As he traveled with great speed he reached the temple very soon; and there, having purified his body by pouring water over it, he prayed with all his heart for an heir.
And during three days and three nights he abstained from food of every sort. But all seemed in vain.
Wherefore the lord, despairing because of the silence of the god, resolved to perform harakiri in the temple, and so to defile the sacred building.
Moreover, he resolved that his spirit, after his death, should haunt the mountain of Kurama, to deter and terrify all pilgrims upon the nine-mile path of the mountain.
The delay of even one moment would have been fatal; but good Ikenoshoji came running to the place just in time, and prevented the seppuku(2).
"Oh, my lord!" the retainer cried, "you are surely too hasty in your resolve to die.
"Rather first suffer me to try my fortune, and see if I may not be able to offer up prayer for your sake with more success."
Then after having twenty-one times purified his body,—seven times washing with hot water, seven times with cold, and yet another seven times washing himself with a bundle of bamboo-grass,—he thus prayed to the god:—
"If to my lord an heir be given by the divine favor, then I vow that I will make offering of paving-blocks of bronze wherewith to pave this temple court.
"Also of lanterns of bronze to stand in rows without the temple, and of plating of pure gold and pure silver to cover all the pillars within!"