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They admired his bravery and strength and wished to strike the bell at once to show their joy. "No, I won't lift a hammer or sound a note till you make me some soup. I am terribly hungry," said Benkei, as he sat down on a cross piece of the belfry and wiped his forehead with his cowl.
Benkei received his orders and transmitted them to the troops, who immediately dispersed through all the valleys, and set fire to the houses of the inhabitants, so that one and all blazed up, and, thanks to the light of this fire, they reached Ichi-no-tani, as the story goes. If you think attentively, you will see the allusion.
In the old days, at the time of the war at Ichi-no-tani, Minamoto no Yoshitsuné left Mikusa, in the province of Tamba, and attacked Settsu. Overtaken by the night among the mountains, he knew not what road to follow; so he sent for his retainer, Benkei, of the Temple called Musashi, and told him to light the big torches which they had agreed upon.
It was a prodigiously hard task to carry his burden the six or seven miles distance to Hiyeisan. It was "trying to balance a bronze bell with a paper lantern." The work made him puff and blow and sweat until he was as hungry as a badger, but he finally succeeded in hooking it up in the belfry at Hiyeisan. Then all the fellow priests of Benkei got up, though at night, to welcome him.
Benkei made light of disarming a lad of tender years and seemingly slender strength. But already in his acolyte days Yoshitsune had studied swordsmanship, and he supplemented his knowledge by activity almost supernatural.
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