when the thunder comes," because he sits upon a strong element,

Negative III. Shin has feeble breath. Free from calamity, if he goes timidly.

Interpretation. "Shin has a feeble breath," because his position is improper.

Positive IV, Moves, but at last sinks down.

Interpretation. "[Positive IV] moves, but at last sinks down," because he is not yet great..

Negative V. Shin is in danger in going and coming. [Negative V] is timid, but does not lose, and keeps his position.

Interpretation. "Shin is in danger in going and coming"-that is, it is dangerous to go.

position is retained, and no loss is met with.

Still a middle

Negative VI. Shin is in hurry, and the eyes are unsteady. Unlucky to advance. Shin does not touch his person, but it touches that of his neighbours. Free from blame. There will be murmur, if marriage is concluded,

Interpretation. "Shin is in hurry," because a middle position has not yet been obtained. Unlucky, but free from blame, because warning is taken from the neighbour.

EXAMPLES.

DIFFICULTY OF LORD

A retired Lord came and asked me to divine the end

of something which was pressing upon him.

I calculated and obtained the "Negative II" of "Shin (). "This hexagram consists of two 'shin' or eldest sons, and represents the quarrel of heritage between two eldest

sons.

I perceive that you are apt to inherit your house, and as you are retired when you are not yet thirty years of age, that which presses upon you must be a quarrel of heritage. Now the 'Negative II' is upon the strong element of the 'Positive I' as the master of vibration, so that you have been pressed to retire by an influential subject through more or less misconduct, and obliged to retire to an elevated ground somewhere about Yamanote; as it says, 'Negative II apprehends a danger when the thunder comes. He gets confused, and leaving his furnitures, he flies over nine hills.' But as we have the phrase 'without searching after the furnitures, he gets them in seven days,' your estate will be restored to you before long."

He was struck at the point, and said, "I am the eldest son of my family, but an illegitimate one, and the second son who is two years younger than myself, is the legitimate one. During the Revolution, my father died, and as I was the eldest of his sons, my subjects escorted me to Kyōto, and made me inherit my house. But af ter the Revolution, I went to Yokohama to study and as I was there a little profligous, they obtained a pretension of making my brother inherit, as he was then not too young. I was thus obliged to retire when I was twenty years of age. Though my mistakes are too late now to regret, yet the selfishness of my subjects has been too much, also. Besides the above, I have made one more mistake, which I shall now explain.

"There is a manghanese mine in my late dominion, and some from the military caste are engaged in raising that metal. But as their capitals were insufficient, they asked me to supply some more, and to make the industry more profitable. As I could not bear to pass my life away without being doing, I consented, and borrowed some money for a reasonable rate from a merchant of Yokohama. Since that time, the mining went

on very poorly, and my loan, accumulating its interest over interest, is become many times the original. I have no means of paying it, so that I was brought before the court and do not know now what is to be done. It will be all right, if my estate only is to be seized; but if the duty is to extend to the present master, I am afraid that my family will run into a bankruptcy. My subjects are very anxious of this matter, and they offered me to take a portion of the estate and separate from the house. As I do not like to waste the estate of my ancestors, I recived their offers, and a few days ago I separated and hired a house in Kōjimachi. I went then to the court, and owned that it was my fault to have signed my name in the bond as if I were the master of the house, in borrowing the money.

"As this case is unknown how to end, and as I am very much pressd by anxieties, I came here to be divined. You pierced through all my secrets, and told me that the estate though once lost can be restored, so that I have now found a comfort. Perhaps, it will be settled without exhausting my estate."

With this he took leave of me; but I have not yet been told of the result of the case.

WHERE HAVE MR. G. YAMADA'S PARENTS AND
SISTER GONE?

In 1885, my acquaintance Mr. M. Shigeki came to me, accompanied by his friend Mr. G. Yamada, and said, "Mr. Yamada was a subject of the Bakufu. After the defeat of the Eastern Army at the War of Ueno, in first year of Meiji, all his alliances were disheartened, so that they could not rally again, and he escaped with his family. He left his parents about sixty years of age and his sister thirteen years old, to his relative

at Iwakidaira of Mutsu, and then joined the Sendai Daimiate with his brother. When the Mutsu army was defeated at the war of Komagamine, Sōma, and Iwaki, the Sendai Daimiate was obliged to surrender to the Imperial Army, and the two brothers were captured and imprisoned in Tōkyō. At the time of the general amnesty, however, they were set free, and went to Iwakidaira in search of their parents and sister. The former to whom they had charged them told them that there the inhabitants were dispersed by a rage of war, that after the defeat of the Mutsu Army, the reserches of the Imperial Army became very severe, that their parents and sister too left there to escape the researches, and that he does not know where they did go to. The two brothers were greatly disappointed and as they did not know where to go in search of them, they returned to Tokyo. They have been endeavouring, as far as they could afford, to ascertain their welfare, up to the present time, but in vain. This is the most serious regret in life for the two brothers, of which they can not be at ease a single instant. I shall feel very much obliged, if you will divine it for Mr. Yamada." I took my "sticks" and obtained the "Negative VI” of “Shin ()," which says, "Shin is in hurry and the eyes are unsteady. Unlucky to advance. Shin does not touch his person, but it touches that of his neighbour. Free from blame. There will be murmur, if marriage is concluded." "Shin' is 'east,' and it has 'Kan which is 'north'. The Negative VI' is the unoccupied position and is beyond the water of the 'Positive IV. Thus, they must be somewhere about Miyagi, Iwate, Awomori, or Hokkaido, as the 'Negative VI' lies northeast from here, and beyond water. This hexagram has an emblem of two eldest sons of 'Shin's seeking the topmost negative, but it has no emblem of old father and mother,

so that the sister is still alive, but the parents are no more. Again, as the 'Negative VI' represents a position of extreme negative, the young woman will be in a secluded tract of country. If the two eldest sons of

'Shin' will go in an eager research of her, they will meet her, but the 'Lineation' teaches the evil of seeking her, though I do not know what conditions lie there between. Shin is in hurry' means that the two brothers are incessantly searching their sister. 'The eyes are unsteady' means, the woman on being searched out by her brothers is greatly troubled and perplexed. She will therefore feign herself to be another woman different from their sister, and will not relate her past life, as the 'Negative VI' is neither homologous nor adjacent with I and IV. She will try to avoid the research, so that it says, 'Unlucky to advance. Shin does not touch his person, but it touches that of his neighbour.'

"Nothing can be happier than the meeting between the brothers and the sister who have not seen each other for more than ten years. But now the meeting is cold as indicated; why? It is altogether unknown; that in escaping from Iwakidaira, what an imminent danger the parents and the sister met with; that how did they go all the way of the earth; that the sister who must be thirty-one years of age now is married to what kind of man; that what kind of connection made them wed together; all are hidden in darkness. Unless some special conditions exist in these affairs, there is no reason why she should fear and avoid her brothers. As it says "There will be murmur if marriage is concluded,' perhaps, a confusion will take place between her and her husband. If so, to search her is not only in vain. but also dangerous to her, as we have warning of 'Unlucky to advance.' If the feeling of affection cannot help you, and if you ever see her, you have to meet