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Tokiwa, Tomoe, Kesa, and Shizuka these four heroines will always occupy a prominent place in Japanese history of the twelfth century. After this event there could be no concealments between the two brothers. With difficulty and not without some menaces, Yoshitsune obtained from Go-Shirakawa a formal commission to proceed against Yoritomo by force of arms. Matters now moved with great rapidity.
The hills are gloomy and romantic, fringed in some parts with stunted shrubs, which overhang deep precipices; they are haunted by wild beasts and birds of prey. In the very middle of the river a rocky island, called Mount Kesa, rose to the height of nearly 300 feet, and its steep sides had an imposing appearance.
Originally Endo Morito, an officer of the guards in Kyoto, he fell in love with his cousin, Kesa,* the wife of a comrade called Minamoto Wataru. His addresses being resolutely rejected, he swore that if Kesa remained obdurate, he would kill her mother. From this dilemma the brave woman determined that self-sacrifice offered the only effective exit.
With scowling eyes Charlik regarded them for a moment or two in silence, then he turned unconcernedly away, as some of his slaves came forward and carried the bodies out of sight. Suddenly he sprang to his feet, as a loud, long cry, first from a single throat, and then echoed and reechoed by a hundred more, came upward from the beach. "A ship! A ship! Another ship! The ship of Késa!"
Morito readily agreed, but Kesa, having dressed her own hair in male fashion and wet her head, lay down in her husband's place. *Generally spoken of as "Kesa Gozen," but the latter word signifies "lady." When Morito found that he had killed the object of his passionate affection, he hastened to confess his crime and invited Wataru to slay him.
"Good," said the king to Kanka, his head chief; "'tis surely the American Késa, for this is the month in which he said he would return. Let the women make ready a great feast, and launch my three boats, so that if the wind fail, when the sun is high, they may help to drag the ship into Lele."
He wanted to see the people of Leassé and Môut driven into the water, so that he might shoot at them with a new rifle which Késa or the other ship captain I forget which had given to him. But he wanted most of all to get Cerita, the wife of Letya, the white man. Only Cerita was to live. These were Charlik's words. He did not know that her husband had returned from the sea.
Though we have been engaged in war for three years, we proceed in our buildings, and every thing else goes on as in a time of profound peace. It is two years since any new impost was levied. The war, at present, has its fixed establishment; that once regulated, it never disturbs the course of other affairs. If we capture another Kesa or two, the war is paid for.
Just beyond, the travellers suddenly found themselves opposite a remarkable rock, two hundred and eighty feet high, called Mount Kesa, which rises perpendicularly from the centre of the stream. This rock is greatly venerated by the natives, who believe it to be the favourite home of a beneficent genius.
Presently the fair young woman his sister Sè returned to her brother's side. "The ship is near," she said, and then her voice faltered; "but it is not the ship of Késa. It is but a small ship, and she hath but two boats. Késa's had five." "What lies are these?" said the young savage fiercely. "Go look again."
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