Old Japanese Songs 



Then the Yamabushi, fleeing, reached the temple Dojoji, 

 and cried to the priests of the temple Dojoji : " O good 

 priests, behind me a damsel comes pursuing I hide me, I 

 beseech you, good sir priests ! 



"Good sir priests!" 



Then the priests, after holding consultation, took down 

 from its place the big bell of the temple ; and under it they 

 hid him, 



Under it ibey bid him. 



Then the dragon-maid, pursuing, followed him to the 

 temple Dojoji. For a moment she stood in the gate of the 

 temple: she saw that bell, and viewed it with suspicion. 

 She thought : "I must wrap myself about it once." She 

 thought: "I must wrap myself about it twice!" At 

 the third wrapping, the bell was melted, and began to flow 

 like boiling water, 



Like boiling -water. 



So is told the story of the Wrapping of the Bell. Many 

 damsels dwell by the seashore of Japan ; but who among 

 them, like the daughter of the Choja, will become a 

 dragon ? 



Become a dragon ? 



This is all the Song of the Wrapping of the Bell ! this 

 is all the Song, 



All the song! * 



1 This legend forms the subject of several Japanese dramas, both 

 ancient and modern. The original story is that a Buddhist priest, called 

 Anchin, having rashly excited the affection of a maiden named Kiyohime, 

 and being, by reason of his vows, unable to wed her, sought safety 

 from her advances in flight. Kiyohime, by the violence of her frus- 

 trated passion, therewith became transformed into a fiery dragon ; and 

 In that shape she pursued the priest to the temple called Dojoji, in 



