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all on board, they had now a favorable wind, sail was set, and they made a good day’s run. The next two days they were again stormbound, but on the 29th, they proceeded on their voyage. On the 30th they crossed the entrance to the Naruto passsage, and the same night, by dint of hard rowing they reached the strait of Idzumi. They had now reached the Gokinai, or five provinces round Kiôtô and here there was no longer any fear of pirates. They first day of the second month they made little way, and on the second we have the following entry. “The rain and wind ceased not; a whole day and a whole night we prayed to the Kami and Hotoke.” On the next day the weather was equally bad, and on the fourth the captain would not put to sea from a fear of bad weather which proved quite groundless. There were a great many beautiful shells on the beach at this place, and Tsurayuki composed these lines in allusion to a shell which is called in Japanese the wasure-gai or shell of forgetfulness.
“I would descend from my ship to gather the shell of forgetfulness of one for whom I am filled with sorrowful longing. Do ye, oh ye advancing surges drive it forward to the strand.”
He afterwards says that the true wish of his heart was not to forget her whom he had lost, but only to give such respite to his sorrow that it might afterwards gain greater strength.
The record of the 5th contains a passage which has some philological interest as giving a specimen of the spoken language at this period. Tsurayuki noticed that a chance order of the captain to his sailors was really a line of poetry of the regular number of 31 syllables. The order was as follows:—
Mifune yori | ohose-tabu nari | asagita no | ide-konu suki ni | tsuna de haya hike.
“Thus it is ordered from the august ship; (i. e. by Tsurayuki, the owner) before the morning north-wind comes forth, make haste and haul the ship along with a tow-rope.” The only form here which
