Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/469

Rh was now a powerful officer of the King of Tartary. Tei Shiryō and Kokusenya thought the best thing they could do would be to try and persuade him to espouse their cause. So they set out for his abode, called the "Castle of the Lion," which lay about three hundred miles away.

But they came to the conclusion that if they all three went together, they would arouse the suspicion of the people; so they agreed to go separately, by different routes, and to meet at the foot of Mount Sekiheki, near the "Castle of the Lion." Tei Shiryō was to journey by himself, and Kokusenya with his mother was to go by way of the famous Senri-ga-Také. Thus they set out on their respective ways.

Whilst they were travelling through the vast bamboo forest, Kokusenya and his mother lost their way, and were uncertain in which direction to turn. Suddenly to their dismay, they heard a confused sound of cries, and the beating of drums, and sounds of trumpets. They listened to these sounds with considerable alarm. Soon after a gust of wind arose, which made the sand fly, and the leaves were shaken off the trees. The next moment a large tiger sprang out of the thicket.