I will go and sleep upon it.
HOSTESS.
And I meanwhile will heat you some millet at the fire.
ROSEI (going to the bed).
So this is the pillow, the Pillow of Kantan that I have heard such strange tales of? Heaven has guided me to it, that I who came out to learn the secret of life may taste the world in a dream.
As one whose course swift summer-rain has stayed,
Unthrifty of the noon he turned aside
To seek a wayside dream;
Upon the borrowed Pillow of Kantan
He laid his head and slept.
(While ROSEI is still chanting these words, the ENVOY enters, followed by two ATTENDANTS who carry a litter. The ENVOY raps on the post of the bed.)
ENVOY.
Rosei, Rosei! I must speak with you.
(ROSEI, who has been lying with his fan over his face, rises when the ENVOY begins to speak.)