grief to her and a scandal both on her
family and the monastery. He must do it gradually to succeed at all.

Ah! how quickly does the sensitive love-plant know the finger-tip touch
of cooling passion! How quickly falls the silver column in the crystal
tube, at the first breath of the heart's chill even though the words on
the lip are warm! Kiyohime marked the ebbing tide of her lover's regard,
and then a terrible resolve of evil took possession of her soul. From
that time forth, she ceased to be a pure and innocent and gentle virgin.
Though still in maiden form and guise, she was at heart a fox, and as to
her nature she might as well have worn the bushy tail of the sly
deceiver. She resolved to win over her lover, by her importunities, and
failing in this, to destroy him by sorcery.

One night she sat up until two o'clock in the morning, and then, arrayed
only in a white robe, she went out to a secluded part of the mountain
where in a lonely shrine stood a hideous scowling image of Fudo, who
holds the sword of vengeance and sits clothed in fire. There she called
upon the god to change her lover's heart or else destroy him.

Thence, with her head shaking, and eyes glittering with anger like the
orbs of a serpent, she hastened to the shrine of Kampira, whose servants
are the long-nosed sprites, who have the power of magic and of teaching
sorcery. Standing in front of the portal she saw it hung with votive
tablets, locks of hair, teeth, various tokens of vows, pledges and marks
of sacrifice, which the devotees of the god had hung up. There, in the
cold night air she asked for the power of sorcery, that she might be able
at will to transform herself into the terrible _ja_,--the awful
dragon-serpent whose engine coils are able to crack bones, crush rocks,
melt iron or root up trees, and which are long enough to wind round a
mountain.

It would be too long to tell how this once pure and happy maiden, now
turned to an avenging demon went out nightly on the lonely mountains to
practice the arts of sorcery. The mountain-sprites were her teachers, and
she learned so diligently that the chief goblin at last told her she
would be able, without fail, to transform herself when she wished.

The dreadful moment was soon to come. The visits of the once lover-priest
gradually became fewer and fewer, and were no longer tender hours of
love, but were on his part formal interviews, while Kiyohime became more
importunate than ever. Tear