ent to the entrance. "A
beggar, and such a fellow? How comes it entrance has been had to the
ward? There is nothing for you here. If you would escape the dogs and
bastinado, get you hence at once." The man did not stir from the spot on
which he stood. Slowly he opened the mat held round his body
(_komokaburi_), one of the coarse kind used to wrap round _sake_
barrels. He was clothed in rags glued together by the foul discharges of
his sores. He removed the towel from his face. The ghastly white and red
blotches, the livid scars of the leper, the head with patches of scurfy
hair ready to fall at a touch, startled even Iemon the priest. He would
not have touched this man, expelled him by force, for all the past
wealth of Tamiya. The intruder noted the effect produced.

"To such has the wrath of O'Iwa San brought this Cho[u]bei. Does not
Iemon, the one-time neighbour Kazuma, recognize Cho[u]bei? And yet all
comes through Iemon. Child, wife, means of life, all these have failed
Cho[u]bei. In the jail robbed of everything, degenerate in mind and
body, Cho[u]bei has found refuge at nights in the booths of street
vendors; on cold wet nights, even in the mouths of the filthy drains.
Fortunate is he when fine weather sends him to rest on the river banks.
To seek rest; not to find it. O'Iwa stands beside him. When eyelids
drowse Cho[u]bei is aroused, to find her face close glaring into his.
Beg and implore, yet pardon there is none. 'Cho[u]bei has a debt to pay
to Iwa. In life Cho[u]bei must repay by suffering; yet not what Iwa
suffered. Think not to rest.' Some support was found in a daughter, sold
in times past to the Yamadaya of Yoshiwara. There the child grew up to
become the great profit of the house. The influence of the Kashiku was
all powerful to secure entrance. For a night Cho[u]bei was to find food
and a bed. But that night came Kibei San. He killed the Kashiku--crushed
her out, as one would crush an insect. This Cho[u]bei nearly died; but
Kibei left him to the mercy of O'Iwa. Her mercy!" He would have thrown
out his arms in weary gesture of despair. The pain and effort were too
great. He moaned. "Last night Cho[u]bei sought relief. Of late years the
river has been spanned, for passers-by and solace of the human refuse.
Standing on Ryo[u]gokubashi the dark waters of the river called to
Cho[u]bei as they swept strongly by to the sea. A moment, and all would
be ended. About to leap hands were laid on Cho[u]bei's shoulders