Taro

“ But the beggar man saw nothing but a purse of silver lying before him on the ground, and, stooping to pick it up, Taro fell from his shoulder, the lantern went out, and the beggar man awoke by the roadside where he had fallen asleep, and Taro on the futon beside his father. ”

“ As the watering of fĭl-lang′ is through the special dispensation of Lu-ma′-wĭg, so the taro left by him in his garden school received from him a peculiar lease of life—it is perpetual. The people claim that all other taro beds must be planted annually. ”

“ Rai-Taro grew up straight and strong, the tallest, gayest boy of all that country-side. He was the delight of his foster-parents, and all the neighbours loved him. When he was ten years old he worked in the rice-fields like a man. He was the wonderful weather prophet. ”

“ Before they plant the first taro in a newly cleared field they invoke the souls of the dead to make the plants grow and prosper; and to propitiate these powerful spirits they bring valuable objects, such as boar's tusks and dog's teeth, into the field, in order that the ghosts may deck themselves with the souls of these ornaments, while at the same time they minister to the grosser appetites of the disembodied spirits by offering them a savoury mess of taro porridge. ”

“ But in spite of all the neighbours' croaking and grumbling, the first man persisted in his idea that the right thing for Taro to do was to try for the place, regardless of opposition. To every one who raised an objection, he answered wisely: "Don't you know the saying that 'Stupid people and scissors depend on the way they are used for their usefulness'; so even this Lazy Taro may change for the better if he is taken up to the capital and made to work. Let us all persuade him to go into service, and let him for pity's sake have a try at something or other. ”

“ The student will therefore perceive that it is an astrological system. In fact, the science of astrology is a part of the Taro, and was taken from it, in all probability, and is therefore not so perfect as the system of which it forms only a portion.
It is a well known saying in India that an Astrologer without clairvoyance is like a wife without a husband. So it is with the Taro. In order to use it with complete success, the artist must have attained to lucidity. ”

“ All occultists should know that the Taro rightly used is a source of the most perfect illumination and approach to divinity, whilst, perverted by the profane to mere worldly purposes, it becomes an instrument to drag them to still further degradation. To misuse the divine gifts of God, brings with it its own punishment, and renders them not only useless, but dangerous. The tree of knowledge may be one of good, but it may be also one of evil. ”

“ All nations have had or have a Taro. Even the Gypsies, who were an oriental Pariah race, brought a Taro with them when they first appeared in Europe. Hence, their fortune-telling proclivities. With them, it has become mere trickery and fraud, though, formerly at least, some of their women were clairvoyantes, and able to tell enough to astonish those who sought to learn the future of them. It was brought by the Moors through Spain to Italy, and it is still in daily use there with the full number of 78 cards, but only as a harmless game called Tarocchi. ”

“ Let us concede for the moment what some of us would be inclined to doubt, viz. that prayers and sacrifice offered to a human being, alive or dead, is religion; and let us enquire whether this form of religion is evolved out of magic. The magic here is quite clear: stones resembling taros are buried in the taro field to promote the growth of taros. That is an application of the principle that like produces like which might be employed by men who had never heard of ancestor worship or of any kind of religion, and who had never uttered prayers or offered sacrifices of any kind. ”

“ They knew that nothing whatever happens by chance, and that if, under certain conditions, man’s imagination and will are concentrated upon any subject he wishes to know, what may appear as a fortuitous disposition of the leaves of the Taro, becomes to the seer an open book in which he may read an answer to the question seriously occupying his mind. The leaves or cards are placed in the form of a circle, which consists of four trines. 4x3=12, or the 12 signs of the zodiac, or 12 houses of heaven. In the center are placed the four modes of conceiving creative unity or the four aces. ”

“ Taro is a vegetable somewhat resembling the calla-lily, the roots of which are good for food.
There are two kinds of it,—wet and dry. The wet is grown under water. Square beds are made, two or more feet deep, in which the taro is planted; then the water is let in at one end, and flows out of the other, thus keeping running water upon the bed all the time. It requires about a year for the plant to get its growth. The natives bake the root in their stone ovens, which are large holes in the ground. ”

“ The youth’s heart gave a bound, for he was Taro.
“Oh, troublesome!” impatiently cried a god. “Again comes that name!”
“We need not haste. He has no one to arrange for him,” said another.
“His name must go uncoupled for another year,” came from a distant corner. “There is no maiden left.”
“Wait!” spoke the first voice. “In Chestnut Village a girl has just been born in the house of the village master. The family is of higher class, but let us give her to Taro. Then our work will be done.”
“Yes! yes!” cried all the gods. ”

“ And many did eat of the roots, and found them good indeed, for the name of the plant is Taro, which is the chief of all food. Thus was it that taro came to us, and for this reason is it that the people of Bolanai have it ever in their gardens in plenty and of great size. ”

“ Some look dull and indifferent to what is taking place, others are weeping, and others look well pleased. Taro tells us that they are the wives of the king. Several men stand near them; ropes are cast round their necks, and suddenly, before we have time to rescue them, as we feel inclined to do, five of them are strangled, and fall dead corpses on the ground. ”

“ Further, the same writers observe that "the trees were idols for the people and for the chiefs. If a man had for his idol the ohia tree, the ohia was taboo for him; if the bread-fruit tree was the idol of another, the bread-fruit tree was taboo for him. The taboo existed likewise for all the trees out of which men had made divine images, and it was the same also for food. If taro was a person's idol, taro was taboo for him. It was the same for all the eatables of which they had made gods." ”

“ When the sun rose far out to sea many moons after, a little son was born to them, and they loved him dearly. And it came to pass that on a day the mother went to the gardens to dig taro for the evening meal, and the man lay in the house asleep with his little son beside him. Then crept in the girl who was a witch, and in her hand she held a sharp stone with which to kill the man whom she would have married. ”

“ The dry-land planting of taro at this time is similar to what our grandparents did in the past, for the first thing to do is to burn off the field; that being done well, the stones are all thrown aside along the borders of the field; the act of digging holes for the plants is then begun; taro-tops are planted; the taro-tops that are to be set out at this day are the same as planted by the ancients ”

“ At the end of three years the feudal Daimio of Shinano, who always lived in the capital, advertised for a man-servant who was young and strong. One of Taro's kindest neighbours suggested that this was a good opportunity for Taro to make a beginning and that he ought to apply for the place. But others shook their heads and said that Taro was a good-for-nothing fellow, who would never do any good in the world—he would only be a trouble wherever he went. ”

“ And he would eat off costly trays of lacquer, and the dishes and bowls should be of the finest porcelain, and the servants who glided through the rooms to serve him should be beautiful maidens clothed in silk and crape and brocade, daughters of ancient families, glad to enter his house, so that they might learn the etiquette and manners of a princely house. Such were the day-dreams and visions of Lazy Taro. ”

“ The oldest son, named Taro, was now twenty years old, of manly figure, diligent in study, and had lately acted as a high page, attending daily upon the person of Hitotsu-bashi, the then reigning Shô-gun, and the last of his line that held or will hold regal power in Japan. Taro, being the oldest son of his father, was the heir to his house, office, rank and revenue. Taro wanted a wife. He wished to taste the sweets of love and wedded joy. He had long thought of Kiku. Of course he asked his father, and his father "was willing." He told Taro to go to Nakayama's house. Taro went. ”

“ They don't have to be polite," Taro explained.
"Well, you can roar," said Take, "but I shall play I'm a polite lady giant taking a walk in my garden! My head is in the clouds, and every step I take is a mile long!"
She picked up her kimono. She turned her little nose up to the sky, and took a very long step. ”

“ Amama, ua noa, lele wale hoi.”
The farmer then waits for the taro to ripen; when it is matured he proceeds to his taro patches and stands on the bank, calling to the god of husbandry, praying281 thus: “O Kukeolowalu, the taro is luxuriant; like the banana stem are the stalks of the taro; the leaves of our taro are as large as the bananas. Say, Kukeolowalu, when man is among our taro he is lost from sight. ”

“ He comes from an island called New Zealand, where the inhabitants are terribly fierce, and undoubted cannibals. I asked Taro whether he had ever eaten any of his fellow-creatures. He nodded, laughing, and I doubt not, from the expression of his countenance, that he had often done so, and would not hesitate in again indulging in such a practice. Though living so long among men professing to be Christians, he is still a heathen in all his thoughts and ways. I asked him one day how this was. His answer was simple: “They say and do just what heathen man say and do. They no pray to their God ”

“ In Paris, an elaborate pack of Taro cards may be bought for eight francs with a book. of instructions by the notorious and illiterate whilom barber, Etteilla, entitled, “Art de tirer les Cartes.” It is used by ladies and others “pour dire la bonne fortune.” It is a mere fortune-telling affair, of little or no use to the student of true occultism. It is almost needless to say that the French and Italian Taros, as now made, are very imperfect. The Italian was once made properly in Marseilles with the right colours, which is a very important part, but we are told that this manufacture has ceased. ”

“ The inner circle depicts a triple Tau with a hexagram where the bases join, and beneath is the Ace of Cups. Within the external circle are the letters TARO, and about this figure as a whole are grouped the symbols of the Four Living Creatures, the Ace of Wands, Ace of Swords, the letter Shin, and a magician’s candle, which is identical, according to Lévi, with the lights used in the Goetic Circle of Black Evocations and Pacts. ”

“ And in order that the taro may bear large and heavy fruit, they place the shoots, before planting them, on a large and heavy block of stone, believing that the stone will communicate its valuable properties of size and weight to the future fruit. Moreover, great use is made of spells and incantations to promote the growth of the crops, and all persons who utter such magical formulas for this purpose have to abstain from eating certain foods until the plants have sprouted and give promise of a good crop. ”

“ Persons who reach a certain stage of lucidity have only to provide blank pasteboards of the required number and the missing designs will be furnished by superior intelligences. Meanwhile, America is still awaiting the fulfilment of the concluding forecast, that some few will ere long have so far developed in that country “as to be able to read perfectly... in that perfect and divine sybilline work, the Taro.” Perhaps the cards which accompany the present volume will give the opportunity and the impulse!
XV ”

“ Taro is the Colocasia antiquorum.
His system of agriculture is in perfect adaptation to his social and political institutions. Living as he does in a state of eternal vigilance, and knowing that the first death in the house or an unlucky combination of omens or the menaces of his enemies may drive him from his home and from his farm, he is content with a small clearing. He builds no embankments, no irrigation ditches, no terraces. He has no plows, nor draft animals. ”

“ Sometimes we sat down at this table to a feast consisting of hot rolls—as Peterkin called the newly baked bread-fruit—a roast pig, roast duck, boiled and roasted yams, cocoa-nuts, taro, and sweet potatoes; which we followed up with a dessert of plums, apples, and plantains—the last being a large-sized and delightful fruit, which grew on a large shrub or tree not more than twelve feet high, with light-green leaves of enormous length and breadth. These luxurious feasts were usually washed down with cocoa-nut lemonade. ”

“ Even in this its mutilated and imperfect condition, in many villages even in England, there are still elderly women who by it do foretell, accurately enough, small events about to happen in the lives of simple village folk. These small predictions are of vast importance to them. The only explanation of this is, that these women by constantly contemplating the cards and concentrating their attention on a certain class of subjects do become clairvoyantes sufficiently to foresee some small events, aided by what remains in this imperfect Taro, of what may be called its once divine origin. ”