64



Of Old Japan



that day. He was accompanied by our boy. My
husband wore a red coat and pale purple kimono,^
and aster-coloured hakama [divided skirt], and car-
ried a long sword. The boy wore blue figured clothes
and red hakama, and they mounted their horses be-
side the veranda.
When they had gone out noisily I felt very, very
lonely. As I had heard the Province was not so distant
I was less hopeless than I had been before.
The people who accompanied him to see him off
returned the next day and told me that they had gone
down with great show [of splendour] and, then con-
tinuing, said they had seen human fire ^ this morning
starting [from the company] and flying towards the
Capital. I tried to suppose it to be from some one
of his retinue. How could I think the worst? I could
think of nothing but how to bring up these younger
ones.
He came back in the Deutzia month of the next
year and passed the Summer and Autumn at home,
and on the twenty-fifth of the Long-night month he
became ill.
1058. On the fifth day of the Tenth month all be-
came like a dream. ^ My sorrows could be compared
to nothing in this world.
Now I knew that my present state had been re-

* The rank of the person determined the colour of his clothes.
Red was worn by nobles of the fifth degree.
' The Japanese believed that "human fire" or spirit can be seen
leaving the body of one who is soon to die.
' Her husband died.
