THE MAID WHOSE FACE WAS HIDDEN UNDER A BOWL.
N olden time there lived in an out-of-the-way place, in the province of Yamato, an old couple who had a very pretty daughter, an only child. Her father died while she was yet a little girl, leaving her and her mother in great want. They were of noble birth, but civil war had driven the father to hide himself in this place, and pride had prevented him making any effort to regain a position by humbling himself to his successful enemies, When the little maid was thirteen years old her mother fell sick.
The poor woman, fearing she would never recover, was in great distress before her death; the thought of leaving her lovely child alone in the world, without friends or protector, troubled her. She sent the maid for a large wooden bowl, and, when she brought it, directed her to put it on her head upside down so as to hide her face, and told her that when she became an orphan it was on no account whatever to be taken off until she was married of her own free will to the man of her choice. The mother died the same night, and the maid found the bowl could not be moved, and thus it remained for years. Her beauty became more marked every year and attracted much attention, but she firmly repelled all advances made her. Her hereditary pride, however, sustained her in her efforts to earn an honest, though a scanty and precarious, living, and she refused all proffers that appeared to be dictated by charity or evil intent.
Now there was in this village, as in all others, a "great man," and he was both rich and clever. Having formerly been an officer at court, he had sent his son to replace him, and take advantage of the opportunity to study. The lady of the house was in delicate health, so he, hearing of the "beautiful maiden with the wooden bowl," took her under his protection, and she became the lady's waiting-maid. In time the son returned satiated with the follies and pleasures of the gay capital, and he was not slow to notice the beauty and modesty of his step-mother's handmaiden; indeed before long he made fierce love to her, which she haughtily repelled, and her resentment only made
