Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/520

426 NOTES AND QUERIES. s. ix. NOV. , mi. As she is neither dilatory nor ceremonious in communicating her sentiments, and as the hermit had received from her beauty corresponding impressions, nothing but a favourable opportunity is wanting to con- summate their happiness. With consistent frankness of conduct, she requests her lover to place a lamp in the window of his cottage at a certain hour of the night, and promises that, if thus guided, she will swim to the hermitage. Soon as she spied the signals she departed on this marine expedition and arrived at the love-lighted mansion of the recluse. From his cell, to which she was conducted, she returned, undiscovered, at the approach of dawn, and, emboldened by impunity, repeatedly availed herself of the beacon. At last she was remarked by some boatmen who had nearly fished her up, and who informed her brothers of her amphibious disposition, the spot to which she resorted, and their suspicion of the mode by which she was directed. Her kinsmen forthwith resolve on her death. The youngest brother proceeds in twilight to the rock, and, in order that the signal might not be displayed, implores for that night the hospitality of the hermit. On the same evening the elder brothers privately leave their house in a boat, with a concealed light and a pole. Having rowed to that part of the deep which washed the hermitage, they placed the light on the pole. Their sister, who appears to have been very watchful, departed from the island. When the brothers heard her approach, they slipped away through the water, and as the pole was fastened to the boat, they drew the light along with them. The poor wretch, who in the dark saw no other object, followed the delusion to the main seas, in which it was at length extinguished. Three days afterwards- her body was washed ashore on the rock, where it was interred by her lover. Thus, adds the approving novelist, the reputation of the brothers and the sister were equally and at once preserved. The first part of this tale was probably suggested by the classical fable of Hero and Leander. It is the subject of a poe%i by Bernard le Gentil, entitled ' Euphrosine et Melidor.' My scanty reading had made me long ignorant of the occurrence of any non- European story of this type ; but quite re- cently I came across the subjoined passage proving the old Japanese to have possessed a similar tradition : About the east end of the town Ootsu, Prov. Oomi, there is the wharf of Ishiba, whereby stands to this day an old inn named Harimaya very close to the water of Lake Biwa, Long time ago it happened that a young priest lodged one night in it, and a beautiful serving-maid, struck by his comeliness, fell in love with him. As night advanced, she slipped in his room and urgently disclosed her passions. But this priest of singular continency, to get clear of imminent evils, had recourse to a random artifice, telling her that he was a hermit living in solitude at the foot of Mt. Hira, and that he would satisfy her desires only if she could prove her devotion by approaching his residence for 100 consecu- tive nights, navigating the wide lake in a washing- tub. She .consented thereto, and the following morning the priest went home. Every night after this, whilst all others were asleep, she floated a tub, got herself in it, and went over the deep so far that she could well perceive the light in the priest's hermitage, and then re- turned to the inn. Such dangerous feat she performed in safety for 99 nights without break. On the 100th night, however, when she reached the usual spot the light was not seen : scarcely had she begun to suspect he fell from his promise, when all of a sudden a violent gale down from Mt. Hira overset the tub and drowned her. Thenceforth annually her revengeful spirit makes thte locality tempestuous for the terminating eight days of the third moon, during which this catastrophe is said to have overtaken her. (Morita, ' Hira no Hakkwo ' in the Kyodo Kerkiu, vol. i., No. 2, Tokyo, 1913, p. 120.) KUMAGUSTJ MlNAKATA. PRINCIPAL LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES, TAVERNS, AND INNS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. (See 12 S. vii. 485; ix. 85, 105, 143, 186, 226, 286, 306, 385.) (An asterisk denotes that the house still exists as a tavern, inn or public-house in many cases rebuilt.) Rainbow .. .. Near Fleet Bridge, Lud gate Hill 1720 Daily Courant, Nov. 23. 1724 Daily Journal, Oct. 6. 1 744 London Daily Post, Feb. 1 6. ' London Topographical Record,' 1903, ii. 83. Rainbow .. .. Ironmonger Lane, Cheapside .. 1735 Geo. Virtue, the engraver to 2nd Earl of Oxford, Portland MSS., Harley Papers, iv. 62.