1 8 Fish Stories 



banquet, for it is always to be had, and always in good flesh. 

 And ever since that time Ebisu, who, with Daikoku, is now 

 immortal, has gone about with a red tai under his arm. 

 There is no knowing when he may need it, and whenever 

 you see him, on a Japanese print or a Japanese Kakemono, 

 or on the pages of this book, or on the advertisement of 

 the beer called Yebisu, you will know him by the red tai, 

 which he carries. 



And so it was, that when in the year 1900 A. D., the year 

 2550 since the birth of Ebisu, the writer came into Onomichi 

 with a red tai under his arm and a basket filled with Umiuma 

 (sea horses), Benisashi (Red Mullet), Beniteguri (drag- 

 onets) and Kajika (sculpins), and paid more for these odds 

 and ends and little freaks of the sea than real fishes were 

 worth ; when all this happened, people called me Ebisu, and 

 said that the old fish-god was alive again. And with him was 

 Daikoku, the god of luck, who paid all the bills in the coin 

 of the realm : for it was a red-letter day in Onomichi, and a 

 red-letter day for the collector of fishes, and a red-letter 

 day, no doubt, for old Ebisu himself. For as Izaak Walton 

 observed, and one cannot say it too often, " It is good luck 

 to any man to be on the good side of the man that knows 

 fish I" So here is long life to Ebisu ! 



