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80 HONDA THE SAMURAI. Was he born under a lucky star? I suppose so. This we know : he was born within the castle limits. On the top of the castle-towers of the citadel, at the corners, one sees a pair of rampant grampuses or horse-dolphins with tails high in air and standing on their lower lips. To be born within sight of the shachihoko, or dolphin-tails, is an honor to a Japanese baby. He is much like our babies, in whose mouths we imagine silver spoons. When the small boys in Fukui tried to stand on their heads, or turn somersaults, they called the game playing shachihoko, or the grampus-game. In the chief city of Owari, the scales of this castle-fish were made of solid gold, and one of the stories which the boys in the Rai family often heard was how a famous robber, named Ishikawa Goydmon, tried to steal them. Set on the top of the lofty castle towers, which were guarded continually by vigilant sentinels, how could the bold robber succeed? Should he swim through the water of the moat, and climb the face of the wall? Even then, how could he get up to the pinnacle of the towers ? Should he try to bribe the faithful servants of the lord of Owari to help him ? No. This he could not do. He made a kite twenty-feet square, of many thick- nesses of tough paper, with strong bobtails of rope, and on a dark and windy night got two accomplices with a windlass and rope, paid out from a hand-cart moored to a post, to raise the kite and pay out the rope. Putting his burglar's tools in his belt, and his
A BOY BABY'S LIFE. 81 feet in loops in the bobs, the strong wind lifted him and the kite up over the moat and near the tower's the hand-cart so that the top. Skillfully working kite would gradually come near the golden grampus, without swinging the man too violently against the roof or sides, the robbers succeeded. The burglar, anchoring his kite fast to the flukes of the fish, was soon at work trying to wrench off the golden plates. This he found no easy task. The goldsmiths had riveted the plates so securely that it was difficult to pry off the soft, tough metal. He did not dare to use chisel and hammer, for that would make a clink- ing noise and arouse the guards. After hours of work, he had torn off only two plates hardly fifty dollars' worth of gold for all his trouble. Meanwhile it was getting near daylight ; the cold wind nearly froze his blood, and almost blew him off the gable, and the next to the worst now happened. The kite broke its fastenings, and went off dancing in the air far away. As it was disappearing, the robber could see a white sheet of paper moving up the string which he took to be a signal from his accom- plices below, on the other side of the moat. This was indeed the fact : the men at the hand-cart had seen the gleam of a lantern in one of the lower stories of the tower, under the golden grampus, and, had sent him a signal to retreat and give up the job. The guards had been awakened, and their suspicions roused. In short, the robbers were detected. The man who had climbed into the air on a kite was condemned to die by being thrown into a caldron of
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80 HONDA THE SAMURAI.<br />
Was he born under a lucky star? I suppose so.<br />
This we know : he was born within the castle limits.<br />
On the top of the castle-towers of the citadel, at the<br />
corners, one sees a pair of rampant grampuses or<br />
horse-dolphins with tails high in air and standing on<br />
their lower lips. To be born within sight of the<br />
shachihoko, or dolphin-tails, is an honor to a Japanese<br />
baby. He is much like our babies, in whose<br />
mouths we imagine silver spoons. When the small<br />
boys in Fukui tried to stand on their heads, or turn<br />
somersaults, they called the game playing shachihoko,<br />
or the grampus-game.<br />
In the chief city of Owari, the scales of this<br />
castle-fish were made of solid gold, and one of the<br />
stories which the boys in the Rai family often heard<br />
was how a famous robber, named Ishikawa Goydmon,<br />
tried to steal them. Set on the top of the lofty<br />
castle towers, which were guarded continually by<br />
vigilant sentinels, how could the bold robber succeed?<br />
Should he swim through the water of the<br />
moat, and climb the face of the wall? Even then,<br />
how could he get up to the pinnacle of the towers ?<br />
Should he try to bribe the faithful servants of the<br />
lord of Owari to help him ? No. This he could<br />
not do.<br />
He made a kite twenty-feet square, of many thick-<br />
nesses of tough paper, with strong bobtails of rope,<br />
and on a dark and windy night got two accomplices<br />
with a windlass and rope, paid out from a hand-cart<br />
moored to a post, to raise the kite and pay out the<br />
rope. Putting his burglar's tools in his belt, and his
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