Tokyo, Aug.
Fujiyama, as may well be imgained, is replete with myth, legend and folk-lore, and also enjoys a reputation as' being the source of the Elixir of Life, only if one could find it. On Fuji, the Japanese will tell you, everything, trees, flowers, butterflies, even the most despised of insects—has a soul, and if one only looks at this with the dreaming vision of the poet, why shouldn't this be so? To be told that gods and goddesses have their habitat tions on Fuji does not cause any undue surprise, for what better terrestrial home could there be for them than the sublime shape of this sight-soothing and heart-easing mountain?. And if the sons of Heaven, having looked upon the daughters of men and having found. that they were fair, desired to descend to earth, what better medium than by way of Mount Fuji which may, in a sense, be regarded the Olympus of Japanese mythology.
Many are the stories related regarding the celestial hierarchy that lives on Fuji and these tales are all tinged with a quaint beauty poetic imagination. In gon-version into a foreign tongue, a good deal of the finer shades of thought and word-painting is lost unfortunately, and of all the tales relating to Fuji, the one that peals most to people here is that regarding the jesx of Fuji, probably because it is intended to serve as an object lesson of the those who ely observe the virtue of filial piety.
The Goddess of Fuji Years ago, not far from this majestic mountain, there lived young man of the name of Yosoji whose mother was taken ill with the smallpox which hat decimated the village in which the pain of his parent and at last consulted 1 priest who told him that the only cure was the water of a stream that flowed from the northeastern side read in Yone Noguc where he says:— around thee of life is that of the Lady Kaguya: who came from the moon to comfort the children of earth, After some time, the moon Folk wanted her back and brought her a quantity of the elixir of life which they. maintained she had to take before she could re-enter the moon realms because, on earth, her spirit had become soiled with the grossness of this filthy world. When leaving, she gave a portion of this to the then Emperor who, however, commanded that it be buried on the top of the highest mountain as he preferred to die in order to seek the Lady Kaguya, of whom he had become exceedingly enamoured, in other worlds. And it was from this time forth, says one legend, that the name Fuji was given to the mountain, Fuji meaning "undying", The fame of Fuji had spread in olden times to China and India and a Chinese Emperor, having beea told that Fuji was evolved in one single night by some tremendous convulsion of nuture, decided th if this were tru tain must needs id the elixir of life.
Collecting a band of brava youths and handsome maidens, ko accordingly set sail for the Land of the Rising Sun, As his fleet neared the shorer of Jih-pen (Japan), he saw stretching forth into the sky the rounded and symmetrical fort of Fuj Ordering everyone to disembark, the Emperor, himself in the van, made 'a procession Fuji on foot. For hours and hours they climbed and. strange to say, none felt tired. As they reached the summit, the Emperor ran forward for he wanted to be the first to taste the elixir of life, When his entourage hurried to him, they found him dead, but with a look of heavenly peace' and ethereal hap pines on his face. He had found the Elixir of Life Eternal, but was through the portals of death.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.