Nadia Lavrova

“ Yet I elicited nothing much except what Ine San had already stated. The piece of wood was to be carefully preserved. The best way was to sew it inside a garment you wore most often. Then, if anything threatened your bodily welfare, mysterious forces would protect you. As a sign of danger averted, you would find the talisman split in two through the middle even if nothing had touched it. The hieroglyphs were an ancient exorcism to ward off evil. ”

“ Ine San could not know that all the time I was simply making a comparative study of Chinese and Japanese folk-lore, which is a very difficult thing for a white person to do, since one has first to gain the fullest confidence of one's yellow friend. ”

“ And only the fondness my little Japanese friend bore me could have made such an unlikely event possible.
"And what does the charm protect from?" I asked Ine San, not wanting to hurt her feelings and desirous to keep up an interest in the thing. Anyway, I reflected, it would do very nicely for my little curio collection.
"Him saves life, Missie," repeated Ine San. "You going get killed. You got that holy thing. You no get hurt and charm all break."
This was something new. I had never heard of such a talisman before, so I began asking questions. ”

“ And when, in the morning, we hastily donned native kimonos over our one-piece bathing suits and made a dash for the first plunge in the waters of the Pacific, we three lazy girls knew that by the time we came home our little house would be in perfect order and steaming hot coffee await us in Satsuma cups. ”

“ Sold for a few cents at an obscure ancient temple somewhere south of Tokyo, it could be secured only by a personal application to the priests.
Certainly it was never destined to fall into the impious hands of a white person such as myself. ”