Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan.pdf/139

Rh flat rock. The pine-tree on the cliff moaned as the wind swept sadly through its branches. But Tu Tzuchun lay flat on the rock, for his life had left his body long before.

Tu Tzuchun’s body lay on the rock, but his soul, floating from his corpse, drifted silently down to the bottom of Jigoku, the Inferno.

Between this world and the Inferno there is a dark, dark passage, and an icy-cold wind browsblows [sic] furiously in the sky all the year round. Carried on by this icy wind, Tu Tzuchun floated in the sky for a very long while, just as a dead leaf might float through the air, until he came in front of a magnificent palace. On a tablet outside this beautiful place was written: “Senlotien.”

Crowds of terrible and evil-looking devils were in front of this palace, and, as soon as they saw Tu Tzuchun they gathered thickly around him, and, carrying him, they took him to the foot of a throne where a king in a black robe, and wearing a golden crown was seated. As he sat there he glared angrily around him. It was evident that this was Yama, or Yemma, the king of Hades, of whom Tu Tzuchun had often been told. Tu Tzuchun knelt down before the king, fearing what would become of him.

“Why were you on the top of the mountain of Emeishan?” [sic]

Yama’s voice thundered from the throne, and Tu