pass the night. Just as the sun was setting he reached a small village
and asked for a night's lodging. But there were only poor families in
the village who had no room for him in their huts. So they directed
him to an old temple which stood outside the village, and said he
could spend the night there.

The images of the gods in the temple were all decayed, so that one
could not distinguish one from the other. Thick spider-webs covered
the entrance, and the dust lay inches high everywhere. So the soldier
went out into the open, where he found an old flight of steps. He
spread out his knapsack on a stone step, tied his horse to an old
tree, took his flask from his pocket and drank--for it had been a hot
day. There had been a heavy rain, but it had just cleared again. The
new moon was on the decline. The soldier closed his eyes and tried to
sleep.

Suddenly he heard a rustling sound in the temple, and a cool wind
passed over his face and made him shudder. And he saw a woman come out
of the temple, dressed in an old dirty red gown, and with a face as
white as a chalk wall. She stole past quietly as though she were
afraid of being seen. The soldier knew no fear. So he pretended to be
asleep and did not move, but watched her with half-shut eyes. And he
saw her draw a rope from her sleeve and disappear. Then he knew that
she was the ghost of one who had hung herself. He got up softly and
followed her, and, sure enough, she went into the village.

When she came to a certain house she slipped into the court through a
crack in the door. The soldier leaped over the wall after her. It was
a house with three rooms. In the rear room a lamp was burning dimly.
The soldier looked through the window into the room, and there was a
young woman of about twenty sitting on the bed, sighing deeply, and
her kerchief was wet through with tears. Beside her lay a little
child, asleep. The woman looked up toward the beam of the ceiling. One
moment she would weep and the next she would stroke the child. When
the soldier looked more closely, there was the ghost sitting up on the
beam. She had passed the rope around her neck and was hanging herself
in dumb show. And whenever she beckoned with her hand the woman looked
up toward her. This went on for some time.

Finally the woman said: "You say it would be best for me to die. Very
well, then, I will die; but I cannot part from my child!"

And once more she burst into tears. But the ghost merely l