THE JAPANESE AND THEIR PARENTS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12420, 9 December 1908, Page 4

THE JAPANESE AND THEIR PARENTS.

.• ., ; The Jnpanese make, much of the duty, of ohildreii ; to parents. "In some^of. their popular stories they exaggerate the ; wbrileaoine> until it beconiea-absurdl :is a tri'pup rif subn. tales: called ' ' The Four-anJS-Twenty Paragons of Filial Piety," some of which Mr .."Basil HallUhamherlain collects .in Things Japanese?' 1 „'..' ■': ;•' *:^ Gee is the -story "of the paragon whose druelj:»itepmo.ther' was very fond of ißsbr^n spite of her harsh treatment, he lav naked on a frozen lake until his body-m'elted.ajiole in ;tie ice. He caught two fish tbat' same up to breathe^ and " set them Def nrer;hia .stepmother. Anoth^rj paragon lay "uncovered ' at. nignt- in >rder that 'the mosquitoes should "asten on him alone and allow his »teiits to slumber undisturbed. -Still andtlier, who was' extremeJy )oor, deterimned to saorifa'ce his own ihild.in* order tosave food to support lia aged mother. He "was ;.-, rewarded >y heaven with the discovery of a ossel tilled with gold, on which the family, lived >nappiiy ever i'tery . A foiirib, gave her - father a hance to escape while sbo clung to be' claws ■of -the: -'-tiger'' whidh was bout to devour him. - v ■ The drollest story of all is of Jbvaishi; "This r parag6p, although By.enty s years void, used io dress in abj 's clothes- and' sprawl about the bbr. His bb ject was piously to deade his parents, -who -.were more aan ninety years of; La^e, into . the lea; that .'"they-;" dould ; -not be - vary ld,..;afte"r all,? ?R«in.p;. : vtKßt •.'thpy'liad