I noticed a small village in the distance, but before I reached it, rain began to fall and darkness closed in. I put up at a solitary farmer’s house for the night, and started again early next morning.
As I was plodding though the grass, I noticed a horse grazing by the roadside and a farmer cutting grass with a sickle. I asked him to do me the favor of lending me his horse. The farmer hesitated for a while, but finally with a touch of sympathy in his face, he said to me, ‘There are hundreds of cross-roads in the grass-moor. A stranger like you can easily go astray. This horse knows the way. You can send him back when he won’t go any further.’
So I mounted the horse and started off, when two small children came running after me. One of them was a girl named kasane, which means manifold. I thought her name was somewhat strange but exceptionally beautiful.
-Matsuo Basho
From: The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches
