japanese tales of mystery and imagination by edogawa rampo

THE TRAVELER WITH THE PASTED RAG PICTURE

IF TRAS STORY I AM ABOUT TO tell was not a dream or a series ofhallucinations, then that traveler with the pasted rag picture musthave been mad. Or it may even be that I actually did catch a glimpseof one corner of another world as if through a magic crystal, just as a dreamoften carries one into the realms of the supernatural, or as a madman sees andhears things which we, the normal, are quite incapable of perceiving.

One warm, cloudy day in the dim past, I was on my way home from asight-seeing trip to Uotsu, the town on the Japan Sea noted for its manymirages. Whenever I tell this story, those who know me well often contradictme, pointing out that I have never been to Uotsu. Then I find myself in agreater quandary than ever, for I do not have even a shred of evidence toprove that I have actually been there, and I begin to ask myself: "Was it only adream after all?"

But, if so, how account for the vivid colors I distinguished in the "dream"?It is well known, as all dreamers will agree, that scenes which appear on thescreen of the subconscious mind are quite devoid of color, like the flickeringsof a black-and-white motion picture. But even now that scene of the interiorof the railway carriage flashes back vividly to my mind, especially the garishrag picture with its striking colors of purple and crimson, with the dark,piercing, snake-like eyes of the two figures depicted there.

It had only been a short time previously that I had seen a mirage for thefirst time in my life. Originally I had expected a mirage to be something likean ancient painting-perhaps a beautiful palace floating serenely on a sea ofmist-but at the sight of a real mirage, I was startled, to say the least. There,at Uotsu, under the gnarled branches of old pine trees lining the silvery beach,I and a large group of other visitors gazed expectantly at the expansive skyand sea. Never had any sea seemed so unnaturally devoid of sound. It was aneerie and ominous gray, without even a ripple, looking more like an endlessswamp.

Gazing as far as my eyes could reach, I noticed that there was no linemarking the horizon, for sea and sky were merged into a thick, grayish haze.And above this haze, a large, ghost-like, white sail suddenly loomed, glidingalong smoothly and serenely.

As for the mirage itself, it seemed as though a few drops of India ink hadbeen spilt on the surface of a milk-colored film and then projectedenormously against the sky. The forests of the distant Noto Peninsula werevaguely and enormously magnified, like black worms placed under amicroscope and seen through a badly focused lens. At times it also took onthe aspect of a strangely shaped cloud. But the location of a real cloud isclearly distinguishable, whereas in this case I discovered that the distancebetween the mirage and its observer was oddly immeasurable. Thisuncertainty of distance made the mirage even more eerie than I had everimagined it would be.

Sometimes the mirage took the form of a horrible ogre floating in thedistant sky; then, swiftly, it would assume another hazy and monstrous shapelooming inches away from my face. At other times, it was like a huge,blackish dot seen directly before my eyes. A moment later, a mammoth-sized,quivering triangle would begin to grow bit by bit; then, suddenly, it too wouldcollapse without warning. Quickly, the same indescribable mass would appearagain, this time stretching horizontally and running like a long train. Butagain the shape would scatter before it could be brought properly into focus,transforming itself into something resembling a row of fir trees.

And yet, despite all these changes of form, each transitional process wasso subtle and gradual as to be imperceptible. Perhaps the magical power ofthis mirage had bewitched us all. If so, then it may well have been that thesame uncanny power continued to hold me in its grasp even on the traincarrying me homeward. After standing and staring at the mysterious scenesprojected on the sky for two hours on end, I must say that I was in a mostpeculiar frame of mind as I left Uotsu for the night's journey home.'