Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/64

Rh. I have heard, Sir. But your instructions are to stop pretended pilgrims. You surely do not mean that you will stop genuine pilgrims?

. In sooth! Seeing that already three pilgrims were put to the sword here yesterday.

. Say you so! And were those slaughtered pilgrims Yoshitsune and his followers?

. Poh! arguments! I will have no controversy. Not one shall pass. I have said it.

. It is then your purpose to slay us also here?

. Undoubtedly.

. Incredible! We have come indeed to an ill-fated place! There is no help. We must then perform our last rites and submit quietly to our fate. Approach all and prepare. I begin our last rite.

. Servant of the great anchorite Yen is the friar-pilgrim.

. Fashioned after the sacred shape of the divine Fudo.

. His coif is the crown of the five talents.

. Its plaits are the twelve lusts of the flesh.

. His bells the nine rites that make perfection.

. His hose the emblem of dark chaos.

. His eight-looped sandals.

. The eight-petalled lotus-flower under his feet.

. Each breath he breathes forms the quintessential sounds.

. The body of the Buddha, the pilgrim-friar's!

. Here to be struck down and laid low.

. How shall the divine Fudo be appeased?

. Kumano Gongen will mete out punishment,