only a little unwell, my dear one!... lie down for a while, and rest; and
the sickness will pass."...


"No, no!" she responded -- "I am dying! -- I do not imagine it;-- I
know!... And it were needless now, my dear husband, to hide the truth from
you any longer:-- I am not a human being. The soul of a tree is my soul;--
the heart of a tree is my heart;-- the sap of the willow is my life. And
some one, at this cruel moment, is cutting down my tree;-- that is why I
must die!... Even to weep were now beyond my strength!-- quickly, quickly
repeat the Nembutsu for me... quickly!... Ah!...



With another cry of pain she turned aside her beautiful head, and tried to
hide her face behind her sleeve. But almost in the same moment her whole
form appeared to collapse in the strangest way, and to sank down, down,
down -- level with the floor. Tomotada had spring to support her;-- but
there was nothing to support! There lay on the matting only the empty robes
of the fair creature and the ornaments that she had worn in her hair: the
body had ceased to exist...



Tomotada shaved his head, took the Buddhist vows, and became an itinerant
priest. He traveled through all the provinces of the empire; and, at holy
places which he visited, he offered up prayers for the soul of Aoyagi.
Reaching Echizen, in the course of his pilgrimage, he sought the home of
the parents of his beloved. But when he arrived at the lonely place among
the hills, where their dwelling had been, he found that the cottage had