-hiding her face from him with
one of her long sleeves. "O-jochu," he said again, as gently as he
could,--"please, please listen to me!... This is no place for a young
lady at night! Do not cry, I implore you!--only tell me how I may be of
some help to you!" Slowly she rose up, but turned her back to him, and
continued to moan and sob behind her sleeve. He laid his hand lightly
upon her shoulder, and pleaded:--"O-jochu!--O-jochu!--O-jochu!...
Listen to me, just for one little moment!... O-jochu!--O-jochu!"...
Then that O-jochu turned around, and dropped her sleeve, and stroked
her face with her hand;--and the man saw that she had no eyes or nose
or mouth,--and he screamed and ran away. (2)

Up Kii-no-kuni-zaka he ran and ran; and all was black and empty before
him. On and on he ran, never daring to look back; and at last he saw a
lantern, so far away that it looked like the gleam of a firefly; and he
made for it. It proved to be only the lantern of an itinerant
soba-seller, [2] who had set down his stand by the road-side; but any
light and any human companionship was good after that experience; and
he flung himself down at the feet of the soba-seller, crying out,
"Ah!--aa!!--aa!!!"...

"Kore! kore!" (3) roughly exclaimed the soba-man. "Here! what is the
matter with you? Anybody hurt you?"

"No--nobody hurt me," panted the other,--"only... Ah!--aa!"

"--Only scared you?" queried the peddler, unsympathetically. "Robbers?"

"Not robbers,--not robbers," gasped the terrified man... "I saw... I
saw a woman--by the moat;--and she showed me... Ah! I cannot tell you
what she showed me!"...

"He! (4) Was it anything like THIS that she showed you?" cried the
soba-man, stroking his own face--which therewith became like unto an
Egg... And, simultaneously, the light went out.

ROKURO-KUBI

Nearly five hundred years ago there was a samurai, named Isogai
Heidazaemon Taketsura, in the service of the Lord Kikuji, of Kyushu.
This Isogai had inherited, from many warlike ancestors, a natural
aptitude for military exercises, and extraordinary strength. While yet
a boy he had surpassed his teachers in the art of swordsmanship, in
archery, and in the use of the spear, and had displayed all the
capacities of a daring and skillful soldier. Afterwards, in the time of
the Eikyo [1] war, he so distinguished himself that high honors were
bestowed upon him. But when the house of Kikuji came to ruin, Isogai
found himself without a ma