of the castle moat inquired of his servants the cause. Then he learned
for the first time of the glittering princess. Upon this the prince who
had just succeeded his father upon the throne fell in love with the
princess and resolved to marry her. He sent his chamberlain to ask of her
father his daughter in marriage according to true etiquette. The father
agreed to the prince's proposal, with the condition that the Prince
should obey her behest in one thing, which was to come in person
bringing her fire.

Then the Prince at the head of his glittering battalions came in person
and filled the lotus palace with a flood of golden light. But Hotaru-hime
was so beautiful that her charms paled not their fire even in the blaze
of the Prince's glory. The visit ended in wooing, and the wooing in
wedding. On the night appointed, in a palanquin made of the white
lotus-petals, amid the blazing torches of the prince's battalions of
warriors, Hotaru-hime was borne to the prince's palace and there, prince
and princess were joined in the wedlock.

Many generations have passed since Hi-mar[=o] and Hotaru-hime were
married, and still it is the whim of all Fire-fly princesses that their
base-born lovers must bring fire as their love-offering or lose their
prize. Else would the glittering fair ones be wearied unto death by the
importunity of their lovers. Great indeed is the loss, for in this quest
of fire many thousand insects, attracted by the fire-fly, are burned to
death in the vain hope of winning the fire that shall gain the cruel but
beautiful one that fascinates them. It is for this cause that each night
insects hover around the lamp flame, and every morning a crowd of victims
drowned in the oil, or scorched in the flame, must be cleaned from the
lamp. This is the reason why young ladies catch and imprison the
fire-flies to watch the war of insect-love, in the hope that they may
have human lovers who will dare as much, through fire and flood, as they.

THE BATTLE OF THE APE AND THE CRAB.

In the land where neither the monkeys or the cats have tails, and the
persimmons grow to be as large as apples and with seeds bigger than a
melon's, there once lived a land crab in the side of a sand hill. One day
an ape came along having a persimmon seed, which he offered to swap with
the crab for a rice-cake. The crab agreed, and planting the seed in his
garden went out every day to watch it grow.

By-and-by the ape came to visit the