Old Japanese Songs 189 



Arriving at last before the home of Seiza, she took off 

 her travelling hat of straw ; and seating herself on the 

 threshold of the entrance, she cried out: "Pardon me 

 kindly ! is not this the house of Master Seiza ?" 



Yanrei I 



Then O the pity of it ! she saw the mother of Seiza, 

 weeping bitterly, and holding in her hand a Buddhist ros- 

 ary. " O my good young lady," the mother of Seiza 

 asked, " whence have you come ; and whom do you want 

 to see?" 



Yanrei! 



And 0-Kichi said : " I am the daughter of the thread- 

 merchant of Kyoto. And I have come all the way here only 

 because of the relation that has long existed between Mas- 

 ter Seiza and myself. Therefore, I pray you, kindly permit 

 me to see him." 



Yanrei ! 



" Alas ! " made answer the mother, weeping, " Seiza, 

 whom you have come so far to see, is dead. To-day is 

 the seventh day from the day on which he died." . . . Hear- 

 ing these words, O-Kichi herself could only shed tears. 



Yanrei ! 



But after a little while she took her way to the cemetery. 

 And there she found the sotoba x erected above the grave 

 of Seiza; and leaning upon it, she wept aloud. 



Yanrei! 



1 A wooden lath, bearing Buddhist texts, r planted above graves. For 

 a full account of the sotoba see my Exotics and Retrospectives : " The 

 Literature of the Dead." 



