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Then feeling assured that she had put a curse upon Shuntoku, that wicked woman went home. And she said humbly, "I have returned;" and she pretended to be faithful and true. These numbers simply indicate a great multitude in the language of the people; they have no exact significance. Kago, a kind of palanquin. The ancient ryo or tael had a value approximating that of the dollar of 100 sen.
She ascended the three lower steps, and glancing beneath a porch she saw her lover, Shuntoku, lying there asleep, covered with a straw mat; and she called to him, "Moshi! Moshi! Shuntoku, thus being suddenly awakened, seized his staff, which was lying by his side, and cried out, "Every day the children of this neighborhood come here and annoy me, because I am blind!"
Shuntoku was comforted by these words; but he was also filled with pity for her, so that he wept, without being able to speak a word. Then she said to him: "Since your wicked stepmother bewitched you only because you were rich, I am not afraid to revenge you by bewitching her also; for I, too, am the child of a rich man."
"We shall give you a pilgrim's gown and leggings, a rush hat, and a staff; for we have all these things ready here." Then the wicked stepmother knew that even to save her from death it could not be helped, because she herself had done so wicked a thing before. Shuntoku and his wife were very glad; how rejoiced they were!
Poor Shuntoku, not knowing how wicked his stepmother was, besought her in his sad condition, saying: "Dear mother, I have been told that I must go forth and wander as a pilgrim. "But now I am blind, and I cannot travel without difficulty.
There he saw a thousand people going to the temple, and a thousand returning, and a thousand remaining: there was a gathering of three thousand persons . Through that multitude the youngest daughter of a rich man called Hagiyama was being carried to the temple in a kago . Shuntoku also was traveling in a kago; and the two kago moved side by side along the way.
At last she saw before her far, far away the pine-tree called Kawama-matsu, and the two rocks called Ota ; and when she saw those rocks, she thought of Shuntoku with love and hope. Hastening on, she met five or six persona going to Kumano; and she asked them: "Have you not met on your way a blind youth, about sixteen years old?"
But she answered: "As this trouble which you now have is only the beginning of the bad disease, it is not possible for me to suffer you to stay. You must go away from the house at once." Then Shuntoku was forced out of the house by the servants, and into the yard, sorrowing greatly.
And once in the darkness of the morning, before the breaking of the day, in the hour when the crows first begin to fly abroad and cry, the dead mother of Shuntoku came to him in a dream. And she said to him: "Son, your affliction has been caused by the witchcraft of your wicked stepmother. Go now to the divinity of Kiyomidzu, and beseech the goddess that you may be healed."
The stepmother prayed them to allow her only one small meal a day, just as Shuntoku had done; but Otohime said to the stricken woman: "We cannot keep you here, not even in the corner of an outhouse. Go away at once!" Also Nobuyoshi said to his wicked wife: "What do you mean by remaining here? How long do you require to go?"
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