide and ‘so reached Kamakura. It is a little suspicious
- that he did not find his sword, when the tide went down so far at the
god’s bidding.

“Now here’s a story about a Japanese god; only a little
story, to tell what the god of food did when summoned to bless
the earth at the time of fitting it up. Facing the land, he
breathed, and his breath became boiled rice; looking towards the
sea, he breathed again, and lo! the fish came. Then he turned to
the hills and breathed, and there appeared four-footed creatures,
some with coarse hair, like bears, and some with fine hair, like
rabbits. The god was doubtless pleased with the results of his
puffing; but when some of them were presented, they were not
acceptable to a fault-finder, Tskiyomi. The latter, not liking them,
killed the enterprising but unlucky god of food. But this food-god
when dead even, could not seem to stop his work of creating; for
it was found that his head had become horses and oxen. From
his forehead grew millet; silk-worms were coming from his eye-
brows, sorghum from his eyes, rice ‘from his bosom, wheat and
beans from his loins. What could you do with such a manufac-
turing machine? And now may I tell you a temperance story?

“ Sosano, famous in Japan myths, when going through a forest
was met by an old man, an old woman and a young woman.