Crying, "An 'twere for her dear sake, Nor fire nor flood I'd fear!" The maiden heard each daring word, But spoke in her mother's ear:-- "Alas! that I, poor country girl, Should cause this jealous strife! As I may not wed the man I love What profits me my life? "In Hades' realm I will await The issue of the fray." These secret thoughts, with many a sigh, She whisper'd and pass'd away. To the Champion of Chinu in a dream Her face that night was shown; So he followed the maid to Hades' shade, And his rival was left alone; Left alone--too late! too late! He gapes at the vacant air, He shouts, and he yells, and gnashes his teeth, And dances in wild despair. "But no! I'll not yield!" he fiercely cries, "I'm as good a man as he!" And girding his poniard, he follows after, To search out his enemy. The kinsmen then, on either side, In solemn conclave met, As a token forever and evermore-- Some monument for to set, That the story might pass from mouth to mouth, While heav'n and earth shall stand; So they laid the maiden in the midst, And the champions on either hand. And I, when I hear the mournful tale, I melt into bitter tears, As though these lovers I never saw Had been mine own compeers. _Mushimaro_. THE GRAVE OF THE MAIDEN OF UNAHI I stand by the grave where they buried The Maiden of Unahi, Whom of old the rival champions Did woo so jealously. The grave should hand down through ages Her story for evermore, That men yet unborn might love her, And think on the days of yore. And so beside the causeway They piled up the bowlders high; Nor e'er till the clouds that o'ershadow us Shall vanish from the sky, May the pilgrim along the causeway Forget to turn aside, And mourn o'er the grave of the Maiden; And the village folk, beside, Ne'er cease from their bitter weeping, But cluster around her tomb; And the ages repeat her story, And bewail the Maiden's doom. Till at last e'en I stand gazing On the grave where she now lies low, And muse with unspeakable sadness On the old days long ago. _Sakimaro_. [Note.--The existence of the Maiden of Unahi is not doubted by any of the native authorities, and, as usual, the tomb is there (or said to be there, for the present writer's search for it on the occasion of a somewhat hurried visit to that part of the country was vain) to attest the truth of the tradition. Ashinoya is the name of the village, and Unahi of the district. The locality is in the province of Setsutsu, between the present treaty ports of Kobe and Osaka.] THE MAIDEN OF KATSUSHIKA Where in the far-off eastern land The cock first crows at dawn, The people still hand down a tale Of days long dead and gone.