hermit, saluting him. "Perhaps you are
the one who sent for me the other day? I have long since quitted the
affairs of this world, and have almost forgotten the secret of my
exorcisms. I wonder why you have come here for me." So saying, he
pleasingly embraced him. He was evidently a man of great holiness. He
wrote out a talismanic prescription, which he gave to Genji to drink
in water, while he himself proceeded to perform some mysterious rite.
During the performance of this ceremony the sun rose high in the
heavens. Genji, meantime, walked out of the cave and looked around him
with his attendants. The spot where they stood was very lofty, and
numerous monasteries were visible, scattered here and there in the
distance beneath. There was immediately beyond the winding path in
which they were walking a picturesque and pretty building enclosed by
hedges. Its well arranged balconies and the gardens around it
apparently betokened the good taste of its inhabitants. "Whose house
may that be?" inquired Genji of his attendants. They told him it was a
house in which a certain priest had been living for the last two
years. "Ah! I know him," said Genji. "Strange, indeed, would it be if
he were to discover that I am here in this privacy." They noticed a
nun and a few more females with her walking in the garden, who were
carrying fresh water for their offerings, and were gathering flowers.
"Ah! there are ladies walking there," cried the attendants in tones of
surprise. "Surely, the Reverend Father would not indulge in
flirtations! Who can they be?" And some of them even descended a
little distance, and peered over the enclosure, where a pretty little
girl was also seen amongst them.

Genji now engaged in prayer until the sun sank in the heavens. His
attendants, who were anxious about his disease, told him that it would
be good for him to have a change from time to time. Hereupon, he
advanced to the back of the temple, and his gaze fell on the far-off
Capital in the distance, which was enveloped in haze as the dusk was
setting in, over the tops of the trees around. "What a lovely
landscape!" exclaimed Genji. "The people to whom such scenery is
familiar, are perhaps happy and contented." "Nay," said the
attendants, "but were you to see the beautiful mountain ranges and the
sea-coast in our various provinces, the pictures would indeed be found
lovely." Then some of them described to him Fuji Yama, while others
told him of other mounta