w than a dead
ass--while Kakunai still lives." Thus he vented his grief, to the
amusement of his fellows who had shared but little in his fortunes.
Meanwhile Shu[u]zen and the abbot were otherwise engaged. Said
Bankei--"Deign to relate something of how Shu[u]zen Dono came to this
_yashiki_. Honoured Sir, was not the former site in Mita? How came the
change?" Shu[u]zen explained the conditions and the time of change to
his new site and experiences. If there was aught of grudge, it attached
rather to place than person. To this Bankei Osho[u] was agreed. "The
fact of the case is plain to Bankei. The spirit directing the actions of
the horse is not the spirit of the animal. The possession brought to an
end by the exorcism, the alien spirit departed, and the carcass of the
animal deprived of this influence, it fell to the ground an inert mass,
like to the abandoned shell of the cicada. But the malevolent influence
is to be found. This is the task of Shu[u]zen Dono. Deign, honoured sir,
then to have memorial rites performed by this Bankei, and no longer will
the _yashiki_ be haunted by such unusual and unseemly performance....
Daigaku no Sensei? He is but a Confucianist, bound to the letter of
material substance. Nor would he confess the ignorance of the spiritual
world he undoubtedly is gifted with, of the law of punishment for deeds
performed in a past existence (_ingwai_) as taught by the Lord Buddha.
The materialist has his nose to earth, and can see naught else. The
idiot has his nose to heaven, and can see naught else. The Buddha's Law
comprehends Heaven and Earth. Hence its truth." With this expression of
the _odium theologicum_ the worthy abbot departed templewards,
accompanied, as gage for further proceedings and profit, by the carcass
of the horse. Bankei had this inhumed in the ground behind the main hall
of the temple. Kakunai superintended these last obsequies. The abbot's
words, as to the malevolence of the influence involved, was proved to
Shu[u]zen the next day, when report was brought that the groom had
hanged himself at the gratings of the stall once occupied by Kage. Moved
by this strong hint, Kakunai was sent to join his equine friend in one
common grave.

Warned by the unusual nature of these events Shu[u]zen determined at
once to trace out the source of this evil influence. It was his duty as
a _samurai_ to suppress such manifestations occurring so close to the
suzerain's dwelling. It was to his own inte