8 Shadowings 



the body of a man, but was black as ink; its 

 face was like the face of a demon ; its eyes were 

 green as emeralds; and its beard was like the 

 beard of a dragon. Totaro was at first very 

 much startled. But the green eyes looked at 

 him so gently that after a moment's hesitation 

 he ventured to question the creature. Then it 

 answered him, saying: "I am a Samebito, 1 

 a Shark-Man of the sea ; and until a short time 

 ago I was in the service of the Eight Great 

 Dragon-Kings [Hachi-Dai-Ryu-0] as a subor 

 dinate officer in the Dragon -Palace [Ryugu\? 

 But because of a small fault which I committed, 

 1 was dismissed from the Dragon-Palace, and 

 also banished from the Sea. Since then I have 

 been wandering about here, unable to get any 

 food, or even a place to lie down. If you can 



1 Literally, "a Shark-Person," but in this story the 

 Samebito is a male. The characters for Samebito can also be 

 read Kojin, which is the usual reading. In dictionaries 

 the word is loosely rendered by " merman " or " mer 

 maid;" but as the above description shows, the Samebito 

 or Ksjin of the Far East is a conception having little in 

 common with the Western idea of a merman or mermaid. 



2 Ryugu is also the name given to the whole of that 

 fairy-realm beneath the sea which figures in so many 

 Japanese legends. 



