THE HEIAN EPOCH
dancing-girls gave their services to amuse the Court, and the Emperor Uda (888-897) took one of them to his arms. But the "white measure-markers" were much more than ordinary danseuses. Their accomplishments were of the mind as well as of the muscles. If they could translate the motive of a couplet into an exquisitely graceful pantomime, they could also suggest novel motives and weave them into verses at once sweet and scholarly. Besides, no sacrifice overtaxed their complaisance. They became the rage in the closing days of the Heian epoch, and their favourite measure was the quasi-religious Imayō. It was as though love-sonnets should be sung to hymn music. The number of the Imayō was legion, but the manner of dancing them did not materially differ from that of the Saibara.
SPECIMENS OF IMAYŌ.
Pass we by the sea-side road,
High swell the wave-hills;
Climb we by the hill-side track,
High the cloud-clad pass;
Wend we by the northern road,
High piled the snow-drifts;
Come, come by Ise's high way.
One way, only one.
Sad sadness of the sweet past.
Sweet the sad gone-by;
Mem'ry of a severed love.
Dead but ne'er to die.
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