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THE RED AND WHITE ILIXXEBS. 125
to worship and implore the help of the gods. The
priest in charge gave one of these fans to the
young emperor, saying, ' Bear this fan into battle
as thy shield and defense. The sun hereon is the
spirit of the late emperor. If your enemies shoot
at it, their arrows will recoil and strike their own
bodies.'
"The Hdike", therefore, confident in the powers
of the sacred talisman, had kept up heart and hope.
Now on the eve of the battle they resolved to try
the virtue of the fan to draw from it the omen of
success or defeat, and thus learn the will of the
gods.
" One morning, just as the sun was rising and the
Geriji advance posts were being ranged along the
strand, the imperial barge of the He'ike' moved out
over the waters towards the Genji camp. A small
boat put off from the barge, in which stood a beautiful
lady arrayed in crimson court robes. Yoshitsune"
watched her with intense eagerness, not knowing
what her movements might mean. The scullers
bent to their sculls, and the prow was kept shoreward,
until within fifty yards of the beach, when all
stood up. A turn of the stern scull put the boat
broadside to the beach. There it lay quietly rocking
on. the tiny waves.
"At this moment a man in the boat raised a long
bamboo pole split at the top in which was a rich
gilt fan with the sun-circle in the center. The lady
unfolded her own ogi (a court lady's fan of thin
strips of white unpainted wood, laced together with