4 Shadowings 



things. But a Japanese friend explains the 

 miracle thus: 



" The spirit-bride was really formed out of the 

 tan^aku. So it is possible that the real girl did 

 not know anything about the meeting at the 

 temple of Benten. When she wrote those beau- 

 tiful characters upon the tan^aku, something of 

 her spirit passed into them. Therefore it was 

 possible to evoke from the writing the double 

 of the writer." 



