Part 4 (1/2)
”Reverend Sir, there is no priest and there is no anjitsu on the hill.
For the time of many generations there has not been any resident-priest in this neighborhood.”
Muso said nothing more on the subject; for it was evident that his kind hosts supposed him to have been deluded by some goblin. But after having bidden them farewell, and obtained all necessary information as to his road, he determined to look again for the hermitage on the hill, and so to ascertain whether he had really been deceived. He found the anjitsu without any difficulty; and, this time, its aged occupant invited him to enter. When he had done so, the hermit humbly bowed down before him, exclaiming:--”Ah! I am ashamed!--I am very much ashamed!--I am exceedingly ashamed!”
”You need not be ashamed for having refused me shelter,” said Muso.
”You directed me to the village yonder, where I was very kindly treated; and I thank you for that favor.
”I can give no man shelter,” the recluse made answer;--and it is not for the refusal that I am ashamed. I am ashamed only that you should have seen me in my real shape,--for it was I who devoured the corpse and the offerings last night before your eyes... Know, reverend Sir, that I am a jikininki, [1]--an eater of human flesh. Have pity upon me, and suffer me to confess the secret fault by which I became reduced to this condition.
”A long, long time ago, I was a priest in this desolate region. There was no other priest for many leagues around. So, in that time, the bodies of the mountain-folk who died used to be brought here,--sometimes from great distances,--in order that I might repeat over them the holy service. But I repeated the service and performed the rites only as a matter of business;--I thought only of the food and the clothes that my sacred profession enabled me to gain. And because of this selfish impiety I was reborn, immediately after my death, into the state of a jikininki. Since then I have been obliged to feed upon the corpses of the people who die in this district: every one of them I must devour in the way that you saw last night... Now, reverend Sir, let me beseech you to perform a Segaki-service [2] for me: help me by your prayers, I entreat you, so that I may be soon able to escape from this horrible state of existence”...
No sooner had the hermit uttered this pet.i.tion than he disappeared; and the hermitage also disappeared at the same instant. And Muso Kokus.h.i.+ found himself kneeling alone in the high gra.s.s, beside an ancient and moss-grown tomb of the form called go-rin-is.h.i.+, [3] which seemed to be the tomb of a priest.
MUJINA
On the Akasaka Road, in Tokyo, there is a slope called Kii-no-kuni-zaka,--which means the Slope of the Province of Kii. I do not know why it is called the Slope of the Province of Kii. On one side of this slope you see an ancient moat, deep and very wide, with high green banks rising up to some place of gardens;--and on the other side of the road extend the long and lofty walls of an imperial palace.
Before the era of street-lamps and jinrikishas, this neighborhood was very lonesome after dark; and belated pedestrians would go miles out of their way rather than mount the Kii-no-kuni-zaka, alone, after sunset.
All because of a Mujina that used to walk there. (1)
The last man who saw the Mujina was an old merchant of the Kyobas.h.i.+ quarter, who died about thirty years ago. This is the story, as he told it:--
One night, at a late hour, he was hurrying up the Kii-no-kuni-zaka, when he perceived a woman crouching by the moat, all alone, and weeping bitterly. Fearing that she intended to drown herself, he stopped to offer her any a.s.sistance or consolation in his power. She appeared to be a slight and graceful person, handsomely dressed; and her hair was arranged like that of a young girl of good family. ”O-jochu,” [1] he exclaimed, approaching her,--”O-jochu, do not cry like that!... Tell me what the trouble is; and if there be any way to help you, I shall be glad to help you.” (He really meant what he said; for he was a very kind man.) But she continued to weep,--hiding her face from him with one of her long sleeves. ”O-jochu,” he said again, as gently as he could,--”please, please listen to me!... This is no place for a young lady at night! Do not cry, I implore you!--only tell me how I may be of some help to you!” Slowly she rose up, but turned her back to him, and continued to moan and sob behind her sleeve. He laid his hand lightly upon her shoulder, and pleaded:--”O-jochu!--O-jochu!--O-jochu!...
Listen to me, just for one little moment!... O-jochu!--O-jochu!”...
Then that O-jochu turned around, and dropped her sleeve, and stroked her face with her hand;--and the man saw that she had no eyes or nose or mouth,--and he screamed and ran away. (2)
Up Kii-no-kuni-zaka he ran and ran; and all was black and empty before him. On and on he ran, never daring to look back; and at last he saw a lantern, so far away that it looked like the gleam of a firefly; and he made for it. It proved to be only the lantern of an itinerant soba-seller, [2] who had set down his stand by the road-side; but any light and any human companions.h.i.+p was good after that experience; and he flung himself down at the feet of the soba-seller, crying out, ”Ah!--aa!!--aa!!!”...
”Kore! kore!” (3) roughly exclaimed the soba-man. ”Here! what is the matter with you? Anybody hurt you?”
”No--n.o.body hurt me,” panted the other,--”only... Ah!--aa!”
”--Only scared you?” queried the peddler, unsympathetically. ”Robbers?”
”Not robbers,--not robbers,” gasped the terrified man... ”I saw... I saw a woman--by the moat;--and she showed me... Ah! I cannot tell you what she showed me!”...
”He! (4) Was it anything like THIS that she showed you?” cried the soba-man, stroking his own face--which therewith became like unto an Egg... And, simultaneously, the light went out.
ROKURO-KUBI
Nearly five hundred years ago there was a samurai, named Isogai Heidazaemon Taketsura, in the service of the Lord Kikuji, of Kyushu.
This Isogai had inherited, from many warlike ancestors, a natural apt.i.tude for military exercises, and extraordinary strength. While yet a boy he had surpa.s.sed his teachers in the art of swordsmans.h.i.+p, in archery, and in the use of the spear, and had displayed all the capacities of a daring and skillful soldier. Afterwards, in the time of the Eikyo [1] war, he so distinguished himself that high honors were bestowed upon him. But when the house of Kikuji came to ruin, Isogai found himself without a master. He might then easily have obtained service under another daimyo; but as he had never sought distinction for his own sake alone, and as his heart remained true to his former lord, he preferred to give up the world. So he cut off his hair, and became a traveling priest,--taking the Buddhist name of Kwairyo.