he parents of
O-Tsuyu. The tree grew and flourished; and on the sixteenth day of the
second month of the following year,--the anniversary of O-Sode's
death,--it blossomed in a wonderful way. So it continued to blossom for
two hundred and fifty-four years,--always upon the sixteenth day of the
second month;--and its flowers, pink and white, were like the nipples
of a woman's breasts, bedewed with milk. And the people called it
Ubazakura, the Cherry-tree of the Milk-Nurse.

DIPLOMACY

It had been ordered that the execution should take place in the garden
of the yashiki (1). So the man was taken there, and made to kneel down
in a wide sanded space crossed by a line of tobi-ishi, or
stepping-stones, such as you may still see in Japanese
landscape-gardens. His arms were bound behind him. Retainers brought
water in buckets, and rice-bags filled with pebbles; and they packed
the rice-bags round the kneeling man,--so wedging him in that he could
not move. The master came, and observed the arrangements. He found them
satisfactory, and made no remarks.

Suddenly the condemned man cried out to him:--

"Honored Sir, the fault for which I have been doomed I did not
wittingly commit. It was only my very great stupidity which caused the
fault. Having been born stupid, by reason of my Karma, I could not
always help making mistakes. But to kill a man for being stupid is
wrong,--and that wrong will be repaid. So surely as you kill me, so
surely shall I be avenged;--out of the resentment that you provoke will
come the vengeance; and evil will be rendered for evil."...

If any person be killed while feeling strong resentment, the ghost of
that person will be able to take vengeance upon the killer. This the
samurai knew. He replied very gently,--almost caressingly:--

"We shall allow you to frighten us as much as you please--after you are
dead. But it is difficult to believe that you mean what you say. Will
you try to give us some sign of your great resentment--after your head
has been cut off?"

"Assuredly I will," answered the man.

"Very well," said the samurai, drawing his long sword;--"I am now going
to cut off your head. Directly in front of you there is a
stepping-stone. After your head has been cut off, try to bite the
stepping-stone. If your angry ghost can help you to do that, some of us
may be frightened... Will you try to bite the stone?"

"I will bite it!" cried the man, in great anger,--"I will bite it!--I