as deep in
thought with his head leaning on his hands, wondering how he should
begin the attack. His three followers watched him, waiting for orders.
At last he called to the pheasant:

"It is a great advantage for us to have you with us." said Momotaro to
the bird, "for you have good wings. Fly at once to the castle and
engage the demons to fight. We will follow you."

The pheasant at once obeyed. He flew off from the ship beating the air
gladly with his wings. The bird soon reached the island and took up his
position on the roof in the middle of the castle, calling out loudly:

"All you devils listen to me! The great Japanese general Momotaro has
come to fight you and to take your stronghold from you. If you wish to
save your lives surrender at once, and in token of your submission you
must break off the horns that grow on your forehead. If you do not
surrender at once, but make up your mind to fight, we, the pheasant,
the dog and the monkey, will kill you all by biting and tearing you to
death!"

The horned demons looking up and only seeing a pheasant, laughed and
said:

"A wild pheasant, indeed! It is ridiculous to hear such words from a
mean thing like you. Wait till you get a blow from one of our iron
bars!"

Very angry, indeed, were the devils. They shook their horns and their
shocks of red hair fiercely, and rushed to put on tiger skin trousers
to make themselves look more terrible. They then brought out great iron
bars and ran to where the pheasant perched over their heads, and tried
to knock him down. The pheasant flew to one side to escape the blow,
and then attacked the head of first one and then another demon. He flew
round and round them, beating the air with his wings so fiercely and
ceaselessly, that the devils began to wonder whether they had to fight
one or many more birds.

In the meantime, Momotaro had brought his ship to land. As they had
approached, he saw that the shore was like a precipice, and that the
large castle was surrounded by high walls and large iron gates and was
strongly fortified.

Momotaro landed, and with the hope of finding some way of entrance,
walked up the path towards the top, followed by the monkey and the dog.
They soon came upon two beautiful damsels washing clothes in a stream.
Momotaro saw that the clothes were blood-stained, and that as the two
maidens washed, the tears were falling fast down their cheeks. He
stopped and spoke to them:

"Who are you, and why