such marriages of threads make happy marriages
among human beings. But by-and-by they get tired, and lazy, and instead
of tying the knots carefully, they hurry up the work and then jumble them
carelessly, and finally toss and tangle up all the rest in a muss.

This is the reason why so many marriages are unhappy.

Then they begin to frolic like big boys. Benten plays the guitar, and
Bishamon lies down on the floor resting with his elbows to hear it. Hotei
drinks wine out of a shallow red cup as wide as a dinner plate. Daikoku
and Fukuroku Jin begin to wrestle, and when Daikoku gets his man down, he
pounds his big head with an empty gourd while Toshitoku and Ebisu begin
to eat tai fish. When this fun is over, Benten and Fukuroku Jin play a
game of checkers, while the others look on and bet; except Hotei the fat
fellow, who is asleep. Then they get ashamed of themselves for gambling,
and after a few days the party breaks up and each one goes to his regular
business again.

DAIKOKU AND THE ONI.

A long while ago, when the idols of Buddha and his host of disciples came
to Japan, after traveling through China from India, they were very much
vexed because the people still liked the little black fellow named
Daikoku. Even when they became Buddhists they still burned incense to
Daikoku, because he was the patron of wealth; for everybody then, as now,
wanted to be rich. So the Buddhist idols determined to get rid of the
little fat fellow. How to do it was the question. At last they called
Yemma, the judge of the lower regions, and gave him the power to destroy
Daikoku.

Now Yemma had under him a whole legion of _oni_, some green, some black,
others blue as indigo, and others of a vermillion color, which he usually
sent on ordinary errands.

But for so important an expedition he now called Shino a very cunning old
fellow, and ordered him to kill or remove Daikoku out of the way.

Shino made his bow to his master, tightened his tiger-skin belt around
his loins and set off.

It was not an easy thing to find Daikoku, even though every one
worshipped him. So the oni had to travel a long way, and ask a great many
questions of people, and often lose his way before he got any clue. One
day he met a sparrow who directed him to Daikoku's palace, where among
all his money-bags and treasure piled to the ceiling, the fat and
lop-eared fellow was accustomed to sit eating daikon radish, and amuse
himself with his favorite pet