that there was no blood, and that the headless
necks did not look as if they had been cut. Then he thought to
himself:--"Either this is an illusion made by goblins, or I have been
lured into the dwelling of a Rokuro-Kubi... (4) In the book Soshinki
(5) it is written that if one find the body of a Rokuro-Kubi without
its head, and remove the body to another place, the head will never be
able to join itself again to the neck. And the book further says that
when the head comes back and finds that its body has been moved, it
will strike itself upon the floor three times,--bounding like a
ball,--and will pant as in great fear, and presently die. Now, if these
be Rokuro-Kubi, they mean me no good;--so I shall be justified in
following the instructions of the book."...

He seized the body of the aruji by the feet, pulled it to the window,
and pushed it out. Then he went to the back-door, which he found
barred; and he surmised that the heads had made their exit through the
smoke-hole in the roof, which had been left open. Gently unbarring the
door, he made his way to the garden, and proceeded with all possible
caution to the grove beyond it. He heard voices talking in the grove;
and he went in the direction of the voices,--stealing from shadow to
shadow, until he reached a good hiding-place. Then, from behind a
trunk, he caught sight of the heads,--all five of them,--flitting
about, and chatting as they flitted. They were eating worms and insects
which they found on the ground or among the trees. Presently the head
of the aruji stopped eating and said:--

"Ah, that traveling priest who came to-night!--how fat all his body is!
When we shall have eaten him, our bellies will be well filled... I was
foolish to talk to him as I did;--it only set him to reciting the
sutras on behalf of my soul! To go near him while he is reciting would
be difficult; and we cannot touch him so long as he is praying. But as
it is now nearly morning, perhaps he has gone to sleep... Some one of
you go to the house and see what the fellow is doing."

Another head--the head of a young woman--immediately rose up and
flitted to the house, lightly as a bat. After a few minutes it came
back, and cried out huskily, in a tone of great alarm:--

"That traveling priest is not in the house;--he is gone! But that is
not the worst of the matter. He has taken the body of our aruji; and I
do not know where he has put it."

At this announcement the head of the aru