The old Japanese, like the old Greeks, had their flower-spirits and their hamadryads, concerning whom some charming stories are told.  They also believed in trees inhabited by malevolent beings,—­goblin trees.  Among other weird trees, the beautiful tsubaki (Camellia Japonica) was said to be an unlucky tree;—­this was said, at least, of the red-flowering variety, the white-flowering kind having a better reputation and being prized as a rarity.  The large fleshy crimson flowers have this curious habit:  they detach themselves bodily from the stem, when they begin to fade; and they fall with an audible thud.  To old Japanese fancy the falling of these heavy red flowers was like the falling of human heads under the sword; and the dull sound of their dropping was said to be like the thud made by a severed head striking the ground.  Nevertheless the tsubaki seems to have been a favorite in Japanese gardens because of the beauty of its glossy foliage; and its flowers were used for the decoration of alcoves.  But in samurai homes it was a rule never to place tsubaki-flowers in an alcove during war-time.

The reader will notice that in the following ky[=o]ka—­which, as grotesques, seem to me the best in the collection—­the goblin-tsubaki is called furu-tsubaki, “old tsubaki.”  The young tree was not supposed to have goblin-propensities,—­these being developed only after many years.  Other uncanny trees—­such as the willow and the [’e]noki—­were likewise said to become dangerous only as they became old; and a similar belief prevailed on the subject of uncanny animals, such as the cat—­innocent in kittenhood, but devilish in age.

    Yo-arashi ni
  Chishiho itadaku
    Furu tsubaki,
  Hota-hota ochiru
  Hana no nama-kubi.

    [When by the night-storm is shaken the blood-crowned and
    ancient tsubaki-tree, then one by one fall the gory heads of
    the flowers, (with the sound of) hota-hota![61]]

[Footnote 61:  The word furu in the third line is made to do double duty,—­as the adjective, furu[i], “ancient”; and as the verb furu, “to shake.”  The old term nama-kuhi (lit., “raw head”) means a human head, freshly-severed, from which the blood is still oozing.]

    Kusa mo ki mo
  N[’e]mur[’e]ru koro no
    Sayo kaz[’e] ni,
  M[’e]hana no ugoku
  Furu-tsubaki kana!

[When even the grass and the trees are sleeping under the faint wind of the night,—­then do the eyes and the noses of the old tsubaki-tree (or “the buds and the flowers of the old tsubaki-tree”) move![62]]

[Footnote 62:  Two Japanese words are written, in kana, as “m[’e]”—­one meaning “a bud;” the other “eye.”  The syllables “hana” in like fashion, may signify either “flower” or “nose.”  As a grotesque, this little poem is decidedly successful.]

    Tomoshibi no
  Kag[’e] ayashig[’e] ni
    Miy[’e]nuru wa
  Abura shiborishi
  Furu-tsubaki ka-mo?