Oh strange! If that be so, act out before me the tale of your repentance. Show me your sin and I will pray for you tenderly.
FISHER.
I will act before your eyes the sin that binds me, the cormorant-fishing of those days. Oh give my soul your prayer!
PRIEST.
I will.
FISHER (rising and taking up his torch).
The night is passing. It is fishing-time.
I must rehearse the sin that binds me.
PRIEST.
I have read in tales of a foreign land[110]
How sin-laden the souls of the dead
Have toiled at bitter tasks;
But strange, before my eyes
To see such penance done!
FISHER (describing his own action).