racking it; while picking out the scorched bits she found a roasted
dragon-fly, whose scarlet wings were all burned off.

Mad with love the brilliant hawk-moth, afraid of the flame yet determined
to win the fire for the princess, hovered round and round the candle
flame, coming nearer and nearer each time. "Now or never, the princess or
death," he buzzed, as he darted forward to snatch a flash of flame, but
singeing his wings, he fell helplessly down, and died in agony.

"What a fool he was, to be sure," said the ugly clothes moth, coming on
the spot, "I'll get the fire. I'll crawl up _inside_ the candle." So he
climbed up the hollow paper wick, and was nearly to the top, and inside
the hollow blue part of the flame, when the man, snuffing the wick,
crushed him to death.

Sad indeed was the fate of the lovers of Hi-[=o]'s daughter. Some hovered
around the beacons on the headland, some fluttered about the great wax
candles which stood eight feet high in their brass sockets in Buddhist
temples; some burned their noses at the top of incense sticks, or were
nearly choked by the smoke; some danced all night around the lanterns in
the shrines; some sought the sepulchral lamps in the graveyard; one
visited the cremation furnace; another the kitchen, where a feast was
going on; another chased the sparks that flew out of the chimney; but
none brought fire to the princess, or won the lover's prize. Many lost
their feelers, had their shining bodies scorched or their wings singed,
but most of them alas! lay dead, black and cold next morning.

As the priests trimmed the lamps in the shrines, and the servant maids
the lanterns, each said alike:

"The Princess Hotaru must have had many lovers last night."

Alas! alas! poor suitors. Some tried to snatch a streak of green fire
from the cat's eyes, and were snapped up for their pains. One attempted
to get a mouthful of bird's breath, but was swallowed alive. A carrion
beetle (the ugly lover) crawled off to the sea shore, and found some fish
scales that emitted light. The stag-beetle climbed a mountain, and in a
rotten tree stump found some bits of glowing wood like fire, but the
distance was so great that long before they reached the castle moat it
was daylight, and the fire had gone out; so they threw their fish scales
and old wood away.

The next day was one of great mourning and there were so many funerals
going on, that Hi-mar[=o] the Prince of the Fire-flies on the north side