Shuntoku was comforted by these words; but he was also filled with pity for her, so that he wept, without being able to speak a word.
Then she said to him: "Since your wicked stepmother bewitched you only because you were rich, I am not afraid to revenge you by bewitching her also; for I, too, am the child of a rich man."
And then, with her whole heart, she spoke thus to the divinity within the temple:—"For the space of seven days and seven nights I shall remain fasting in this temple, to prove my vow; and if you have any truth and pity, I beseech you to save us.
"For so great a building as this a thatched roof is not the proper roof. I will re-roof it with feathers of little birds; and the ridge of the roof I will cover with thigh-feathers of falcons.
"This torii and these lanterns of stone are ugly: I will erect a torii of gold; and I will make a thousand lamps of gold and a thousand of silver, and every evening I will light them.
"In so large a garden as this there should be trees. I will plant a thousand hinoki, a thousand sugi, a thousand karamatsu.
"But if Shuntoku should not be healed by reason of this vow, then he and I will drown ourselves together in yonder lotos-pond.
"And after our death, taking the form of two great serpents, we will torment all who come to worship at this temple, and bar the way against pilgrims."
(1) An exclamation uttered to call the attention of another to the presence of the speaker,—from the respectful verb "to say." Our colloquial "say" does not give the proper meaning. Our "please" comes nearer to it.
Now, strange to say, on the night of the seventh day after she had vowed this vow, there came to her in a dream Kwannon-Sama who said to her: