pushed it out. Then he went to the back-door, which he found barred; and he
surmised that the heads had made their exit through the smoke-hole in the
roof, which had been left open. Gently unbarring the door, he made his way
to the garden, and proceeded with all possible caution to the grove beyond
it. He heard voices talking in the grove; and he went in the direction of
the voices,-- stealing from shadow to shadow, until he reached a good
hiding-place. Then, from behind a trunk, he caught sight of the heads,--
all five of them,-- flitting about, and chatting as they flitted. They were
eating worms and insects which they found on the ground or among the trees.
Presently the head of the aruji stopped eating and said:--


"Ah, that traveling priest who came to-night!-- how fat all his body is!
When we shall have eaten him, our bellies will be well filled... I was
foolish to talk to him as I did;-- it only set him to reciting the sutras
on behalf of my soul! To go near him while he is reciting would be
difficult; and we cannot touch him so long as he is praying. But as it is
now nearly morning, perhaps he has gone to sleep... Some one of you go to
the house and see what the fellow is doing."


Another head -- the head of a young woman -- immediately rose up and
flitted to the house, lightly as a bat. After a few minutes it came back,
and cried out huskily, in a tone of great alarm:--


"That traveling priest is not in the house;-- he is gone! But that is not
the worst of the matter. He has taken the body of our aruji; and I do not
know where he has put it."