girl in the village in which the priest's temple was situated was
about to have a child. She would not confess to her angry father the
name of her lover. At last she attributed her condition to the greatly
honoured priest. Her father was astonished but he was also glad that
his daughter was in the favour of so eminent a man. So he went to the
priest and said that he brought him good tidings: the girl whom he had
deigned to notice was about to have a child. The father went on to
express at length his sense of obligation to the priest for the honour
done to his family. All the priest said in reply was, _So desuka_? (Is
that so?) Soon after the birth of the child the girl besought her
father to marry her to a certain young farmer. The father, proud of
the association with the priest, refused. Finally the girl told her
parent that it was not the priest but the young farmer who was the
father of her child. The parent was aghast and chagrined as he
recalled the terms in which he had addressed the saintly man. He
betook himself at once to the temple and expressed in many words his
feelings of shame and deep contrition. The priest heard him out, but
all he said was, _So desuka_?

Yamagata signifies "shape of a mountain" and Akita means "autumn rice
field." Although Akita prefecture is mountainous there is a greater
proportion of level land in it than in Yamagata. I find "Rice, rice,
rice" written in my notebook. An agricultural expert gave me to
understand that fifteen per cent. of the farmers were probably living
on rents or on the dividends of silk factories, that 55 or 60 per
cent. were of the middle grade with an annual income of 300 yen, that
25 or 30 per cent. had about 150 yen--the lowest sum on which a family
could be supported--and that there were 3 or 4 per cent. of farm
labourers who earned less than 150 yen. There had been much paddy
adjustment and the prefecture was spending 300,000 yen a year for the