Shank's Mare Page 10

  He took Yaji's hand and drew him away and they both sneaked off.

  'Ha-ha-ha!' laughed the ferrymen. 'What idiots they are!'

  'I didn't make a hit that time,' grumbled Yaji. 'Botheration!'

  Laughing they hastened to the bank of the river, where they found the ferry crowded with people of all ranks. Amid the sound of many disputes they settled the price for the raft and started to cross. Soon their eyes were dizzy by the sight of the rolling waters of the river. So frightened were they that they thought at every moment they would lose their lives. There is, indeed, no more dreadful place on the Tokaidō than the River Ōi, the swift current of which sends great rocks rolling down and threatening to smash you every moment.

  But in a short time they had crossed the river and had alighted from the raft. How glad they were!

  Soon they reached Kanaya.

  'Come in and rest,' called the girls at the wayside teahouses. 'Come in and rest.'

  'Won't you have a ride, sir?' said a carrier. 'I'm on my way back.'

  'What do you say, Yaji?' said Kita. 'Shall we ride?'

  'I don't feel like it,' said Yaji. 'You can ride if you like.'

  'Then I'll ride as far as Nissaka,' said Kita.

  After fixing the price he got in. It was raining on and off but there was an old piece of matting over the kago to keep out the rain. On Kikugawa Hill they met two or three pilgrims.

  'Ah the waves that beat the shore in far Kumano!' chanted the pilgrims. 'Please give us a copper, master,' they added.

  'Don't bother,' said Kita.

  'Oh, please, wealthy master, do please throw us a copper,' they cried.

  'Didn't I tell you not to bother me, you rascals,' said Kita.

  'Who are you calling rascals?' cried the pilgrims. 'Rascal yourself.'

  'Beggars!' shouted Kita.

  But just as he was swelling himself out with pride, somehow or other the bottom of the kago came out and he fell on the road with a bang.

  'Oh, oh, oh!' he howled.

  'Ha-ha-ha!' laughed the pilgrims.

  'Deary me!' said the carriers. 'Hope you haven't hurt yourself, sir.'

  'What did you rascals want to put me in a kago like that for?' groaned Kita.

  'Very sorry, sir,' said the bearers. 'What shall we do?'

  'Go and borrow another one, —a good one,' said Kita.

  'There's no place to borrow one on this hill,' said the bearers.

  'I know what to do,' said one of them. 'Take off your loincloth, mate.'

  'What are you going to do?' said his mate.

  'I'll show you,' said the other.

  He took off his own loin-cloth and tied it to his mate's, and tied them both round the kago, under the matting.

  'Please get in,' he said.

  'How absurd!' said Kita. 'You don't suppose I'm going to ride in a thing like that, do you?'

  'Well, there's nothing else we can do,' said the carriers. 'It's quite safe. You could go to sleep in it without any danger of falling. Please put up with it for a little.'

  As they seemed anxious to please him and the incident would serve for laughter in the future, Kita got in.

  'Ha-ha-ha!' laughed Yaji. 'It looks like a funeral, you going along in a kago tied up with a white cloth.'

  'Eh?' said Kita. 'Don't say such things.'

  'No, it can't be a corpse,' continued Yaji. 'It can speak. It must be a criminal going to punishment.'

  'That's worse,' said Kita. 'I'm going to get out.'

  He got out of the kago and paid the men for as far as they had come.

  Walking along they were overtaken by constant showers, which made the hills slippery, but at last they reached Sayo-no-Naka-yama. This place is famous for its white rice-cakes, which are rice-cakes with syrup inside.

  While they were having some sake and eating two or three of these rice-cakes, the rain came down worse than ever.

  From there they went down the hill till they reached Nissaka, the rain coming down harder and harder till it was impossible to go on, as everything was blotted out. Finally they took refuge under the eaves of an inn.

  'How annoying!' said Yaji. 'Such terrible rain!'

  'Well, we're not willow-trees to be planted by the road side,' said Kita. 'We can't stand under the eaves of people's houses for ever. What do you think, Yaji? We've crossed the River Ōi. Don't you think we might stop here for the night?'

  'What?' said Yaji. 'Don't talk nonsense! It can't be two o'clock yet. It would be absurd to stop now.'

  Then the old landlady came out of the inn.

  'You can't go on in this rain,' she said. 'Please stop here.'

  'I think we ought to,' said Kita. 'I say, Yaji, look! There are some women stopping in the back room there.'

  'Eh?' said Yaji. 'Where? That's interesting.'

  'Won't your honours stop here?' repeated the old woman.

  'Well, suppose we do,' said Yaji.

  They went in and washed their feet, and were soon conducted to a room at the bade next to the one where they had. seen the women.

  'If you have some hot water just bring a cupful,' said Yaji to the maid.

  'Ay, ay, your honour,' replied the maid.

  'I thought she said "Fie, fie," ' said Kita. 'Gave me quite a turn.'

  The maid brought the hot water directly.

  'I say, Kita,' said Yaji, 'just give me the medicine we bought yesterday.'

  'Which do you mean?' said Kita. 'The feel-bad pills? Wait a bit. Shall I give you a pinch of the ants' walk?'

  'Don't be a fool,' said Yaji. 'I've got an awful pain in my belly.'

  'That's because you've got the bots,' said Kita. 'You ought to eat some horse beans to cure it.'

  'Shut up with your silly jokes and get it out quick,' said Yaji.

  'Well, seriously,' said Kita, 'you'd better have some of the Tamachi tonic pills. Hold out your hand.'

  'I'll take two,' said Yaji.

  He put them into his mouth and crunched them up.

  'Oh, oh!' he cried, 'this is pepper. Whew, how hot it is!'

  'Ha-ha-ha!' laughed Kita. 'Wait a moment. No, there's nothing else. Yes, there is. Here's some brocade-bag pills. Will that do?'

  'It's so dark with the screens shut,' said Yaji, 'I can't see.' He let in some more light and then chewed up the pills.

  'What have you given me this time?' he asked. 'Ugh!'

  'Let's look,' said Kita. 'Oh, that's Kwannon.'

  'Then I've chawed off Kwannon's head,' said Yaji. 'Ha-ha-ha.'

  'Will you have something to eat now?' asked the maid.

  'No, we'll have supper instead,' said Kita.

  'What a chatterer you are,' said Yaji. 'Do be quiet. Talk silently can't you.'

  'Fancy making a row silently!' said Kita.

  Then the supper trays were brought in and they set to work to eat, uttering all sorts of jokes.

  'By the way,' said Yaji to the maid, 'the guests in the back room are women, aren't they? Who are they?'

  'They're witches,' said the maid.

  'What, witches?' said Kita. 'That's interesting. Let's call up somebody.'

  'It's too late, isn't it?' said Yaji. 'They won't come after four o'clock.'

  'It's only a little past two,' said the maid.

  'Well, just ask them,' said Yaji. 'I'd like to have a talk with my dead wife.'

  'Fancy wanting to do that!' said Kita.

  'I'll ask them afterwards,' said the maid.

  So when the meal was finished she went into the next room to ask the witches. They agreed, and Yaji and Kita were conducted into their room. There the witches produced the usual box and arranged it, while the maid, who knew what was wanted, drew some water and brought it in.

  Yaji, with his mind fixed on his departed wife, poured some water over the anise leaves and the younger witch began to invoke the gods.

  'First of all,' she chanted, 'I reverently call upon Bonten and Taishaku and the four gods of Heaven, and in the underworld the great Emma and the five attend
ants who wait on him. Of our country's gods I invoke the Seven Gods of Heaven and the Five Gods of Earth, and of the gods of Isé, Amaterasu Ōmikami, and the forty descendants of the Outer Shrine and the eight descendants of the Inner Shrine. I invoke the god of Rain, the God of Wind, the God of the Moon and the God of the Sun, the God of the North Shrine of the Benku Mirror, and the spirit of the great Sun Goddess of Ama-no-iwato, and Kokuzō, the God of Ten Thousand Good Fortunes of Asama-ga-daké, and the others in the sixty provinces of Japan, and also in the country of the gods, at the Great Shrine of Izumo. By the ninety-eight thousand gods of the country and the thirteen thousand Buddhas of the holy places, through the fearful road of the underworld I come. Ah, horror! The spirits of his ancestors crowd upon me, each couple as inseparable as the bow and the arrow. The skies may change and the waters may change, but the bow is unchangeable. One shot from it sends an echo through all the holy places of the temples. Ah! Ah! Oh, joyful sight! Well have you summoned me. I had for bedfellow a warrior famous with the bow, but alas! averse to a pure diet, in life he devoured fish even to the bones, and now, in punishment, is changed into a devil in the shape of an ox, his duty being to keep the gates of Hell, from which he has no release. Thus have I come alone.'

  'Who are you?' asked Yaji. 'I don't understand what it's all about.'

  'I have come for the sake of him who offered me water, the mirror of my body, my child-treasure.'

  'Mirror of the body?' said Kita. 'I'll tell you what, Yaji, it's your mother.'

  'My mother, eh?' said Yaji. 'I don't want to have anything to say to her.'

  'Has the mirror of my body nothing to say to me?' continued the witch. 'To me, your bedfellow, whom you have thus without shame summoned from the depths? Ah, what agony I went through when I was married to you, —time and again suffering the pangs of hunger and shivering with cold in the winter. Ah, hateful! Hateful!'

  'Forgive me,' said Yaji. 'At that time my fortunes were low. How pitiful your lot that you should have been brought to the grave with care and hardships.'

  'Halloa, Yaji,' said Kita. 'Are you crying? Ha-ha-ha! Even devils have tears.'

  'I shall never forget it,' the witch went on. 'When you were ill you gave your sickness to me. Our only child, who had to carry on our name, grew weak and thin because there was no rice to fill his empty stomach. Every day the duns were knocking at the door and the rent remained unpaid. Yet I did not complain, —not even when I slipped in the dogs' dirt in the lane.'

  'Don't talk of it,' said Yaji. 'You'll break my heart.'

  'And then, when through my labours I had saved enough money to buy a kimono, I had to pawn it for your sake and never saw it again. Never again did it come back to me from the pawnbroker's.'

  'At the same time you must remember what a pleasant place you are in now,' said Yaji, 'while I have to worry along down here.'

  'What? What is there pleasant about it? It is true that by the help of your friends you erected a stone over my grave, but you never go near it, and you never contribute to the temple to get the priests to say prayers for my soul. I am nothing to you. The stone over my grave has been taken away and put into the wall, where all the dogs come and make water against it. Not a drop of water is ever placed on my grave. Truly in death we suffer all sorts of troubles.'

  'True, true,' said Yaji.

  'But while you thus treat me with neglect,' the witch went on, 'lying in my grave I think of nobody but you and long for the time when you will join me in the underworld. Shall I come to meet you?'

  'No, no, don't do that,' said Yaji. 'It's really too far for you.'

  'Well then, I have one request to make.'

  'Yes, yes. What is it?'

  'Give this witch plenty of money.'

  'Of course, of course.'

  'How sad the parting!' cried the witch. 'I have yet much to tell you, countless questions to ask you, but the messenger of Hel! recalls me.'

  Then, recovering from her trance, the witch twanged her bow.

  'Thank you very much,' said Yaji. He took out some money and wrapped it in paper and gave it to her.

  'Ha-ha!' laughed Kita. 'Now all your hidden shames are revealed to the world. Ha-ha-ha! But I say, Yaji, you look very downcast. What do you say to a drink?'

  Yaji agreed and clapping his hands ordered the maid to bring some saké.

  'How far have you come to-day?' asked the witch.

  'We came from Okabé,' answered Yaji.

  'How quick you are,' said the witch.

  'Oh, that's nothing,' said Yaji. 'We can walk as fast as Idaten. If we're put to it we can walk thirty-five miles a day.'

  'But then we shouldn't be fit for anything for ten days after,' put in Kita.

  While they were talking the saké was brought in.

  'Won't you have a little?' said Yaji to the young witch.

  'I never touch a drop,' she answered.

  'Will your companion have any?' asked Yaji.

  'Mother, mother I Come here,' called the young witch.

  'Oh, it's your mother, is it?' said Kita. 'I must take care what I say in front of her. But come, do have some.'

  Soon they began to drink and enjoy themselves, the cup passing from hand to hand very quickly. Strangely enough, however, the witches, however much they drank, never seemed to be any the worse for it, while Yaji and Kita got so drunk they could not speak plainly. After making ail sorts of jokes, which it would be too tedious to repeat, Kita at last in a drunken voice said, 'I say, mother, won't you lend me your daughter for the night?'

  'No, no, she's going to lend her to me,' said Yaji.

  'What an idea!' cried Kita. 'You'd better try and be good to-night. Haven't you any pity for your dead wife who spends her time in thinking of you and hoping you will join her quickly? Didn't she say she'd come and meet you after a bit?'

  'Here, don't talk about that,' said Yaji. 'What should I do if she did come to meet me?'

  'Then you had better be good,' said Kita. 'Now, old lady, what do you think?'

  Kita here gave the young witch a loving caress, but she pushed him off and ran away, saying 'Be quiet.'

  'If my daughter doesn't want to,' said the mother, 'what about me?'

  'Well, if it comes to that I don't care who it is,' said Kita, who was lost in a drunken dream.

  While they were talking the supper was brought in and there was a good deal of joking too tedious to repeat, and finally Yaji and Kita, the effects of the sake having already passed off, went back into their own room, where, as soon as it was dark, they went to bed. In the next room also the witches were apparently going to bed, worn out by their travels.

  'That young witch is sleeping on this side, I know,' said Kita in a low voice. 'I'll creep in to her after a bit. Yaji, you'd better go to sleep.'

  'Get out,' said Yaji. 'I'm going to be the one to get her.'

  'Isn't he bold?' said Yaji. 'It would make a cat laugh.'

  Thus talking they crept into bed and fell asleep. It was already about nine o'clock, and the night watchman's rattle, as he went round the inn, echoed through the pillows of the travellers. In the kitchen the sound of the preparations for the next morning's meal had died away, and all that could be heard was the barking of the dogs. It was just when night was at its darkest and eeriest hour that Kitahachi judged it the right time to creep out of bed and peep into the next room. The night-light had gone out, and he felt his way in very softly and crept into the bed where he thought the young witch was sleeping. To his surprise the witch, without saying anything, caught hold of his hand and pulled him in. Delighted with his reception, Kitahachi sank down under the coverlet with her arm for a pillow and soon realised his desire, after which they both fell asleep quite unconscious of their surroundings.

  Yajirobei, who was thus left sleeping alone, soon opened his eyes. 'I wonder what time it is,' he muttered. 'I must go to the closet. It's so dark I can't see the way.'

  Thus pretending that he was going to the closet he crept into the next room, qui
te unconscious of the fact that Kitahachi was already in there. Feeling about he came to the side of the bed where Kita was lying, and thinking in the darkness that it was the young witch's lips from which moans were coming, he put his lips to those of Kitahachi and took a bite.

  'Oh! Oh!' yelled Kitahachi.

  'Halloa! Is that you, Kitahachi?' said Yaji.

  'Oh, it's Yaji, is it?' said Kita. 'Ugh! Ugh! How beastly!' and he began spitting.

  At the sound of their voices the witch into whose bed Kita had crept woke up.

  'What are you doing?' she said. 'Don't make such a noise. You'll wake my daughter up.'

  This was another surprise for Kita, for it was the old witch's voice. Cursing himself for his stupidity he got out of the bed and crept away softly into the next room. Yaji was going to do the same when the old witch caught hold of him.

  'You mustn't make a fool of an old woman by running away,' she said.

  'No, no,' stuttered Yaji. 'You've made a mistake. It wasn't me.'

  'You musn't try to deceive me,' said the old woman. 'I don't make a regular business of this, but when I meet a traveller on the road and sleep with him I like to get a little just to help me along. It's a shame to make a fool of me by running away. There, just go to sleep in my bosom till dawn.'

  'What a nuisance you are,' said Yaji. 'Here, Kitahachi, Kitahachi.'

  'Take care,' said the old woman. 'You mustn't call so loud.'

  'But I don't know anything about it,' said Yaji. 'It's that chap Kitahachi that's got me into all this mess.'

  Thus saying Yaji struggled out of her grasp, only to be caught again and thrown down. But at last, after a good deal of kicking, he managed to get away into the next room, where he repeated to himself

  By stealth I entered, witch's love to earn, But which was witch I could not well discern.

  SECOND PART

  AWN seemed to come in no time, and awakened by the bustle of the travellers preparing for the road and the neighing of the horses, Yaji and Kita rubbed their travel-wearied eyes, got their breakfast, and forthwith set out, amused by the old witch's angry looks. Passing through Furumiya and Honda-no-Hachiman, they came to Shūto-no-Hata, which means mother-in-law's field, and to Yome-ga-Ta, which means bride's rice-field. Then said Yaji,