584 CHINESE FOLKLORE AND SOME WESTERN ANALOGIES. 



swan-wife keeps her plumes in a cup))oarcl for fifteen yeai-s, but one 

 day forgets to lock it, when the captive dons them in his absence and 

 spreads her wings never to return — a variant of the Arabian romance. 



Without delaying here to dwell upon the infinite permutations of 

 this theme in Hindu, Persian, Arab, Greek, Celtic, Teutonic, Scan- 

 dinavian, and other m3'thologies, we can not dismiss it finallj^ without 

 alluding to the guise which it assumes in Japan. Here the damsel is 

 called the Moon Maiden, and she is a musician as well as a dream of 

 beauty as she drifts down from the evening sky beyond Fuji to bathe 

 in the shimmering sea. A fisher boy sees her fragile feather robe 

 gleaming from a pine tree, takes it, and is soon confronted with the 

 owner who begs its return. He asks to see her dance before he grants 

 her request, but ' ' I can not dance without my robe," she says. "Each 

 feather has been given me by the Heavenly Birds. Their love and 

 trust support me." Then the lad cries forgiveness for his rudeness 

 and returns the robe. Her dance begins with merry step and cadence 

 along the shore, rustling over the grass, under the blossoming cherry, 

 and in and out among the trees. But gradually sEe floats farther and 

 farther away toward the distant mountain and the fisherman is left 

 alone by the sea. Is it too extravagant an hypothesis to see in this 

 idyl of floating cloud-forms that drift from heaven to dip at times in 

 sea and lake, that keep company with the birds but dissolve away at 

 touch of man, the germ of the Vedic Apsaras of our angels— "who 

 were but the fleecy clouds, supposed in the ages of man's simplicity 

 to be celestial swans ? " ^ 



Since we have found ample illustration of the evident affiliation of 

 Aryan and Turanian myths in these instances of devotion to woman, 

 it will not be thought ungenerous, perhaps, to adduce a famous case 

 of inconstancy which exemplifies the same conformity. The story in 

 its Chinese version is related of a Taoist philosopher who was a con- 

 temporary of Alexander the Great. The elements of sheer witchcraft 

 and characteristic human nature commingle in a grotesque fashion 

 especially pleasing to followers of the doctrine of Tao, or Rationalism, 

 in China. The basis of the tale is thought to be an importation from 

 India, the fatherland of the world's best fables and fictions, but we 

 will hear it first in a translation of a Chinese ballad entitled 



FANNING THE GKAVE. 



'Twas spring, the air was redolent 

 With many a sweet and grateful scent; 

 The peach and plum bloomed side by side, 

 Like blushing maid and pale-faced bride; 

 Coy willows stealthily were seen 

 Opening their eyes of living green, 

 As if to watch the sturdy strife 

 Of nature struggling into life. 



'Baring-Gould, "Curious Myths," d. 578. 



