“Priests, they live high above the stone steps, and have nothing much to look after. That must be what makes them so free in tongue. Even this little fellow can talk so. There lay down your head—lay down, I say, do you hear? I will cut you if you don’t do as I tell you. You understand? The red thing will run.”
“It hurts! Don’t be so rough.”
“If you can’t stand this sort of thing, how can you expect to be a priest?”
“I am one already.”
“But not full feathered yet. Oh, say, by the way, how did Taian-san die?”
“Taian-san is not dead.”
“Not dead? He must be dead.”
“Taian-san has got a new spirit and is now hard at his study at Taibaiji temple in Rikuzen. Everybody expects he will make a great priest by and by. A very good thing, indeed.”
“What is good? Priests may have their way; but it cannot be good even for them to decamp at night? You ought to be careful, you young one, it is woman who brings you trouble. Speaking of a woman, does that crazy thing still come to the Osho-san?”
“I have never heard of a woman named ‘Crazy Thing’.”