Transcriber's Note: Text is heavily illustrated, so the illustrationtags within have been removed to avoid congestion. 

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JAPANESE FAIRY TALES, Nš. 8. 

THE FISHER-BOY URASHIMA

BY B. H. CHAMBERLAIN

GRIFFITH FARRAN & CO. , LONDON & SYDNEY, N. S. W. 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

#THE FISHER-BOY URASHIMA. #

Long, long ago there lived on the coast of the sea of Japan a youngfisherman named Urashima, a kindly lad and clever with his rod andline. 

Well, one day he went out in his boat to fish. But instead of catchingany fish, what do you think he caught? Why! a great big tortoise, witha hard shell and such a funny wrinkled old face and a tiny tail. Now Imust tell you something which very likely you don't know; and that isthat tortoises always live a thousand years, --at least Japanesetortoises do. So Urashima thought to himself: "A fish would do for mydinner just as well as this tortoise, --in fact better. Why should I goand kill the poor thing, and prevent it from enjoying itself for anothernine hundred and ninety-nine years? No, no! I won't be so cruel. I amsure mother wouldn't like me to. " And with these words, he threw thetortoise back into the sea. 

The next thing that happened was that Urashima went to sleep in hisboat; for it was one of those hot summer days when almost everybodyenjoys a nap of an afternoon. And as he slept, there came up frombeneath the waves a beautiful girl, who got into the boat and said: "Iam the daughter of the Sea-God, and I live with my father in the DragonPalace beyond the waves. It was not a tortoise that you caught justnow, and so kindly threw back into the water instead of killing it. Itwas myself. My father the Sea-God had sent me to see whether you weregood or bad. 

"We now know that you are a good, kind boy who doesn't liketo do cruel things; and so I have come to fetch you. You shall marry me, if you like; and we will live happily together for a thousand years inthe Dragon Palace beyond the deep blue sea. "

So Urashima took one oar, and the Sea-God's daughter took the other; andthey rowed, and they rowed, and they rowed till at last they came to theDragon Palace where the Sea-God lived and ruled as King over all thedragons and the tortoises and the fishes. 

Oh dear! what a lovely place it was! The walls of the Palace were ofcoral, the trees had emeralds for leaves and rubies for berries, thefishes' scales were of silver, and the dragons' tails of solid gold. Just think of the very most beautiful, glittering things that you haveever seen, and put them all together, and then you will know what thisPalace looked like. And it all belonged to Urashima; for was he notthe son-in-law of the Sea-God, the husband of the lovely DragonPrincess?

Well, they lived on happily for three years, wandering about every dayamong the beautiful trees with emerald leaves and ruby berries. But onemorning Urashima said to his wife: "I am very happy here. Still I wantto go home and see my father and mother and brothers and sisters. Justlet me go for a short time, and I'll soon be back again. " "I don't likeyou to go, " said she; "I am very much afraid that something dreadfulwill happen. However, if you will go, there is no help for it. Only youmust take this box, and be very careful not to open it. If you open it, you will never be able to come back here. "

So Urashima promised to take great care of the box, and not to open iton any account; and then, getting into his boat, he rowed off, and atlast landed on the shore of his own country. 

But what had happened while he had been away? Where had his father'scottage gone to? What had become of the village where he used to live?The mountains indeed were there as before; but the trees on them hadbeen cut down. The little brook that ran close by his father's cottagewas still running; but there were no women washing clothes in it anymore. It seemed very strange that everything should have changed somuch in three short years. So as two men chanced to pass along thebeach, Urashima went up to them and said: "Can you tell me pleasewhere Urashima's cottage, that used to stand here, has been movedto?"--"Urashima?" said they; "why! it was four hundred years ago thathe was drowned out fishing. His parents, and his brothers, and theirgrandchildren are all dead long ago. It is an old, old story. How canyou be so foolish as to ask after his cottage? It fell to pieceshundreds of years ago. "

Then it suddenly flashed across Urashima's mind that the Sea-God'sPalace beyond the waves, with its coral walls and its ruby fruits andits dragons with tails of solid gold, must be part of fairy-land, andthat one day there was probably as long as a year in this world, sothat his three years in the Sea-God's Palace had really been hundredsof years. Of course there was no use in staying at home, now that allhis friends were dead and buried, and even the village had passed away. So Urashima was in a great hurry to get back to his wife, the DragonPrincess beyond the sea. But which was the way? He couldn't find itwith no one to show it to him. "Perhaps, " thought he, "if I open the boxwhich she gave me, I shall be able to find the way. " So he disobeyed herorders not to open the box, --or perhaps he forgot them, foolish boy thathe was. Anyhow he opened the box; and what do you think came out of it?Nothing but a white cloud which floated away over the sea. Urashimashouted to the cloud to stop, rushed about and screamed with sorrow; forhe remembered now what his wife had told him, and how, after opening thebox, he should never be able to go to the Sea-God's Palace again. Butsoon he could neither run nor shout any more. 

Suddenly his hair grew as white as snow, his face got wrinkled, and hisback bent like that of a very old man. Then his breath stopped short, and he fell down dead on the beach. 

Poor Urashima! He died because he had been foolish and disobedient. Ifonly he had done as he was told, he might have lived another thousandyears. Wouldn't you like to go and see the Dragon Palace beyond thewaves, where the Sea-God lives and rules as King over the Dragons andthe tortoises and the fishes, where the trees have emeralds for leavesand rubies for berries, where the fishes' tails are of silver and thedragons' tails all of solid gold?

_Printed by the Kobunsha in Tokyo, Japan. _