"Sir,you are not mistaken.Though now living as you find me,I was once a person of some distinction.My story is the story of a ruined life --ruined by my own fault.I used to be in the service of a daimyo;and my rank in that service was not inconsiderable.But I loved women and wine too well;and under the influence of passion I acted wickedly.My selfishness brought about the ruin of our house,and caused the death of many persons.Retribution followed me;and I long remained a fugitive in the land.Now I often pray that I may be able to make some atonement for the evil which I did,and to reestablish the ancestral home.But I fear that I shall never find any way of so doing.Nevertheless,I try to overcome the karma of my errors by sincere repentance,and by helping as afar as I can,those who are unfortunate."
Kwairyo was pleased by this announcement of good resolve;and he said to the aruji:--
"My friend,I have had occasion to observe that man,prone to folly in their youth,may in after years become very earnest in right living.In the holy sutras it is written that those strongest in wrong-doing can become,by power of good resolve,the strongest in right-doing.I do not doubt that you have a good heart;and I hope that better fortune will come to you.To-night I shall recite the sutras for your sake,and pray that you may obtain the force to overcome the karma of any past errors."
With these assurances,Kwairyo bade the aruji good-night;and his host showed him to a very small side-room,where a bed had been made ready.Then all went to sleep except the priest,who began to read the sutras by the light of a paper lantern.Until a late hour he continued to read and pray:then he opened a little window in his little sleeping-room,to take a last look at the landscape before lying down.The night was beautiful:there was no cloud in the sky:there was no wind;and the strong moonlight threw down sharp black shadows of foliage,and glittered on the dews of the garden.Shrillings of crickets and bell-insects (3)made a musical tumult;and the sound of the neighboring cascade deepened with the night.Kwairyo felt thirsty as he listened to the noise of the water;and,remembering the bamboo aqueduct at the rear of the house,he thought that he could go there and get a drink without disturbing the sleeping household.Very gently he pushed apart the sliding-screens that separated his room from the main apartment;and he saw,by the light of the lantern,five recumbent bodies --without heads!
For one instant he stood bewildered,--imagining a crime.But in another moment he perceived that there was no blood,and that the headless necks did not look as if they had been cut.Then he thought to himself:--"Either this is an illusion made by goblins,or I have been lured into the dwelling of a Rokuro-Kubi...(4)In the book Soshinki (5)it is written that if one find the body of a Rokuro-Kubi without its head,and remove the body to another place,the head will never be able to join itself again to the neck.And the book further says that when the head comes back and finds that its body has been moved,it will strike itself upon the floor three times,--bounding like a ball,--and will pant as in great fear,and presently die.Now,if these be Rokuro-Kubi,they mean me no good;--so I shall be justified in following the instructions of the book."...
He seized the body of the aruji by the feet,pulled it to the window,and pushed it out.Then he went to the back-door,which he found barred;and he surmised that the heads had made their exit through the smoke-hole in the roof,which had been left open.Gently unbarring the door,he made his way to the garden,and proceeded with all possible caution to the grove beyond it.He heard voices talking in the grove;and he went in the direction of the voices,--stealing from shadow to shadow,until he reached a good hiding-place.Then,from behind a trunk,he caught sight of the heads,--all five of them,--flitting about,and chatting as they flitted.They were eating worms and insects which they found on the ground or among the trees.Presently the head of the aruji stopped eating and said:--
"Ah,that traveling priest who came to-night!--how fat all his body is!When we shall have eaten him,our bellies will be well filled...I was foolish to talk to him as I did;--it only set him to reciting the sutras on behalf of my soul!To go near him while he is reciting would be difficult;and we cannot touch him so long as he is praying.But as it is now nearly morning,perhaps he has gone to sleep...Some one of you go to the house and see what the fellow is doing."
Another head --the head of a young woman --immediately rose up and flitted to the house,lightly as a bat.After a few minutes it came back,and cried out huskily,in a tone of great alarm:--
"That traveling priest is not in the house;--he is gone!But that is not the worst of the matter.He has taken the body of our aruji;and I do not know where he has put it."
At this announcement the head of the aruji --distinctly visible in the moonlight --assumed a frightful aspect:its eyes opened monstrously;its hair stood up bristling;and its teeth gnashed.Then a cry burst from its lips;and --weeping tears of rage --it exclaimed:--
"Since my body has been moved,to rejoin it is not possible!Then I must die!...And all through the work of that priest!Before I die I will get at that priest!--I will tear him!--I will devour him!...AND THERE HE IS --behind that tree!--hiding behind that tree!See him !--the fat coward!"...
