The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn Volume I Part 26

I won't be away till June. Then I'll have some queer books in my satchel, and we'll talk the book over. I fear it is no use to discuss it beforehand, as I shall be overwhelmed with work. Another volume of the Talmud has come, and some books about music containing Chinese hymns. By the way, in Spencer's last volume there is an essay on musical origination. I have had only time to glance at it. Your Creole music lecture cannot fail to be extremely curious; wish I could _hear_ and see it. The melodies will certainly make a sensation if you have a good a.s.sortment. Did you borrow anything from Gottschalk?--I hope you did: the Bamboula used to drive the Parisians wild.

Thanks for the musical transcription. I'm afraid the project won't pan out, however. Trubner & Co. of London made an offer, but wanted me to guarantee the American sale of 100 copies--that means pay in advance. I would not perhaps have objected, if they had mentioned a low price; but when I tried to get them to come down to about 5s. per copy they did not write me any more.

Then I abandoned the pursuit of the Ignis Fatuus of Success, and withdrew into the Immensities and the Eternities, even as the rhinoceros withdraweth into the recesses of the jungle. And I gave myself up to the meditation of the Vedas and of the Puranas and of the Upanishads, and of the Egyptian Ritual of the Dead,--until the memory of magazines and of publishers faded out of my mind, even as the vision of demons.

Yours very truly, L. HEARN.

TO W. D. O'CONNOR

NEW ORLEANS, May, 1884.

MY DEAR O'CONNOR,--I did not get time until to-day to drop you a line; and just at present I am enthusiastically appreciating your observations regarding The Foul Fiend Routine. I wish I could escape from his brazen grip; and nevertheless he has done me service. He has stifled my younger and more foolish aspirations, and clipped the foolish wings of my earlier ambition with the sharp scissors of revision. It is true that I now regret my inability to achieve literary independence; but had I obtained a market for my wares in other years, I should certainly have been so ashamed of them by this time, that I should fly to some desert island. These meditations follow upon the incineration of several hundred pages of absurdities written some years back, and just committed to the holy purification of fire....

I am not, however, sorry for writing the fantastic ideas about love which you so thoroughly exploded in your letter; they "drew you out,"

and I wanted to hear your views. I suppose, however, that the mad excess is indulged in by every nation at a certain period of existence--perhaps the Senescent Epoch, as Draper calls it. What a curious article might be written upon "The Amorous Epochs of National Literatures,"--or something of that sort; dwelling especially upon the extravagant pa.s.sionateness of Indian, Persian, and Arabic belles-lettres,--and their offshoots! Not to bore you further with theories, however, I herewith submit another specimen of excess from the posthumous poetry of Gautier. It has been compared to those Florentine statuettes, which are kept in s.h.a.green cases, and only exhibited, whisperingly, by antiquaries to each other....

There is real marmorean beauty in the lines,--their sculpturesqueness saves them from lewdness. I think them more beautiful than Solomon's simile, or the extravagances of the Gita-Govinda.

June 29.

You see how busy I have been. And my brain seems so full of dust and hot sun and feverish vapours that it is hard to write at all.... I am thinking of what you said about Arnold's translating the Koran. There are two English translations besides Sale's--one in Trubner's Oriental Series, and one in Max Muller's "Sacred Books of the East" (Macmillan's beautiful edition). Sale's is chiefly objectionable because the _suras_ are not versified: the chapters not having been so divided in early times by figures. But it is horribly hard to find anything in it. The French have two superb versions: Kazimirski and La Beaume. Kazimirski is popular and cheap; the other is an a.n.a.lytical Koran of 800 4to pp. with concordance, and designed for the use of the Government bureaux in Algeria. I have it. It is unrivalled.

My book is out; and you will receive a copy soon. If you ever have time, please tell me if there is anything in it you like. It is not a gorgeous production,--only an experiment. I have a great plan in view: to popularize the legends of Islam and other strange faiths in a series of books. My next effort will be altogether Arabesque--treating of Moslem saints, singers, and poets, and hagiographical curiosities--eschewing such subjects as the pilgrimage to the _ribath_ (monastery) of Deir-el-Tiu in the Hedjaz, where fragments of the broken _aidana_ of Mahomet are kissed by the faithful....

I'm sorry to say I know little of Bacon except his Essays. Those surprised and pleased me. I started to read them only as a study of Old English; but soon found the ideas far beyond the century in which they were penned. You will be shocked, I fear, to know that I am terribly ignorant of cla.s.sic English literature,--of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Not having studied it much when at college, I now find life too short to study it,--except for style. When I want to clear mine,--as coffee is cleared by the white of an egg,--I pour a little quaint English into my brain-cup, and the Oriental extravagances are gradually precipitated. But I think a man must devote himself to one thing in order to succeed: so I have pledged me to the wors.h.i.+p of the Odd, the Queer, the Strange, the Exotic, the Monstrous. It quite suits my temperament. For example, my memories of early Roman history have become cloudy, because the Republic did not greatly interest me; but very vivid are my conceptions of the Augustan era, and great my delight with those writers who tell us how Hadrian almost realized that impossible dream of modern aesthetes, the resurrection of Greek art. The history of modern Germany and Scandinavia I know nothing about; but I know the Eddas and the Sagas, and the chronicles of the Heimskringla, and the age of Vikings and Berserks,--because these were mighty and awesomely grand. The history of Russia pleaseth me not at all, with the exception of such extraordinary episodes as the Dimitris; but I could never forget the story of Genghis Khan, and the nomad chiefs who led 1,500,000 hors.e.m.e.n to battle. Enormous and lurid facts are certainly worthy of more artistic study than they generally receive. What De Quincey told us in his "Flight of a Tartar Tribe" previous writers thought fit to make mere mention of.... But I'm rambling again.

I don't know whether I shall be able to go North as I hoped--I have so much private study before me. But I do really hope to see you some day.

Couldn't you get down to our Exposition?...

Did you ever read Symonds's "Greek Poets"? The final chapters on the genius of Greek art are simply divine. I mention them because of your observation about our being or not being ephemeral. I feel fearful we are. But Symonds says what I would have liked to say, so much better, that I would like to let him speak for me with voice of gold.

Very truly your friend, LAFCADIO HEARN.

TO H.E. KREHBIEL

NEW ORLEANS, June, 1884.

DEAR KREHBIEL,--I'm expecting every day to get some Griot music and some queer things, and have discovered an essay upon just the subject of subjects that interests Us:--the effect of physiological influences upon the history of nations, and "the physiological character of races in their relation to historical events." Wouldn't it be fine if we could write a scientific essay on Polynesian music in its manifestations of the physiological peculiarities of the island-races? Nothing would give me so much pleasure as to be able some day to write a most startling and stupefying preface to some treatise of yours upon exotic music--a preface nevertheless strictly scientific and correct. By the way, have you any information about Eskimo music? If you have, tell me when I see you. I have some singular songs with a _double-refrain_,--but no music,--which I found in Rink. Why the devil didn't Rink give us some melodies?

I am especially interested just now in Arabic subjects; but as I am following the Arabs into India, I find myself studying the songs of the bayaderes. They are very strange, and sometimes very pretty--sweetly pretty. Maisonneuve promised to publish some of this Indian music; but that was in '81, and we haven't got it yet. I have found curious t.i.tles in Trubner's collection; but I'm afraid the music isn't published--"Folk-Songs of Southern India," etc.

I want you to tell me how long you will stay in New York, as I would like to go there soon. The vacations are beginning. Don't fail to keep me posted as to your movements. How did you like the sonorous cry of the bel-balancier man?

Am writing in haste; excuse everything excusable.

Yours affectionately, L. HEARN.

A man ignorant of music is likely to say silly things without knowing it when writing to a professor; so you must excuse my faults on the ground of good will to you. I have just destroyed two pages which I thought might be waste of time to read.

TO H.E. KREHBIEL

NEW ORLEANS, June, 1884.

DEAR K.,--I want you to let me hear about old Blal for the following reasons:--

1. I have discovered that a biography of him--the only one in existence probably--may be found in Wustenfeld's "Nawawi," for which I have written. If the text is German I can utilize it with the aid of a _bouquiniste_ here.

2. I have been lucky enough to engage a copy of Ibn Khallikan in 24 volumes--the great Arabic biographer. It containeth legends. The book is dear but invaluable to an Oriental student,--especially to me in the creation of my new volume, which will be all Arabesques.

And here is another bit of news for you. My _Senegal_ books have thrown a torrent of light on the whole history of American slave-songs and superst.i.tions and folk-lore. I was utterly astounded at the revelation.

All that had previously seemed obscure is now lucid as day. Of course, you know the slaves were chiefly drawn from the _West Coast_; and the study of ethnography and ethnology of the West Coast races is absolutely essential to a knowledge of Africanism in America. As yet, however, I have but partly digested my new meal.

Siempre a V., LAFCADIO HEARN.

NEW ORLEANS, June, 1884.

DEAR K.,--Your letter has given me unspeakable pleasure. In making the acquaintance of Howells, you have met the subtlest and n.o.blest literary mind in this country,--scarcely excepting that prince of critics, Stedman; and you have found a friend who will aid you in climbing Parna.s.sus, not for selfish motives, but for pure art's sake.

Cultivate him all you can....

I got a nice letter from Ticknor. He actually promises to open the magazine-gates for me. And a curious coincidence is that the book is published on my birthday, next Friday.

I will write you before I start for New York in a few weeks more....

I will bring my African books with me, and other things.

Yours sincerely, LAFCADIO HEARN.

TO H. E. KREHBIEL

NEW ORLEANS, October, 1884.

DEAR KREHBIEL,--I sit down to write you the first time I have had leisure to do justice to the subject for a month.

Now I must tell you what I am doing. I have been away a good deal, in the Creole archipelagoes of the Gulf, and will soon be off again, to make more studies for my little book of sketches. I sent you the No. 2, as a sample. These I take as much pains with as with magazine work, and the plan is philosophical and pantheistic. Did you see "Torn Letters,"--(No. 1) about the _Biscayena_. The facts are not wholly true; I was very nearly in love--not quite sure whether I am not a little in love still,--but I never told her so. It is so strange to find one's self face to face with a beauty that existed in the Tertiary epoch,--300,000 years ago,--the beauty of the most ancient branch of humanity,--the oldest of the world's races! But the coasts here are just as I described them, without exaggeration,--and I am so enamoured of those islands and tepid seas that I would like to live there forever, and realize Tennyson's wish:--

"I will wed some savage woman; she shall rear my dusky race: Iron-jointed, supple-sinewed, they shall dive and they shall run,-- Catch the wild goat by the hair, and hurl their lances in the sun, Whistle back the parrot's call,--leap the rainbows of the brooks,-- Not with blinded eyesight poring over miserable books."

The islanders found I had one claim to physical superiority anyhow,--I could outswim the best of them with the greatest ease. And I have disciplined myself physically so well of late years, that I am no longer the puny little fellow you used to know.

All this is sufficiently egotistical. I just wanted, however, to tell you of my wanderings and their purpose. It was largely inspired by the new style of Pierre Loti--that young marine officer who is certainly the most original of living French novelists.

All this summer Page could not get away; so you will not have the pleasure of seeing my very n.o.ble and lovable friend,--a tall, fine, eagle-faced fellow, primitive Aryan type. I only got away on the pledge to give the results to the _T.-D._, which is giving me all possible a.s.sistance in my literary undertakings.

I was glad to receive Creole books, as I am working on Creole subjects.