There was no need to tell the children to walk quietly and speak reverently before Buddha. Umé looked up into the solemnly beautiful face, into the half-closed eyes that seemed to watch her through their eyelids of bronze, and knelt quietly in prayer. "Nothing can harm the Great Buddha," said the father, after the prayers had been said and the offering given to the priest. "Six hundred and fifty years has he sat upon his throne. Once he was sheltered by a temple, but centuries ago a tidal wave, following an earthquake, swept away the walls and roof and left the mighty god still seated on his lotus-blossom throne." [Illustration: "Nothing can harm the Great Buddha." _Page 73._] As they turned to walk toward the village Umé said to her mother, "When I have heard the thunder I have always thought it was this Great Buddha, very angry about something. Now that I have seen his peaceful face I know it is not so." "No," answered her mother. "Many thousands of girls and boys have seen Great Buddha's face as you saw it to-day. They have grown to be men and women, and their children have looked upon his face, but it is always calm and peaceful." CHAPTER X THE ISLAND OF SHELLS From Buddha's image at Kamakura to Enoshima, the island of shells, there is first a ride in jinrikishas through the low screen of hills that shuts the little village away from the sea; then there is a walk across the wet sands if the tide is out, or over a light wooden bridge if the waves wash over the path. It was late in the afternoon when the jinrikisha men trotted down from the hills through a deep-cut path to the shore, and Umé could hear the slow rollers breaking on the sands before she caught her first glimpse of the lovely green island. [Illustration: "Umé caught her first Glimpse of the Lovely Green Island." _Page 74._] The tide was coming in, but the water was still so shallow that the children were permitted to take off their sandals and tabi, and patter across the sands in their bare feet, while the older people walked slowly across the bridge. The sands were strewn with lovely shells, left by the tide, and Baby Yuki soon had the sleeve pockets of her kimono filled full of pearly beauties that looked like peach blossoms. Tara cared nothing for the shells. He spoke about the great tortoise which is said to live among the caves of the island, and of the bronze dragons which twisted around the gate through which they passed to enter the long climbing street of the town. "I will ask the august father if we may visit the cave of the dragon," he said. "Japan must have been full of dragons once," said Umé. "Who killed them all?" "They turned into the honorable dragon-flies, to drive away the mosquitoes," answered Tara. "There have been no dragons seen alive in Japan since the holy Buddha walked on the mountain," said his father.