, eluded his blows, and suddenly reappeared only to vanish again;
and from that time forth Tokubei knew no rest, and was haunted night and
day.

At length, undone by such ceaseless vexation, Tokubei fell ill, and
kept muttering, "Oh, misery! misery! the wandering priest is coming to
torture me!" Hearing his moans and the disturbance he made, the
people in the house fancied he was mad, and called in a physician, who
prescribed for him. But neither pill nor potion could cure Tokubei,
whose strange frenzy soon became the talk of the whole neighbourhood.

Now it chanced that the story reached the ears of a certain wandering
priest who lodged in the next street. When he heard the particulars,
this priest gravely shook his head as though he knew all about it,
and sent a friend to Tokubei's house to say that a wandering priest,
dwelling hard by, had heard of his illness, and, were it never so
grievous, would undertake to heal it by means of his prayers; and
Tokubei's wife, driven half wild by her husband's sickness, lost not
a moment in sending for the priest and taking him into the sick man's
room.

But no sooner did Tokubei see the priest than he yelled out, "Help!
help! Here is the wandering priest come to torment me again. Forgive!
forgive!" and hiding his head under the coverlet, he lay quivering all
over. Then the priest turned all present out of the room, put his mouth
to the affrighted man's ear, and whispered:

"Three years ago, at the Kuana ferry, you flung me into the water; and
well you remember it."

But Tokubei was speechless, and could only quake with fear.

"Happily," continued the priest, "I had learned to swim and to dive as
a boy; so I reached the shore, and, after wandering through many
provinces, succeeded in setting up a bronze figure to Buddha, thus
fulfilling the wish of my heart. On my journey homeward, I took a
lodging in the next street, and there heard of your marvellous ailment.
Thinking I could divine its cause, I came to see you, and am glad to
find I was not mistaken. You have done a hateful deed; but am I not a
priest, and have I not forsaken the things of this world, and would it
not ill become me to bear malice? Repent, therefore, and abandon your
evil ways. To see you do so I should esteem the height of happiness. Be
of good cheer, now, and look me in the face, and you will see that I am
really a living man, and no vengeful goblin come to torment you."

Seeing he had no ghost to deal