th. She stretched forth both hands
and tried to seize the soldier, but he struck out at her with his
clenched fist. By mistake he hit himself in the nose and it began to
bleed. Then he sprinkled a few drops of blood in her direction and,
since the ghosts cannot endure human blood, she ceased her attack,
moved off a few paces and began to abuse him. This she did for some
time, until the cock in the village began to crow. Then the ghost
disappeared.

In the meantime the farmer-folk of the village had come to thank the
soldier. It seems that after he had left the woman her husband had
come home, and asked his wife what had happened. And then for the
first time he had learned what had occurred. So they all set out
together along the road in order to look for the soldier outside the
village. When they found him he was still beating the air with his
fists and talking wildly. So they called out to him and he told them
what had taken place. The rope could still be seen on his bare arm;
yet it had grown fast to it, and surrounded it in the shape of a red
ring of flesh.

The day was just dawning, so the soldier swung himself into his saddle
and rode away.

Note: This tale has been handed down traditionally, and
is given as told among the people.

LIV

THE PUNISHMENT OF GREED

Once upon a time there lived a man south of the Yangtze-kiang. He had
taken a position as a teacher in Sutschoufu, on the border of
Shantung. But when he got there he found that the schoolhouse had not
yet been completed. Yet a two-story building in the neighborhood had
been rented, in which the teacher was to live and hold school in the
meantime. This house stood outside the village, not far from the river
bank. A broad plain, overgrown with tangled brush, stretched out from
it on every side. The teacher was pleased with the view.

Well, one evening he was standing in the door of his house watching
the sun go down. The smoke that rose from the village chimneys
gradually merged with the twilight shadows. All the noises of the day
had died away. Suddenly, off in the distance, along the river bank, he
beheld a fiery gleam. He hurried away at once in order to see what it
might be. And there, on the bank, he found a wooden coffin, from which
came the radiance he had noticed. Thought the teacher to himself: "The
jewels with which they adorn the dead on their journey shine by night.
Perhaps there are gems in the coffin!" And greed awoke i