--- title: Names of Incense Used., part 2 — In Ghostly Japan · full text with trees description: Names of Incense Used., part 2, «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: “Having been guided to the house, Shōko Setsu presented himself at the entrance, and asked for permission to speak to the old man. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/4/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [In Ghostly Japan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/) / Names of Incense Used., part 2 # Names of Incense Used., part 2 Names of Incense Used., part 2 of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn: the whole text, 121 sentences and 2599 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/4/page/2/) “Having been guided to the house, Shōko Setsu presented himself at the entrance, and asked for permission to speak to the old man.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") A serving-student courteously invited him to enter, and ushered him into an apartment where several young men were at study.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") As Shōko Setsu took his seat, all the youths saluted him.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the one who had first addressed him bowed and said: ‘We are grieved to inform you that our master died a few days ago.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") But we have been waiting for you, because he predicted that you would come to-day to this house, at this very hour.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") Your name is Shōko Setsu.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") And our master told us to give you a book which he believed would be of service to you.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") Here is the book;—please to accept it.’[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") “Shōko Setsu was not less delighted than surprised; for the book was a manuscript of the rarest and most precious kind,—containing all the secrets of the science of divination.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") After having thanked the young men, and properly expressed his regret for the death of their teacher, he went back to his hut, and there immediately proceeded to test the worth of the book by consulting its pages in regard to his own fortune.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") The book suggested to him that on the south side of his dwelling, at a particular spot near one corner of the hut, great luck awaited him.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") He dug at the place indicated, and found a jar containing gold enough to make him a very wealthy man.”[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") My old acquaintance left this world as lonesomely as he had lived in it.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") Last winter, while crossing a mountain-range, he was overtaken by a snowstorm, and lost his way.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") Many days later he was found standing erect at the foot of a pine, with his little pack strapped to his shoulders: a statue of ice—arms folded and eyes closed as in meditation.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") Probably, while waiting for the storm to pass, he had yielded to the drowsiness of cold, and the drift had risen over him as he slept.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") Hearing of this strange death I remembered the old Japanese saying,—\_Uranaiya minouyé shiradzu:\_ “The fortune-teller knows not his own fate.”[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") Silkworms[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") I[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") I was puzzled by the phrase, “silkworm-moth eyebrow,” in an old Japanese, or rather Chinese proverb:—\_The silkworm-moth eyebrow of a woman is the axe that cuts down the wisdom of man.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ So I went to my friend Niimi, who keeps silkworms, to ask for an explanation.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") “Is it possible,” he exclaimed, “that you never saw a silkworm-moth?[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") The silkworm-moth has very beautiful eyebrows.”[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") “Eyebrows?”[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") I queried, in astonishment.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") “Well, call them what you like,” returned Niimi;—“the poets call them eyebrows….[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") Wait a moment, and I will show you.”[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") He left the guest-room, and presently returned with a white paper-fan, on which a silkworm-moth was sleepily reposing.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") “We always reserve a few for breeding,” he said;—“this one is just out of the cocoon.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") It cannot fly, of course: none of them can fly….[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") Now look at the eyebrows.”[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") I looked, and saw that the antennae, very short and feathery, were so arched back over the two jewel-specks of eyes in the velvety head, as to give the appearance of a really handsome pair of eyebrows.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") Then Niimi took me to see his worms.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") In Niimi’s neighborhood, where there are plenty of mulberrytrees, many families keep silkworms;—the tending and feeding being mostly done by women and children.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") The worms are kept in large oblong trays, elevated upon light wooden stands about three feet high.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") It is curious to see hundreds of caterpillars feeding all together in one tray, and to hear the soft papery noise which they make while gnawing their mulberry-leaves.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") As they approach maturity, the creatures need almost constant attention.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") At brief intervals some expert visits each tray to inspect progress, picks up the plumpest feeders, and decides, by gently rolling them between forefinger and thumb, which are ready to spin.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") These are dropped into covered boxes, where they soon swathe themselves out of sight in white floss.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") A few only of the best are suffered to emerge from their silky sleep,—the selected breeders.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") They have beautiful wings, but cannot use them.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") They have mouths, but do not eat.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") They only pair, lay eggs, and die.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") For thousands of years their race has been so well-cared for, that it can no longer take any care of itself.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") It was the evolutional lesson of this latter fact that chiefly occupied me while Niimi and his younger brother (who feeds the worms) were kindly explaining the methods of the industry.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") They told me curious things about different breeds, and also about a wild variety of silkworm that cannot be domesticated:—it spins splendid silk before turning into a vigorous moth which can use its wings to some purpose.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") But I fear that I did not act like a person who felt interested in the subject; for, even while I tried to listen, I began to muse.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") II[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") First of all, I found myself thinking about a delightful revery by M. Anatole France, in which he says that if he had been the Demiurge, he would have put youth at the end of life instead of at the beginning, and would have otherwise so ordered matters that every human being should have three stages of development, somewhat corresponding to those of the lepidoptera.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") Then it occurred to me that this fantasy was in substance scarcely more than the delicate modification of a most ancient doctrine, common to nearly all the higher forms of religion.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") Western faiths especially teach that our life on earth is a larval state of greedy helplessness, and that death is a pupa-sleep out of which we should soar into everlasting light.[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") They tell us that during its sentient existence, the outer body should be thought of only as a kind of caterpillar, and thereafter as a chrysalis;—and they aver that we lose or gain, according to our behavior as larvæ, the power to develop wings under the mortal wrapping.[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") Also they tell us not to trouble ourselves about the fact that we see no Psyché-imago detach itself from the broken cocoon: this lack of visual evidence signifies nothing, because we have only the purblind vision of grubs.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") Our eyes are but half-evolved.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") Do not whole scales of colors invisibly exist above and below the limits of our retinal sensibility?[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") Even so the butterfly-man exists,—although, as a matter of course, we cannot see him.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") But what would become of this human imago in a state of perfect bliss?[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") From the evolutional point of view the question has interest; and its obvious answer was suggested to me by the history of those silkworms,—which have been domesticated for only a few thousand years.[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") Consider the result of our celestial domestication for—let us say—several millions of years: I mean the final consequence, to the wishers, of being able to gratify every wish at will.[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") Those silkworms have all that they wish for,—even considerably more.[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") Their wants, though very simple, are fundamentally identical with the necessities of mankind,—food, shelter, warmth, safety, and comfort.[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") Our endless social struggle is mainly for these things.[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") Our dream of heaven is the dream of obtaining them free of cost in pain; and the condition of those silkworms is the realization, in a small way, of our imagined Paradise.[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") (I am not considering the fact that a vast majority of the worms are predestined to torment and the second death; for my theme is of heaven, not of lost souls.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") I am speaking of the elect—those worms preördained to salvation and rebirth.)[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") Probably they can feel only very weak sensations: they are certainly incapable of prayer.[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") But if they were able to pray, they could not ask for anything more than they already receive from the youth who feeds and tends them.[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") He is their providence,—a god of whose existence they can be aware in only the vaguest possible way, but just such a god as they require.[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") And we should foolishly deem ourselves fortunate to be equally well cared-for in proportion to our more complex wants.[69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") Do not our common forms of prayer prove our desire for like attention?[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") Is not the assertion of our “need of divine love” an involuntary confession that we wish to be treated like silkworms,—to live without pain by the help of gods?[71](71/ "tree and pragmatics") Yet if the gods were to treat us as we want, we should presently afford fresh evidence,—in the way of what is called “the evidence from degeneration,”—that the great evolutional law is far above the gods.[72](72/ "tree and pragmatics") **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/4/page/2/) - ← previous: [Names of Incense Used., part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/3/) - next →: [page 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/4/page/2/) - ↑ back to [In Ghostly Japan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/)