In those early days of Japanese life, it was not an unknown occurrence for a woman when plunged into the depths of some disappointment or overwhelming grief to take the oath of a religious recluse. "Her conscience," says Sama-no-Kami, "when she takes the fatal vow may be pure and unsullied and nothing may seem able again to call her back to the world which she forsook. But as time rolls on, some household servant or aged nurse brings her tidings that the lover has been unable to cast her out of his heart, and his tears drop silently when he hears aught about her. Then, when she hears of his abiding affection and his constant heart and thinks of the uselessness of the sacrifice she has made voluntarily, she touches the hair on her forehead, and she becomes regretful. She may indeed do her best to persevere in her resolve; but if one single tear bedew her cheek, she is no longer strong in the sanctity of her vow. Weakness of this kind would be in the life of Buddha more sinful than those offences which are committed by those who never leave the lay circle at all, and she would eventually return to the world." There are many short Japanese poems which breathe of love, and tell of womanly charm. These short poems are highly prized, and many of them are familiar to the majority of the people. Among the women who won distinction as writers of love poems was the Lady Sakanoe, who lived in the eighth century. She was a woman of high position, being the daughter of a prime minister and wife of the viceroy of the island of Skioku. Her poems are among the most popular in Japanese literature, and some of them reveal a high order of imaginative power. Japanese poetry, which has been described as "the one original product of the Japanese mind," contains many references to woman, her loves, her laments, her passions, her ills. Sometimes the loyalty of a maiden's love is set forth--as in a poem by the Lady Sakanoe in the _Manyoshu_: "Full oft he swore with accents true and tender, 'Though years roll by my love shall never wax old,' And so to him my heart I did surrender, Clear as a mirror of pure burnished gold." A large number of the love poems are sensual; yet, pure love breathes in many others, as in _A Maiden's Lament_, a poem by the Lady Sakanoe, and in the _Elegy_ written by Nibi upon his wife. The poet Sosei, also, has written words that speak to the heart: "I asked my soul where springs the ill-crowned seed That bears the herb of dull forgetfulness; And answer straightway came; th' accursed weed, Grows in that heart which knows no tenderness." The mutual regard of husband and wife in early Japanese life is beautifully expressed in an anonymous poem in the _Manyoshu_. A wife laments that while other women's husbands are seen riding along the road in proud array, her own husband trudges along the weary way afoot: