For today’s post I wanted to share a lovely fairy tale called “The Fire-Fly’s Lovers.” The story appeared in the compilation The Fire-Fly’s Lovers and Other Fairy Tales of Old Japan by William Elliot Griffis, published in 1908. I am only familiar with European fairy tales, like the Brothers Grimm, so I was very curious to read these stories and appreciate the folklore of another culture. However, the introduction clarifies that the stories contained within were partially, “suggested by native custom, while some were spun from my own brain.” So, while I do not know how authentic a representation of Japanese cultural lore this tale may be, I still found it very satisfying as the imagery is beautiful and vivid, and the story is simply conveyed. I hope you will enjoy it as well.
THE
FIRE-FLY'S LOVERS
ON the southern and sunny
side of the castle moats of the Fukui castle, in Echizen, the water had long
ago become shallow so that lotus lilies grew luxuriantly. Deep in the heart of one of the great flowers
whose petals were as pink as the lining of a seashell, lived the King of the Fireflies,
Hi-o, whose only daughter was the lovely Princess Hotaru. While still a child the Princess had been
carefully kept at home within the pink petals of the lily, never going even to
the edges except to see her father fly off on his journey. Dutifully she waited until of age, when the
fire glowed in her own body, and shone, beautifully illuminating the lotus,
until its light gleamed like a lamp within a globe of coral.
Every night her light grew
brighter and brighter, until at last it was as mellow as gold. Then her father said:
“My daughter is now of age,
she may fly abroad with me sometimes, and when the proper suitor comes she may
marry whom she will."
So Hotaru flew forth in and
out among the lotus lilies of the moat, then into rich rice fields, and at last
far off to the indigo meadows.
Wherever she went a crowd of
suitors followed her, for she had the singular power of attracting all the
night-flying insects to herself But she cared for none of their attentions, and
though she spoke politely to them all she gave encouragement to none. Yet some of the sheeny-winged gallants called
her a coquette.
One night she said to her
mother, the Queen:
“I have met many admirers,
but I do not wish a husband from any of them.
To-night I shall stay at home, and if any of them love me truly they
will come and pay me court here. Then I
shall lay an impossible duty on them. If
they are wise, they will not try to perform it; but if they love their lives
more than they love me, I do not want any of them. Whoever succeeds may have me for his
bride."
“As you will, my child,"
said the Queen-mother, who arrayed her daughter in her most resplendent robes,
and set her on her throne in the heart of the lotus.
Then she gave orders to her bodyguard
to keep all suitors at a respectful distance lest some stupid gallant, a
Horn-bug or a Cockchafer dazzled by the light, should approach too near and
hurt the Princess or shake her throne.
No sooner had twilight faded
away, than forth came the Golden Beetle, who stood on a stamen and making
obeisance, said:
“I am Lord Green-Gold. I offer my house, my fortune, and my love to
Princess Hotaru."
“Go
and bring me fire and I will be your bride," said Hotaru.
With a bow of the head, the
beetle opened his wings and departed with a stately whirr.
Next came a shining bug with
wings and body as black as lamp-smoke, who solemnly professed his passion. He received the same answer:
“Bring me fire, and you may
have me for your wife.” Off flew the bug
with a buzz.
Pretty soon came the scarlet
Dragonfly, expecting so to dazzle the Princess by his gorgeous colors that she
would accept him at once. "
I decline your offer,"
said the Princess,” unless you bring me a flash of fire."
Swift was the flight of the Dragonfly
on his errand, and in came the Beetle with a tremendous buzz, and ardently
pleaded his suit.
“I will say ‘yes‘ if you
bring me fire," said the glittering Princess.
Suitor after suitor appeared
to woo the daughter of the King of the Fireflies until every petal was dotted
with them. One after another in a long
troop they appeared. Each in his own
way, proudly, humbly, boldly, mildly, with flattery, with boasting, even with
tears, proffered his love, told his rank or expatiated on his fortune or vowed
his constancy, sang his tune or played his music. To every one of her lovers the Princess in
modest voice returned the same answer:
“Bring me fire, and I'll be
your bride."
So without telling his
rivals, each one thinking he had the secret alone sped away after fire. But
none ever came back to wed the Princess.
Alas for the poor suitors! The
Beetle whizzed off to a house nearby through the paper windows of which light
glimmered. So full was he of his passion
that thinking nothing of wood or iron, he dashed his head against a nail, and
fell dead on the ground.
The black bug flew into a
room where a poor student was reading. His
lamp was only a dish of earthenware full of rapeseed oil with a wick made of
pith. Knowing nothing of oil the
lovelorn bug crawled into the dish to reach the flame and in a few seconds was
drowned as in a sea.
" What's that?"
said a thrifty housewife, sitting with needle in hand, as her lamp flared up
for a moment, smoking the chimney, and then cracking it ; while picking out the
scorched bits she found a roasted Dragonfly, whose scarlet wings were all
burned off.
Mad with love the brilliant Hawk
Moth, afraid of the flame yet determined to win the fire for the Princess,
hovered round and round the candle flame, coming nearer and nearer each time. “Now or never, the Princess or death,"
he buzzed, as he darted forward to snatch a flash of flame, but singeing his
wings, he fell helplessly down, and died in agony.
“What a fool he was, to be
sure," said the ugly Clothes-Moth, coming on the spot. '' I'll get the fire. I'll crawl up inside the candle.” So he climbed up the hollow paper wick, and
was nearly to the top, and close to the blue part of the flame, when the man,
snuffing the wick, crushed him to death.
Sad indeed was the fate of
the lovers of Hi-o's daughter. Some
hovered around the beacons on the headland, some fluttered about the great wax
candles which stood eight feet high in their brass sockets in the temples of
Buddha ; some burned their noses at the top of incense sticks, or were nearly choked
by the smoke ; some danced all night around the lanterns in the shrines ; some
sought the sepulchral lamps in the graveyards ; one visited the cremation
furnace ; another the kitchen, where a feast was going on ; another chased the
sparks that flew out of the chimney ; but none brought fire to the Princess, or
won the lover's prize. Many lost their feelers, had their shining bodies
scorched or their wings singed, but most of them alas! lay dead, black, and cold next morning.
As the priests trimmed the
lamps in the shrines, and the servant maids the lanterns, each said alike:
“The Princess Hotaru must
have had many lovers last night."
Alas! Alas!
Poor suitors. Some tried to
snatch a streak of green fire from the cat's eyes, and were snapped up for
their pains. One attempted to get a
mouthful of bird's breath, but was swallowed alive. A Carrion-Beetle (the ugly lover) crawled off
to the seashore, and found some fish scales that emitted light. The Stag Beetle climbed a mountain, and in a
rotten tree stump found some bits of glowing wood like fire, but the distance
was so great that long before they reached the castle moat it was daylight, and
the fire had gone out; so they threw their fish scales and old wood away.
The next day was one of
great mourning, and there were so many funerals going on that Hi-maro the
Prince of the Fireflies on the north side of the castle moat inquired of his
servants the cause. Then he learned for
the first time of the glittering Princess.
Upon this the Prince, who had
just succeeded his father upon the throne, fell in love with the Princess and
resolved to marry her. He sent his
chamberlain to ask of her father his daughter in marriage according to true
etiquette. The father agreed to the
Prince's proposal, with the condition that the Prince should obey her behest in
one thing, which was to come in person bringing her fire.
Then the Prince at the head
of his glittering battalions came in person and filled the lotus palace with a
flood of golden light. But Hotaru was so
beautiful that her charms paled not their fire even in the blaze of the
Prince's glory. The visit ended in
wooing, and the wooing in wedding. On
the night appointed, in a palanquin made of the white lotus-petals, amid the
blazing torches of the Prince's battalions of warriors, Hotaru was borne to the
Prince's palace, and there Prince and Princess were joined in wedlock.
Many generations have passed
since Hi-maro and Hotaru were married, and still it is the whim of all Firefly
princesses that their baseborn lovers must bring fire as their love offering or
lose their prize. Else would the
glittering fair ones be wearied unto death by the importunity of their lovers. Great indeed is the loss, for in this quest
of fire many thousand insects, attracted by the Firefly, are burned to death in
the vain hope of winning the fire that shall gain the cruel but beautiful one
that fascinates them. It is for this
cause that each night insects hover around the lamp flame, and every morning a
crowd of victims drowned in the oil, or scorched in the flame, must be cleaned
from the lamp. This is the reason why
young ladies catch and imprison the Fireflies to watching the war of
insect-love, in the hope that they may have human lovers who will dare as much,
through fire and flood, as they.
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