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But Otohime had been so startled that she could not help trembling a little, and, retiring to her room, she suddenly fainted away. Then in the house all was confusion, and a doctor was summoned in great baste. But the girl, being quite unable to take any medicine, only became weaker and weaker.
Otohime answered: "Neither horse nor kago do I need, nor any servant; I need only the dress of a pilgrim, leggings and gown, and a mendicant's wallet." For Otohime held it her duty to set out by herself all alone, just as Shuntoku had done. So she left home, saying farewell to her parents, with eyes full of tears: scarcely could she find voice to utter the word "good-by."
In old times this was not so; the jelly-fish had as hard a shell as any of them, but he lost it through his own fault, as may be seen in this story. The sea-queen Otohime, whom you read of in the story of Uraschimatoro, grew suddenly very ill.
If you open it something dreadful will happen to you! Now promise me that you will never open this box!" And Urashima promised that he would never, never open the box whatever happened. Then bidding good-by to Otohime Sama he went down to the seashore, the Princess and her attendants following him, and there he found a large tortoise waiting for him.
Otohime hearing these words, and feeling great sorrow, approached and laid her hands on her poor lover, and said to him: "I am not one of those bad, mischievous children; I am the daughter of the wealthy Hagiyama. And because I promised myself to you at the, festival of Kitano Tenjin in Kyoto, I have come here to see you."
'I am the first waiting maid of his daughter, the lovely princess Otohime, whom you will shortly see. Uraschimataro was still so puzzled with the adventures that had befallen him, that he waited in a dazed condition for what would happen next. But the turtle, who had talked so much of him to the princess that she had expressed a wish to see him, went at once to make known his arrival.
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?"
Then, having filled her sleeves with stones, she was about to leap into the water, when there appeared suddenly before her a venerable man of seemingly not less than eighty years, robed all in white, and bearing a tablet in his hand. And the aged man said to her: "Be not thus in haste to die, Otohime! Shuntoku whom you seek is at Kiyomidzu San: go thither and meet him."
I am the son of a rich and well-famed man in Kawachi, and I am called Shuntoku-maru." Then the daughter of that house, Otohime, suddenly remembering him, also became quite angry, and said to the servant: "You must not laugh rudely. Laughing at others to-day, you might be laughed at yourself to-morrow."
They made answer: "No, not yet; but should we meet him anywhere, we will tell him whatever you wish." This reply greatly disappointed Otohime; and she began to think that all her efforts to find her lover might be in vain; and she became very sad.
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