er's assurance about a "person of exceedingly
high rank," he thought that the lord who wished to hear the recitation
could not be less than a daimyo of the first class. Presently the
samurai halted; and Hoichi became aware that they had arrived at a
large gateway;--and he wondered, for he could not remember any large
gate in that part of the town, except the main gate of the Amidaji.
"Kaimon!" [4] the samurai called,--and there was a sound of unbarring;
and the twain passed on. They traversed a space of garden, and halted
again before some entrance; and the retainer cried in a loud voice,
"Within there! I have brought Hoichi." Then came sounds of feet
hurrying, and screens sliding, and rain-doors opening, and voices of
women in converse. By the language of the women Hoichi knew them to be
domestics in some noble household; but he could not imagine to what
place he had been conducted. Little time was allowed him for
conjecture. After he had been helped to mount several stone steps, upon
the last of which he was told to leave his sandals, a woman's hand
guided him along interminable reaches of polished planking, and round
pillared angles too many to remember, and over widths amazing of matted
floor,--into the middle of some vast apartment. There he thought that
many great people were assembled: the sound of the rustling of silk was
like the sound of leaves in a forest. He heard also a great humming of
voices,--talking in undertones; and the speech was the speech of courts.

Hoichi was told to put himself at ease, and he found a kneeling-cushion
ready for him. After having taken his place upon it, and tuned his
instrument, the voice of a woman--whom he divined to be the Rojo, or
matron in charge of the female service--addressed him, saying,--

"It is now required that the history of the Heike be recited, to the
accompaniment of the biwa."

Now the entire recital would have required a time of many nights:
therefore Hoichi ventured a question:--

"As the whole of the story is not soon told, what portion is it
augustly desired that I now recite?"

The woman's voice made answer:--

"Recite the story of the battle at Dan-no-ura,--for the pity of it is
the most deep." [5]

Then Hoichi lifted up his voice, and chanted the chant of the fight on
the bitter sea,--wonderfully making his biwa to sound like the
straining of oars and the rushing of ships, the whirr and the hissing
of arrows, the shouting and trampling of men, th