A feminine voice responded:--

"Pardon! it is I,--Yayoi![68]... I have something to say to Matsumura
Sama,--something of great moment. Please open!"...

[Footnote 68: This name, though uncommon, is still in use.]

Matsumura half opened the door, very cautiously; and he saw the same
beautiful face that had smiled upon him from the well. But it was not
smiling now: it had a very sad look.

"Into my house you shall not come," the priest exclaimed. "You are not
a human being, but a Well-Person.... Why do you thus wickedly try to
delude and destroy people?"

The Well-Person made answer in a voice musical as a tinkling of jewels
(_tama-wo-korogasu-koë_.):--

"It is of that very matter that I want to speak.... I have never
wished to injure human beings. But from ancient time a Poison-Dragon
dwelt in that well. He was the Master of the Well; and because of him
the well was always full. Long ago I fell into the water there, and
so became subject to him; and he had power to make me lure people to
death, in order that he might drink their blood. But now the Heavenly
Ruler has commanded the Dragon to dwell hereafter in the lake called
Torii-no-Iké, in the Province of Shinsh[=u]; and the gods have decided
that he shall never be allowed to return to this city. So to-night,
after he had gone away, I was able to come out, to beg for your kindly
help. There is now very little water in the well, because of the