subsequently became very popular in Japan. The Taiheiki carried this "dropping into poetry" somewhat further, and the modern dramatists and novelists have bestowed on us much tediousness of this particular description.
After the battle of Dannoüra (see p. 135), the Mikado Antoku's nurse, seeing that all was over, took him into her arms (he was then a boy of eight years of age) and plunged into the sea with him. Both were drowned. The following is the Heike Monogatari's account of this incident:—
"Niidono was long ago prepared for this [the defeat of the Hei or Taira party]. Throwing over her head her double garment of sombre hue, and tucking up high the side of her trousers of straw-coloured silk, she placed under her arm the Sacred Seal, and girt on her loins the Sacred Sword. Then taking the sovereign to her bosom, she said, 'Although a woman, I will not allow the enemy to lay hands on me. I will accompany my sovereign. All ye who have regard for his intention make haste and follow.' So saying, she calmly placed her foot on the ship's side. The sovereign had this year reached the age of eight, but looked much older. His august countenance was so beautiful that it cast a lustre round about. His black locks hung loosely down below his back. With an astonished expression he inquired, 'Now, whither do you propose to take me, Amaze?'[1] Niidono turned her face to her child-lord, and with tears that fell bara-bara, 'Do you not know, my lord,' said she, 'that although, by virtue of your keeping the Ten Commandments in a previous state of existence, you have been born into this world as the ruler of ten thousand chariots,
- ↑ A respectful title for women who have taken Buddhist vows.
