"Please seat yourself at ease.... Well, I am sorry to tell you
that Hagiwara Sama is dead."

Yusai wonderingly exclaimed:--"Yes, he is dead;--but how did you
learn of it?"

The priest responded:--

"Hagiwara Sama was suffering from the results of an evil karma;
and his attendant was a bad man. What happened to Hagiwara Sama
was unavoidable;--his destiny had been determined from a time
long before his last birth. It will be better for you not to let
your mind be troubled by this event."

Yusai said:--

"I have heard that a priest of pure life may gain power to see
into the future for a hundred years; but truly this is the first
time in my existence that I have had proof of such power....
Still, there is another matter about which I am very anxious...."

"You mean," interrupted Ryoseki, "the stealing of the holy
mamori, the Kai-On-Nyorai. But you must not give yourself any
concern about that. The image has been buried in a field; and it
will be found there and returned to me during the eighth month of
the coming year. So please do not be anxious about it."

More and more amazed, the old ninsomi ventured to observe:--

"I have studied the In-Yo,(1) and the science of divination; and