flowers in that place never fade, and the fruits never fail; and if a man
taste of those fruits even but once, he can never again feel thirst or
hunger. In Horai grow the enchanted plants So-rin-shi, and Riku-go-aoi, and
Ban-kon-to, which heal all manner of sickness;-- and there grows also the
magical grass Yo-shin-shi, that quickens the dead; and the magical grass is
watered by a fairy water of which a single drink confers perpetual youth.
The people of Horai eat their rice out of very, very small bowls; but the
rice never diminishes within those bowls,-- however much of it be eaten,--
until the eater desires no more. And the people of Horai drink their wine
out of very, very small cups; but no man can empty one of those cups,--
however stoutly he may drink,-- until there comes upon him the pleasant
drowsiness of intoxication.



All this and more is told in the legends of the time of the Shin dynasty.
But that the people who wrote down those legends ever saw Horai, even in a
mirage, is not believable. For really there are no enchanted fruits which
leave the eater forever satisfied,-- nor any magical grass which revives
the dead,-- nor any fountain of fairy water,-- nor any bowls which never
lack rice,-- nor any cups which never lack wine. It is not true that sorrow
and death never enter Horai;-- neither is it true that there is not any
winter. The winter in Horai is cold;-- and winds then bite to the bone; and
the heaping of snow is monstrous on the roofs of the Dragon-King.


Nevertheless there are wonderful things in Horai; and the most wonderful
of all has not been mentioned by any Chinese writer. I mean the atmosphere
of Horai. It is an atmosphere peculiar to the place; and, because of it,
the sunshine in Horai is whiter than any other sunshine,-- a milky light