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SCENES AT A HERO'S SHRINE. 169
and we the morning-glory, when jeweled with the
dew.
In this respect our story must be different from
that in perhaps the majority of Japanese novels.
These powerfully illustrate the idea of filial piety,
even to the idea that a daughter must cheerfully sell
herself and her happiness at the command of her
parents, so that they may
be saved from debt or
poverty. In the name of filial piety crimes against
women were constantly committed. Perhaps no pages
of Japanese fiction more vividly illustrate this truth
than those of the classic writer Bakin, in his story
entitled " Biography of a Gold-fish."
From the middle of the sixth month, according to
the lunar calendar, people went out in the evenings
to saunter on the great bridge along the river-flats
und over the hills. Then the jugglers displayed
their skill, and curious animals, fish, bugs, beasts,
fossils, and monstrosities were exhibited. Storytellers
gathered their gaping crowds and "picked
the pockets of listeners with their tongues." Musi-
cians, both players and singers, mountebanks, the
man who cracked stones with his fist, the sword-
swallowers, the tortoise-tamers, the snake-charmers,
the acrobats who danced on the top of the man who
lay on the ground with a tengu's nose feet high, were in their glory.
eight or ten
At night the river-banks, boats, tea-houses, flats,
and parts of the dry bed of the stream were brill-
iantly illuminated. In this month also the picnic
parties spread their rugs, and made merry with