Prince. Wracked is my body
With tortures unending
Born of the dreams
That are surging forever
Backward and forward
Thru my brain, weary.
Buzen. [Indicating door L.] Around thy bed each night
Have I placed thy samurai
In number one hundred
To guard thy sleep—
Ruiten. Zealously have I prayed
In the temple called "Miyo In,"
And during the night hours
Have knelt at thy house shrine
Praying to Buddha, the lord of the world.
Prince. Yet have I not slept
Entirely untortured.
Slow are thy prayers
In fruit bearing.
Ruiten. Slow because contending with evil—
[Approaches Prince.]
With evil in form strange and subtle.
Over this house hangs a spirit
Ne'er resting and ready always for dire deeds.
Prince. Such a spirit there must be—but what?
Ruiten. Evil takes many forms but the form of a cat
Is favored by many devils.
Prince. [Startled, the others watch him closely.] A cat—aye, truly
And if a cat stalked here
That evil thing must we kill.
Ruiten. Yet such is their power malignant
That they take other forms than the forms of cats—
Even human forms.
Prince. Ha!—And the spirit that visits me?
Mayhap that—
Only twice hath it failed of its visit.