Another story connected with Bamboos, as familiar as our ‘Cinderella,’ is ‘The Tongue-cut Sparrow.’ An aged childless couple dwelt far out in the country. The old man was kind, gentle, and cheerful, but his wife was a cruel, scolding shrew. The husband had a pet Sparrow of which he was very fond, as was the bird of him; but the old woman was jealous of the little creature, and hated it. One day, in the absence of the man at his work in the fields, the old woman missed some starch which she had mixed over-night, and became very angry at being unable to find it, upon which the Sparrow came and confessed to having eaten it, and prayed for forgiveness. But she, furious with the little bird, cut out its tongue with a pair of scissors, and drove it from the house. When the old man returned he was greatly exercised in his mind at the disappearance of his little pet, and wanted to know where it was; but his wife at first prevaricated, and said she did not know what had become of it. On being pressed, however, she acknowledged what she had done, and why, and attempted to justify herself. Her husband was heart-
Fairy Book. The Japanese, however, do not consider it a fairy tale by any means. In the same book is the story of ‘The Tongue-cut Sparrow,’ of which I here give a very brief résumé. Both these, by other translators, and many others, may be bought for a small sum at any Japanese bookstall, beautifully printed and illustrated in colours on crêpe paper, from the pens of various translators, and published by Hasegawa of Tokio. Some are Lafcadio Hearn’s translations, if I remember rightly.
