bamboo-grass

And it is very pleasant to hear the greetings and to see the smiles of those who thus pass, -- the fine brown girls bearing trays, the dark laborers bowed under great burdens of bamboo-grass, -- _Bonjou ', Missié!

Two Years in the French West Indies Lafcadio Hearn 1877

Then after having twenty-one times purified his body, -- seven times washing with hot water, seven times with cold, and yet another seven times washing himself with a bundle of bamboo-grass, -- he thus prayed to the god: --

Kokoro Japanese Inner Life Hints Lafcadio Hearn 1877

_Kiyomidzu kosaka_ (the name of a place); _arare ni ozasa_ (hail on the leaves of the bamboo-grass); _itaya ni arare_ (hail following upon a wooden roof);

Kokoro Japanese Inner Life Hints Lafcadio Hearn 1877

* [* There are sandals or clogs made of bamboo-wood, but the meaning here is bamboo-grass.]

Japan: an Attempt at Interpretation Lafcadio Hearn 1877

One pictured the ghosts of faithless wives, for ages doomed to pluck, with bleeding fingers, the rasping bamboo-grass that grows by the Springs of Death; another showed the torment of the slanderer, whose tongue was torn by demon-pincers; in a third appeared the spectres of lustful men, vainly seeking to flee the embraces of women of fire, or climbing, in frenzied terror, the slopes of the Mountain of Swords.

Japan: an Attempt at Interpretation Lafcadio Hearn 1877

The women of his family were required to wear sandals with thongs of [167] bamboo-grass.

Japan: an Attempt at Interpretation Lafcadio Hearn 1877

'Tis because when he dwelt within her honoured womb, his mamma ate the leaves of the loquat, the leaves of the bamboo-grass, That is why his honourable ears are so long. '

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Second Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877

With finger-nails plucked out must they continue through centuries to pick the sharp-edged bamboo-grass.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan First Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877