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Worse than all else, was the report that oni or imps were prowling around in the dark to seize people by the hair of the head. Then they would drag them away to the mountains, tear the flesh off their bones, and eat them up. The worst place in the city, to which the horned imps came oftenest, was at the south-western gate called the Rajo-mon.
Any ordinary man would have trembled at the thought of going out of doors, but Watanabe was a brave warrior and dauntless, and his honor and word were at stake, so he sped on into the night, while his companions listened to the sound of his horse's hoofs dying away in the distance, then shut the sliding shutters close and gathered round the charcoal fire and wondered what would happen and whether their comrade would encounter one of those horrible Oni.
But he had never learned to dance, and knew nothing about the necessary gestures and different positions. He thought that anything would please the demons, so he just hopped about, waving his arms and stamping his feet, imitating as well as he could any dancing he had ever seen. The Oni were very dissatisfied at this exhibition, and said amongst themselves: "How badly he dances to-day!"
Among the words which have been handed down to us by the correspondents of the Pharaoh are maqani "cattle," anay "a ship," súsi "a horse," of which the Hebrew equivalents, according to the Masoretic punctuation, are miqneh, oni, and sûs.
Maker of the soft night, bind my wounds with sleep, lest I cry out and be a coward and unworthy." Again and again, unconsciously, the words passed from her lips 'Vorganthe, pestorondikat Oni. At last she let down the blind, came to the bed, and once more gathered her child in her arms with an infinite hunger. This love was hers rich, untrammelled, and so sacred.
Others represented the hero Hidesato vanquishing a monster on the bridge of Seta; the sage Lao Tsze on his ox; Senno Kinko, a pious man, riding on his golden-eyed carp, absorbed in a book; the god Idaten, pursuing an oni, or devil, who had stolen Buddha's pearl; a bird prying open a Venus's shell with his bill; a golden-eyed octopus or cuttlefish; the sage Kiko leaning from the window of his house, reading a scroll by moonlight.
But Raiko, well or ill, always slept with his trusty sword under his pillow, and pretending to be greatly afraid, and to cower under the bed-clothes, the kozo grew bolder and bolder. When the imp was near the bed, Raiko drew his blade, and cut the oni across his huge double nose. This made the demon howl, and he ran away, leaving tracks of blood.
But ever as the sun begins to sink below the horizon, Then do the Oni, the demons of the hells, appear, And say to them "What is this that you do here? "Lo! your parents still living in the Shaba-world "Take no thought of pious offering or holy work "They do nought but mourn for you from the morning unto the evening. "Oh, how pitiful! alas! how unmerciful!
Then he ran into the fields, hiding among the cows, until he heard men with pitchforks coming. At once the Oni leaped upon a cow's back and held on to its horns, while the poor animal ran for its life into its stall, in the cow stable, hoping to brush the monster off. The dairy farmer's wife was at that moment pulling open her bureau drawer, to put on a new clean lace cap.
Once there, he jumps round among the cups and dishes, hides in the jars, straddles the shelves and turns somersaults over the counter. In fact, the Oni is only a jolly little imp. The Japanese girls, on New Year's eve, throw handfuls of dried beans in every room of the house and cry, "In, with good luck; and out with you, Onis!" Yet they laugh merrily all the time.
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