In spite of his fierceness, Onikage found himself obliged to do everything which his rider wished. All present, Yokoyama and the others, could not speak for astonishment.
But soon the Choja, taking and setting up a six-folding screen, asked to see the prince ride his steed upon the upper edge of the screen.
The lord Oguri, consenting, rode upon the top of the screen; and then he rode along the top of an upright shoji frame.
Then a chessboard being set out, he rode upon it, making the horse rightly set his hoof upon the squares of the chessboard as he rode.
And, lastly, he made the steed balance himself upon the frame of an andon(4).
Then Yokoyama was at a loss what to do, and he could only say, bowing low to the prince:
"Truly I am grateful for your entertainment; I am very much delighted."
And the lord Oguri, having attached Onikage to a cherry-tree in the garden, reentered the apartment.
But Saburo, the third son of the house, having persuaded his father to kill the Hangwan with poisoned wine, urged the prince to drink sake with which there had been mingled the venom of a blue centipede and of a blue lizard, and foul water that had long stood in the hollow joint of a bamboo.
And the Hangwan and his followers, not suspecting the wine had been poisoned, drank the whole.