CONTENTS


THE ROMANCE OF THE MILKY WAY 1

GOBLIN POETRY 51

"ULTIMATE QUESTIONS" 103

THE MIRROR MAIDEN 125

THE STORY OF IT[=O] NORISUKÉ 139

STRANGER THAN FICTION 167

A LETTER FROM JAPAN 179




INTRODUCTION


Lafcadio Hearn, known to Nippon as Yakumo Koizumi, was born in
Leucadia in the Ionian Islands, June 27, 1850. His father was an Irish
surgeon in the British Army; his mother was a Greek. Both parents died
while Hearn was still a child, and he was adopted by a great-aunt,
and educated for the priesthood. To this training he owed his
Latin scholarship and, doubtless, something of the subtlety of