literary and sentimental, writes
poetry. When the mood seizes her she ties the pen to her nose, dips it in
ink and writes a poem on the wall.

A tengu-painter makes a long-handled brush to whitewash the ceiling, by
strapping it to his nose.

Sometimes the little tengus get fighting, and then the feathers fly as
they tear each other with their little claws which have talons on them
shaped like a chicken's, but which when fully grown look like hands.

All the big tengus are fond of trying the strength of their noses, and
how far they can bend them up and down without breaking. They have two
favorite games of which they sometimes give exhibitions. The player has
long strings of iron cash (that is, one hundred of the little iron coins,
with a square hole in the centre). Several of these he slides on a rope
like buttons on a string, or counters on a wire. Then he lifts them off
with the tip of his nose. Sometimes his nose bends so much under the
weight that the coins slip off. Whichever tengu can pick off the greater
number of strings without letting any slip, wins the game, and is called
O-hana (The King of Noses).

Another balances hoops and poles on his nose and throws balls through the
hoops; or he poises a saucer of water on the tip of his nose without
spilling a drop. Another fellow hangs a bell from the ceiling. Then, with
a handkerchief tied loosely round his head, he pulls his nose back like a
snapping-turtle's beak, and then suddenly lets go. His nose then strikes
the bell and rings it. It hurts very much, but he does not mind it.

The tengus have one great fault. They love liquor too much. They often
get drunk. They buy great casks of rice-wine, sling them round their
necks, and drink out of long cups shaped like their faces, using the nose
for a handle. A drunken tengu makes a funny sight, as he staggers about
with his big wings drooping and flapping around him, and the feathers
trailing in the mud, and his long nose limp, pendulous and groggy.

When the master of the tengus wishes to "see the flowers," which means to
go on a picnic, he punishes his drunken servant by swinging the box of
eatables over the fellow's red nose. Putting the end over his shoulders,
he compels the sot to come along. It sobers the fellow, for the weight on
his nose and the pulling on it hurts dreadfully, and often makes him
squeal.

Oyama, a mountain near Tokio, is said to be full of these long-nosed
elves, but many other mountai