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46 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
Mijo's mother thought her son dead, and wept so
bitterly that she became blind ;
but on being led to
the temple, the image of Amida Buddha emitted
rays of light which flew into the mother's face, and
she received her sight again. This image
is still
preserved and works wonders. On one occasion the
idol lost a right-hand finger,
and no one could repair
it, as the new finger,
when made and glued or tied
on, always fell off. One day an itinerant nun came
along, who cured diseases by rubbing the sore place
with the finger
of some image and repeating prayers
to the Buddha. The priest of the temple got this
finger from the nun and held it on the stump of
the mutilated hand of the idol, when lo ! it stuck
fast and remained permanently. This was one of
Taka's favorite stories.
Even the ash-man who tended the cremationfurnace
had his wonderful narratives. There was
once, he said, a brave officer who went out hawking
in the train of the prince, whose falcon swooped 011
the wild geese and killed them by striking them with
beak and talons. This knight was always full of
for the dead birds. When in war time the
pity
castle had to surrender to the enemy, and duty and
loyalty demanded that he should commit hara-kiri,
he did not shrink from the pain ;
but after death a
hard, unburnt mass was found amid the ashes of his
body, shaped like a bird with a wound in its head.
Inside of a shrine, opposite the Pure Water Gate
in Fukui is a finely chiseled monument of a cat,
concerning which was a legend. O-gin, that is, Miss