Fireflies
I
I want to talk about Japanese fireflies, but not entomologically. If you are interested, as you ought to be, in the scientific side of the subject, you should seek enlightenment from a Japanese professor of biology, now lecturing at the Imperial University of Tōkyō. He signs himself “Mr. S. Watasé” (the “S” standing for the personal name Shozaburo); and he has been a teacher as well as a student of science in America, where a number of his lectures have been published,1—lectures upon animal phosphorescence, animal electricity, the light-producing organs of insects and fishes, and other wonderful topics of biology. He can tell you all that is known concerning the morphology of fireflies, the physiology of fireflies, the photometry of fireflies, the chemistry of their luminous substance, the spectroscopic analysis of their light, and the significance of that light in terms of ether-vibration. By experiment he can show you that, under normal conditions of temperature and environment, the number of light-pulsations produced by one species of Japanese firefly averages twenty-six per minute; and that the rate suddenly rises to sixty-three per minute, if the insect be frightened by seizure. Also he can prove to you that another and smaller kind of firefly, when taken in the hand, will increase the number of its light-pulsings to upward of two hundred per minute. He suggests that the light may be of some protective value to the insect,—like the “warning colours” of sundry nauseous caterpillars and butterflies,—because the firefly has a very bitter taste, and birds appear to find it unpalatable. (Frogs, he has observed, do not mind the bad taste: they fill their cold bellies with fireflies till the light shines through them, much as the light of a candle-flame will glow through a porcelain jar.) But whether of protective value or not, the tiny dynamo would seem to be used in a variety of ways,—as a phototelegraph, for example. As other insects converse by sound or by touch, the firefly utters its emotion in luminous pulsings: its speech is a language of light.... I am only giving you some hints about the character of the professor’s lectures, which are never merely technical. And for the best part of this non-scientific essay of mine,—especially that concerning the capture and the sale of fireflies in Japan,—I am indebted to some delightful lectures which he delivered last year to Japanese audiences in Tōkyō.
II
As written to-day, the Japanese name of the firefly (hotaru) is ideographically composed with the sign for fire, doubled, above the sign for insect. The real origin of the word is nevertheless doubtful; and various etymologies have been suggested. Some scholars think that the appellation anciently signified “the First-born of Fire”; while others believe that it was first composed with syllables meaning “star” and “drop.” The more poetical of the proposed derivations, I am sorry to say, are considered the least probable. But whatever may have been the primal meaning of the word hotaru, there can be no doubt as to the romantic quality of certain folk-names still given to the insect. Two species of firefly have a wide distribution in Japan; and these have been popularly named Genji-botaru and Heiké-botaru: that is to say, “the Minamoto-Firefly” and “the Taira-Firefly.” A legend avers that these fireflies are the ghosts of the old Minamoto and Taira warriors; that, even in their insect shapes, they remember the awful clan-struggle of the twelfth century; and that once every year, on the night of the twentieth day of the fourth month,2 they fight a great battle on the Uji River. Therefore, on that night all caged fireflies should be set free, in order that they may be able to take part in the contest.
The Genji-botaru is the largest of Japanese fireflies,—the largest species, at least, in Japan proper, not including the Loochoo Islands. It is found in almost every part of the country from Kyūshū to Ōshū. The Heiké-botaru ranges further north, being especially common in Yezo; but it is found also in the central and southern provinces. It is smaller than the Genji, and emits a feebler light. The fireflies commonly sold by insect-dealers in Tōkyō, Ōsaka, Kyoto, and other cities, are of the larger species. Japanese observers have described the light of both insects as “tea-coloured” (cha-iro),—the tint of the ordinary Japanese infusion, when the leaf is of good quality, being a clear greenish yellow. But the light of a fine Genji-firefly is so brilliant that only a keen eye can detect the greenish colour: at first sight the flash appears yellow as the flame of a wood-fire, and its vivid brightness has not been overpraised in the following hokku:—
Kagaribi mo
Hotaru mo hikaru—
Genji kana!
“Whether it be a glimmering of festal-fires3 [far away], or a glimmering of fireflies, [one can hardly tell]—ah, it is the Genji!”
Although the appellations Genji-botaru and Heiké-botaru are still in general use, both insects are known by other folk-names. In different provinces the Genji is called Ō-botaru, or “Great Firefly”; Ushi-botaru, or “Ox-Firefly”; Kuma-botaru, or “Bear-Firefly”; and Uji-botaru, or “Firefly of Uji,”—not to mention such picturesque appellations as Komosō-botaru and Yamabuki-botaru, which could not be appreciated by the average Western reader. The Heiké-botaru is also called Himé-botaru, or “Princess-Firefly”; Nennéi-botaru, or “Baby-Firefly”; and Yuréi-botaru, or “Ghost-Firefly.” But these are only examples chosen at random: in almost every part of Japan there is a special folk-name for the insect.
III
There are many places in Japan which are famous for fireflies,—places which people visit in summer merely to enjoy the sight of the fireflies. Anciently the most celebrated of all such places was a little valley near Ishiyama, by the lake of Ōmi. It is still called Hotaru-Dani, or the Valley of Fireflies. Before the Period of Genroku (1688-1703), the swarming of the fireflies in this valley, during the sultry season, was accounted one of the natural marvels of the country. The fireflies of the Hotaru-Dani are still celebrated for their size; but that wonderful swarming of them, which old writers described, is no longer to be seen there. At present the most famous place for fireflies is in the neighbourhood of Uji, in Yamashirō. Uji, a pretty little town in the centre of the celebrated tea-district, is situated on the Ujigawa, and is scarcely less famed for its fireflies than for its teas. Every summer special trains run from Kyōtō and Ōsaka to Uji, bringing thousands of visitors to see the fireflies. But it is on the river, at a point several miles from the town, that the great spectacle is to be witnessed,—the Hotaru-Kassen, or Firefly Battle. The stream there winds between hills covered with vegetation; and myriads of fireflies dart from either bank, to meet and cling above the water. At moments they so swarm together as to form what appears to the eye like a luminous cloud, or like a great ball of sparks. The cloud soon scatters, or the ball drops and breaks upon the surface of the current, and the fallen fireflies drift glittering away; but another swarm quickly collects in the same locality. People wait all night in boats upon the river to watch the phenomenon. After the Hotaru-Kassen is done, the Ujikawa, covered with the still sparkling bodies of the drifting insects, is said to appear like the Milky Way, or, as the Japanese more poetically call it, the River of Heaven. Perhaps it was after witnessing such a spectacle that the great female poet, Chiyo of Kaga, composed these verses:—
Kawa bakari,
Yami wa nagarété—?
Hotaru kana!
—Which may be thus freely rendered:—
“Is it the river only?—or is the darkness itself drifting?... Oh, the fireflies!...”4
IV
Many persons in Japan earn their living during the summer months by catching and selling fireflies: indeed, the extent of this business entitles it to be regarded as a special industry. The chief centre of this industry is the region about Ishiyama, in Goshū, by the Lake of Ōmi,—a number of houses there supplying fireflies to many parts of the country, and especially to the great cities of Osaka and Kyōtō. From sixty to seventy firefly-catchers are employed by each of the principal houses during the busy season. Some training is required for the occupation. A tyro might find it no easy matter to catch a hundred fireflies in a single night; but an expert has been known to catch three thousand. The methods of capture, although of the simplest possible kind, are very interesting to see.
Immediately after sunset, the firefly-hunter goes forth, with a long bamboo pole upon his shoulder, and a long bag of brown mosquito-netting wound, like a girdle, about his waist. When he reaches a wooded place frequented by fireflies,—usually some spot where willows are planted, on the bank of a river or lake,—he halts and watches the trees. As soon as the trees begin to twinkle satisfactorily, he gets his net ready, approaches the most luminous tree, and with his long pole strikes the branches. The fireflies, dislodged by the shock, do not immediately take flight, as more active insects would do under like circumstances, but drop helplessly to the ground, beetle-wise, where their light—always more brilliant in moments of fear or pain—renders them conspicuous. If suffered to remain upon the ground for a few moments, they will fly away. But the catcher, picking them up with astonishing quickness, using both hands at once, deftly tosses them into his mouth—because he cannot lose the time required to put them, one by one, into the bag. Only when his mouth can hold no more, does he drop the fireflies, unharmed, into the netting.
Thus the firefly-catcher works until about two o’clock in the morning,—the old Japanese hour of ghosts,—at which time the insects begin to leave the trees and seek the dewy soil. There they are said to bury their tails, so as to remain viewless. But now the hunter changes his tactics. Taking a bamboo broom he brushes the surface of the turf, lightly and quickly. Whenever touched or alarmed by the broom, the fireflies display their lanterns, and are immediately nipped and bagged. A little before dawn, the hunters return to town.
At the firefly-shops the captured insects are sorted as soon as possible, according to the brilliancy of their light,—the more luminous being the higher-priced. Then they are put into gauze-covered boxes or cages, with a certain quantity of moistened grass in each cage. From one hundred to two hundred fireflies are placed in a single cage, according to grade. To these cages are attached small wooden tablets inscribed with the names of customers,—such as hotel proprietors, restaurant-keepers, wholesale and retail insect-merchants, and private persons who have ordered large quantities of fireflies for some particular festivity. The boxes are despatched to their destinations by nimble messengers,—for goods of this class cannot be safely intrusted to express companies.
Great numbers of fireflies are ordered for display at evening parties in the summer season. A large Japanese guest-room usually overlooks a garden; and during a banquet or other evening entertainment, given in the sultry season, it is customary to set fireflies at liberty in the garden after sunset, that the visitors may enjoy the sight of the sparkling. Restaurant-keepers purchase largely. In the famous Dōtombori of Ōsaka, there is a house where myriads of fireflies are kept in a large space enclosed by mosquito-netting; and customers of this house are permitted to enter the enclosure and capture a certain number of fireflies to take home with them.
The wholesale price of living fireflies ranges from three sen per hundred up to thirteen sen per hundred, according to season and quality. Retail dealers sell them in cages; and in Tokyo the price of a cage of fireflies ranges from three sen up to several dollars. The cheapest kind of cage, containing only three or four fireflies, is scarcely more than two inches square; but the costly cages—veritable marvels of bamboo work, beautifully decorated—are as large as cages for song-birds. Firefly cages of charming or fantastic shapes—model houses, junks, temple-lanterns, etc.—can be bought at prices ranging from thirty sen up to one dollar.
Dead or alive, fireflies are worth money. They are delicate insects, and they live but a short time in confinement. Great numbers die in the insect-shops; and one celebrated insect-house is said to dispose every season of no less than five shō—that is to say, about one peck—of dead fireflies, which are sold to manufacturing establishments in Osaka. Formerly fireflies were used much more than at present in the manufacture of poultices and pills, and in the preparation of drugs peculiar to the practice of Chinese medicine. Even to-day some curious extracts are obtained from them; and one of these, called Hotaru-no-abura, or Firefly-grease, is still used by woodworkers for the purpose of imparting rigidity to objects made of bent bamboo.
A very curious chapter on firefly-medicine might be written by somebody learned in the old-fashioned literature. The queerest part of the subject is Chinese, and belongs much more to demonology than to therapeutics. Firefly-ointments used to be made which had power, it was alleged, to preserve a house from the attacks of robbers, to counteract the effect of any poison, and to drive away “the hundred devils.” And pills were made with firefly-substance which were believed to confer invulnerability;—one kind of such pills being called Kanshōgan, or “Commander-in-Chief Pills”; and another, Buigan, or “Military-Power Pills.”
V
Firefly-catching, as a business, is comparatively modern; but firefly-hunting, as a diversion, is a very old custom. Anciently it was an aristocratic amusement; and great nobles used to give firefly-hunting parties,—botaru-gari. In this busy era of Meiji the botaru-gari is rather an amusement for children than for grown-up folks; but the latter occasionally find time to join in the sport. All over Japan, the children have their firefly-hunts every summer;—moonless nights being usually chosen for such expeditions. Girls follow the chase with paper fans; boys, with long light poles, to the ends of which wisps of fresh bamboo-grass are tied. When struck down by a fan or a wisp, the insects are easily secured, as they are slow to take wing after having once been checked in actual flight. While hunting, the children sing little songs, supposed to attract the shining prey. These songs differ according to locality; and the number of them is wonderful. But there are very few possessing that sort of interest which justifies quotation. Two examples will probably suffice:—
(Province of Choshū.)
Hotaru, koi! koi!
Koi-tomosé!
Nippon ichi no
Jōsan ga,
Chōchin tomoshité,
Koi to ina!
Come, firefly, come! Come with your light burning! The nicest girl in Japan wants to know if you will not light your lantern and come!
(Dialect of Shimonoséki.)
Hōchin, koi!
Hōchin, koi!
Séki no machi no bon-san ga,
Chōchin tomoshité,
Koi!
Koi!
Firefly, come! firefly, come! All the boys of Séki [want you to come] with your lantern lighted! Come! come!
Of course, in order to hunt fireflies successfully, it is necessary to know something about their habits; and on this subject Japanese children are probably better informed than a majority of my readers, for whom the following notes may possess a novel interest:—
Fireflies frequent the neighbourhood of water, and like to circle above it; but some kinds are repelled by impure or stagnant water, and are only to be found in the vicinity of clear streams or lakes. The Genji-firefly shuns swamps, ditches, or foul canals; while the Heiké-firefly seems to be satisfied with any water. All fireflies seek by preference grassy banks shaded by trees; but they dislike certain trees and are attracted by others. They avoid pine trees, for instance; and they will not light upon rose-bushes. But upon willow trees—especially weeping willows—they gather in great swarms. Occasionally, on a summer night, you may see a drooping willow so covered and illuminated with fireflies that all its branches appear “to be budding fire.” During a bright moonlight night fireflies keep as much as possible in shadow; but when pursued they fly at once into the moonshine, where their shimmering is less easily perceived. Lamplight, or any strong artificial light, drives them away; but small bright lights attract them. They can be lured, for example, by the sparkling of a small piece of lighted charcoal, or by the glow of a little Japanese pipe, kindled in the dark. But the lamping of a single lively firefly, confined in a bottle, or cup, of clear glass, is the best of all lures.
As a rule the children hunt only in parties, for obvious reasons. In former years it would have been deemed foolhardy to go alone in pursuit of fireflies, because there existed certain uncanny beliefs concerning them. And in some of the country districts these beliefs still prevail. What appear to be fireflies may be malevolent spirits, or goblin-fires, or fox-lights, kindled to delude the wayfarer. Even real fireflies are not always to be trusted;—the weirdness of their kinships might be inferred from their love of willow trees. Other trees have their particular spirits, good or evil, hamadryads or goblins; but the willow is particularly the tree of the dead—the favourite of human ghosts. Any firefly may be a ghost—who can tell? Besides, there is an old belief that the soul of a person still alive may sometimes assume the shape of a firefly. And here is a little story that was told me in Izuno:—
One cold winter’s night a young shizoku of Matsuë, while on his way home from a wedding-party, was surprised to perceive a firefly-light hovering above the canal in front of his dwelling. Wondering that such an insect should be flying abroad in the season of snow, he stopped to look at it; and the light suddenly shot toward him. He struck at it with a stick; but it darted away, and flew into the garden of a residence adjoining his own.
Next morning he made a visit to that house, intending to relate the adventure to his neighbours and friends. But before he found a chance to speak of it, the eldest daughter of the family, happening to enter the guest-room without knowing of the young man’s visit, uttered a cry of surprise, and exclaimed, “Oh! how you startled me! No one told me that you had called; and just as I came in I was thinking about you. Last night I had so strange a dream! I was flying in my dream,—flying above the canal in front of our house. It seemed very pleasant to fly over the water; and while I was flying there I saw you coming along the bank. Then I went to you to tell you that I had learned how to fly; but you struck at me, and frightened me so that I still feel afraid when I think of it....” After hearing this, the visitor thought it best not to relate his own experience for the time being, lest the coincidence should alarm the girl, to whom he was betrothed.
VI
Fireflies have been celebrated in Japanese poetry from ancient time; and frequent mention of them is made in early classical prose. One of the fifty-four chapters of the famous novel, Genji-Monogari, for example,—written either toward the close of the tenth century or at the beginning of the eleventh,—is entitled, “Fireflies”; and the author relates how a certain noble person was enabled to obtain one glimpse of a lady’s face in the dark by the device of catching and suddenly liberating a number of fireflies. The first literary interest in fireflies may have been stimulated, if not aroused, by the study of Chinese poetry. Even to-day every Japanese child knows a little song about the famous Chinese scholar who, in the time of his struggles with poverty, studied by the light of a paper bag filled with fireflies. But, whatever the original source of their inspiration, Japanese poets have been making verses about fireflies during more than a thousand years. Compositions on the subject can be found in every form of Japanese poetry; but the greater number of firefly poems are in hokku,—the briefest of all measures, consisting of only seventeen syllables. Modern love-poems relating to the firefly are legion; but the majority of these, written in the popular twenty-six-syllable form called dodoïtsu, appear to consist of little more than variants of one old classic fancy, comparing the silent burning of the insect’s light to the consuming passion that is never uttered.
Perhaps my readers will be interested by the following selection of firefly poems. Some of the compositions are many centuries old:—
Catching Fireflies
Mayoi-go no
Naku-naku tsukamu
Hotaru kana!
Ah! the lost child! Though crying and crying, still he catches fireflies!
Kuraki yori
Kuraki hito yobu:
Hotaru kana!
Out of the blackness black people call [to each other]: [they are hunting] fireflies!
Iu koto no
Kikoëté ya, takaku
Tobu hotaru!
Ah! having heard the voices of people [crying “Catch it!”], the firefly now flies higher!
Owarété wa
Tsuki ni kakururu
Hotaru kana!
Ah, [the cunning] fireflies! being chased, they hide themselves in the moonlight!
Ubayoté
Fumi-koroshitaru
Hotaru kana!
[Two firefly-catchers] having tried to seize it [at the same time], the poor firefly is trampled to death!
The Light of Fireflies
Hotarubi ya!
Mada kuréyaranu,
Hashi no uri.
Fireflies already sparkling under the bridge,—and it is not yet dark!
Mizu-gusa no
Kururu to miété
Tobu hotaru.
When the water-grasses appear to grow dark, the fireflies begin to fly.5
Oku-no-ma yé
Hanashité mitaru
Hotaru kana!
Pleasant, from the guest-room,6 to watch the fireflies being set free in the garden!
Yo no fukuru
Hodo ōkinaru
Hotaru kana!
Ever as the night grows [deeper, the light of] the firefly also grows [brighter]!
Kusakari no
Sodé yori idzuru,
Hotaru kana!
See! a firefly flies out of the sleeve of the grass-cutter!
Koko kashiko,
Hotaru ni aoshi
Yoru no kusa.
Here and there the night-grass appears green, because of the light of the fireflies.
Chōchin no
Kiyété, tōtoki
Hotaru kana!
How precious seems [the light of] the firefly, now that the lantern-light has gone out!
Mado kuraki,
Shōji wo noboru
Hotaru kana!
The window itself is dark, but see!—a firefly is creeping up the paper pane!
Moë yasuku,
Mata kéyé yasuki,
Hotaru kana!
How easily kindled, and how easily put out again, is the light of the firefly!
Hitotsu kité,
Niwa no tsuyukéki,
Hotaru kana!
Oh! a single firefly having come, one can see the dew in the garden!
Té no hira wo
Hau ashi miyuru
Hotaru kana!
Oh, this firefly!—as it crawls on the palm of my hand, its legs are visible [by its own light]!
Osoroshi no
Té ni sukitōru,
Hotaru kana!
It is enough to make one afraid! See! the light of this firefly shows through my hand!7
Sabéshisaya!
Isshaku kiyété
Yuku hotaru!
How uncanny! The firefly shoots to within a foot of me, and—out goes the light!
Yuku saki no
Sawaru mono naki
Hotaru kana!
There goes a firefly! but there is nothing in front of it to take hold of [nothing to touch: what can it be seeking—the ghostly creature?].
Hōki-gi ni
Ari to wa miyété,
Hotaru kana!
In this hoki-bush it certainly appeared to be,—the firefly! [but where is it?]
Sodé é kité,
Yōhan no hotaru
Sabishi kana!
This midnight firefly coming upon the sleeve of my robe—how weird8!...
Yanagi-ba no
Yami saki kaësu
Hotaru kana!
For this willow tree the season of budding would seem to have returned in the dark—look at the fireflies!
Mizu soko no
Kagé wo kowagaru
Hotaru kana!
Ah, he is afraid of the darkness under the water,—that firefly! [Therefore he lights his tiny lantern!]
Sugitaru wa!
Mé ni mono sugoshi
Tobu hotaru!
Ah, I am going too far!... The flitting of the fireflies here is a lonesome sight!
Hotarubi ya!
Kusa ni osamaru
Yoäkégata.
Ah, the firefly-lights! As the darkness begins to break, they bury themselves in the grass.
Love-Poems
Muréyo, hotaru,
Mono iu kao no
Miyuru hodo!
O fireflies, gather here long enough to make visible the face of the person who says these things to me!9
Oto mo sédé,
Omoi ni moyuru,
Hotaru koso,
Naku mushi yori mo
Awaré nari-kéri!
Not making even a sound [yet] burning with desire,—for this the firefly indeed has become more worthy of pity than any insect that cries!10
Yū sareba,
Hotaru yori ki ni
Moyurédomo,
Hikari minéba ya
Hito no tsurénaki!
When evening falls, though the soul of me burn more than burns the firefly, as the light [of that burning] is viewless, the person [beloved] remains unmoved.11
Miscellaneous
Suito yuku,
Mizu-gi wa suzushi,
Tobu-hotaru!
Here at the water’s edge, how pleasantly cool!—and the fireflies go shooting by—suito!
Midzu é kité,
Hikuu naritaru
Hotaru kana!
Having reached the water, he makes himself low,—the firefly!12
Kuzu no ha no
Ura, utsu amé ya,
Tobu-hotaru!
The rain beats upon the Kuzu-plant;13—away starts the firefly from the underside of the leaf!
Amé no yo wa,
Shita bakari yuku
Hotaru kana!
Ah! this rainy night they only go along the ground,—the fireflies!
Yura-yura to
Ko-amé furu yo no
Hotaru kana!
How they swing themselves, to and fro, the fireflies, on a night of drizzling rain!
Akinuréba,
Kusa nomi zo
Hotaru-kago.
With the coming of dawn, indeed, there is nothing visible but grass in the cage of the firefly!
Yo ga akété,
Mushi ni naritaru
Hotaru kana!
With the coming of the dawn, they change into insects again,—these fireflies!
Hiru miréba,
Kubi-suji akaki
Hotaru kana!
Oh, this firefly!—seen by daylight, the nape of its neck is red!
Hotaru kōté,
Shiba shi-go-mai ni
Fuzeï kana!
Having bought fireflies, respectfully accord them the favour of four or five tufts of lawn-grass!14
Song of the Firefly-seller
Futatsu, mitsu,
Hanashité misénu
Hotaru-uri.
Mitsu, yotsu wa,
Akari ni nokosé
Hotaru-uri.
Onoga mi wa
Yami ni kaëru ya
Hotaru-uri.
He will not give you the chance to see two or three fireflies set free,—this firefly-seller.
He leaves in the cage three or four, just to make a light,—this firefly-seller.
For now he must take his own body back into the dark night,—this firefly-seller.
VII
But the true romance of the firefly is to be found neither in the strange fields of Japanese folk-lore nor in the quaint gardens of Japanese poetry, but in the vast profound of science. About science I know little or nothing. And that is why I am not afraid to rush in where angels fear to tread. If I knew what Professor Watasé knows about fireflies, I should feel myself less free to cross the boundaries of relative experience. As it is, I can venture theories.
The tremendous hypotheses of physical and psychical evolution no longer seem to me hypotheses: I should never dream of doubting them. I have ceased to wonder at the growth of Life out of that which has been called not-living,—the development of organic out of inorganic existence. The one amazing fact of organic evolution, to which my imagination cannot become accustomed, is the fact that the substance of life should possess the latent capacity or tendency to build itself into complexities incomprehensible of systematic structure. The power of that substance to evolve radiance or electricity is not really more extraordinary than its power to evolve colour; and that a noctiluca, or a luminous centipede, or a firefly, should produce light, ought not to seem more wonderful than that a plant should produce blue or purple flowers. But the biological interpretation of the phenomenon leaves me wondering, just as much as before, at the particular miracle of the machinery by which the light is made. To find embedded in the body of the insect a microscopic working-model of everything comprised under the technical designation of an “electric plant,” would not be nearly so wonderful a discovery as the discovery of what actually exists. Here is a firefly, able, with its infinitesimal dynamo, to produce a pure cold light “at one four-hundredth part of the cost of the energy expended in a candle flame”!... Now why should there have been evolved in the tail of this tiny creature a luminiferous mechanism at once so elaborate and so effective that our greatest physiologists and chemists are still unable to understand the operation of it, and our best electricians impotent to conceive the possibility of imitating it? Why should the living tissues crystallize or build themselves into structures of such stupefying intricacy and beauty as the visual organs of an ephemera, the electrical organs of a gymnotus, or the luminiferous organs of a firefly?... The very wonder of the thing forbids me to imagine gods at work: no mere god could ever contrive such a prodigy as the eye of a May-fly or the tail of a firefly.
Biology would answer thus:—“Though it is inconceivable that a structure like this should have been produced by accumulated effects of function on structure, yet it is conceivable that successive selections of favourable variations might have produced it.” And no follower of Herbert Spencer is really justified in wandering further. But I cannot rid myself of the notion that Matter, in some blind infallible way, remembers; and that in every unit of living substance there slumber infinite potentialities, simply because to every ultimate atom belongs the infinite and indestructible experience of billions of vanished universes.
Notes
1 Professor Watasé is a graduate of Johns Hopkins. Since this essay was written, his popular Japanese lectures upon the firefly have been reissued in a single pretty volume. The coloured frontispiece,—showing fireflies at night upon a willow-branch,—is alone worth the price of the book.
2 By the old calendar. According to the new calendar, the date of the Firefly Battle would be considerably later: last year (1901) it fell upon the tenth day of the sixth month.
3 The term kagar-bi, often translated by “bonfire,” here especially refers to the little wood-fires which are kindled, on certain festival occasions, in front of every threshold in the principal street of a country town, or village. During the festival of the Bon such little fires are lighted in many parts of the country to welcome the returning ghosts.
4 That is to say, “Do I see only fireflies drifting with the current? or is the Night itself drifting, with its swarming of stars?”
5 More literally: “The water-grasses having appeared to grow dark, the fireflies begin to fly.” The phrase kururu to miété reminds one of the second stanza in that most remarkable of modern fairy-ballads, Mr. Yeats’ “Folk of the Air”:—
“And he saw how the weeds grew dark
At the coming of night-tide;
And he dreamed of the long dim hair
Of Bridget his bride.”
6 Oku-no-ma really means the back room. But the best rooms in a Japanese house are always in the rear, and so arranged as to overlook the garden. The composer of the verse is supposed to be a guest at some banquet, during which fireflies are set free in the garden that the visitors may enjoy the spectacle.
7 That is to say, makes the fingers appear diaphanous, as if held before a bright candle-flame. This suggestion of rosy semi-transparency implies a female speaker.
8 The word sabishi usually signifies lonesome or melancholy; but the sense of it here is “weird.” This verse suggests the popular fancy that the soul of a person, living or dead, may assume the form of a firefly.
9 The speaker is supposed to be a woman. Somebody has been making love to her in the dark; and she half doubts the sincerity of the professed affection.
10 From the Fugetsu-Sh’u. The speaker is a woman: by the simile of the silent-glowing firefly she suggests her own secret love.
11 From the Kokon Wakashū Enkyō. The speaker is supposed to be a woman.
12 Or, “he stoops low.” The word bikui really means low of stature.
13 A kind of arrowroot.
14 Not literal; and I doubt whether this poem could be satisfactorily translated into English. There is a delicate humour in the use of the word fuzei, used in speaking humbly of one’s self, or of one’s endeavours to please a superior.