Then the dead will answer questions quickly asked, but will cry continually: "Hasten, hasten! for this my coming back is painful, and I have but a little time to stay!" And having answered, the ghost passes; and the priest falls senseless upon his face.
Now to call back the dead is not good. For by calling them back their condition is made worse. Returning to the underworld, they must take a place lower than that which they held before.
To-day these rites are not allowed by law. They once consoled; but the law is a good law, and just,—since there exist men willing to mock the divine which is in human hearts.]
So it came to pass that O-Toyo found herself one night in a lonely little temple at the verge of the city,—kneeling before the ihai of her boy, and hearing the rite of incantation. And presently, out of the lips of the officiant there came a voice she thought she knew,—a voice loved above all others,—but faint and very thin, like a sobbing of wind.
And the thin voice cried to her:—
"Ask quickly, quickly, mother! Dark is the way and long; and I may not linger."
Then tremblingly she questioned:—
"Why must I sorrow for my child? What is the justice of the gods?"
And there was answer given:—
"O mother, do not mourn me thus! That I died was only that you might not die. For the year was a year of sickness and of sorrow,—and it was given me to know that you were to die; and I obtained by prayer that I should take your place(2).