A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

24 Japanese Miscellany
But again at the Hour of the Ox she awoke
with a moan of terror, — for she heard the bell
... It was already near, and was coming nearer.
She started up ; she screamed ; — but in the room
there was no stir, — only a silence as of death, —
a silence growing, — a silence thickening. She
rushed to the men-at-arms : they sat before their
checker-table, — motionless, — each staring at the
other with fixed eyes. She shrieked to them:
she shook them : they remained as if frozen. . . .
Afterwards they said that they had heard the
bell, — heard also the cry of the bride, — even
felt her try to shake them into wakefulness ; —
and that, nevertheless, they had not been able to
move or speak. From the same moment they
had ceased to hear or to see : a black sleep had
seized upon them.
Entering his bridal-chamber at dawn, the samu-
rai beheld, by the light of a dying lamp, the
headless body of his young wife, lying in a pool
of blood. Still squatting before their unfinished
game, the two retainers slept. At their master's
cry they sprang up, and stupidly stared at the
horror on the floor. . . .
!