MORONAO. Oh, your request is natural. I am prepared for death; come, take my head. RECITATIVE. Putting him off his guard, Moronao suddenly draws his sword and strikes at him; but Yuranosuke parries the blow and twists his arm. YURANOSUKE. Ha, delicately do you offer resistance. Come, you all; now is the moment for wreaking our vengeance. RECITATIVE. Yuranosuke gives the first blow with his sword; and his forty and more comrades shout and rejoice as might the blind tortoise when it falls in with a floating log or as if they had seen the flower of the _udonge_ which blooms but once in three thousand years; they leap and dance in the fulness of their joy. The head is cut off with the dirk that their lord left behind. They rejoice and dance, for it was to see this one head that they forsook their wives, parted from their children, and lost their parents. What an auspicious day is to-day! They beat the head and bite at it; they all weep with joy. It is too natural, and becomes saddening to see. Yuranosuke takes out of his bosom his dead lord’s tablet and places it on a table in the alcove; he washes the head of its blood-stains and offers it before the tablet; and then he burns incense which he has brought in his helmet. He shuffles back and bows three times, nay, nine times to the tablet. [Illustration: Man on knees bowing to a low table which a a censer with burning incense] YURANOSUKE. I have the honour to report to the sacred spirit of our late lord, Renshoin Kenri-daikoji.[3] With the dirk which you bestowed on me when my lord committed suicide and enjoined me to give repose to your spirit, I have cut off Moronao’s head and now offer it before the tablet. I beg that from your resting-place under the grass my lord will accept it. RECITATIVE. With tears he offers prayers. YURANOSUKE. Come, let us one after another burn incense. REST. Since you are our chief commander, you will begin. YURANOSUKE. No, no. Before me you will burn incense, Master Yazama Jutaro. JUTARO. No, no, that is not to be thought of. If you favour me thus before the whole company, you will embarrass me. YURANOSUKE. No, it is no favour. Of the forty-six of us who have risked our lives to take Moronao’s head, you alone found him in the fuel-shed and caught him alive; and it shows that you are, indeed, pleasing to the sacred spirit of our Lord Enya. We envy you, Master Yazama. What do you say, gentlemen? ALL. We agree with you. JUTARO. But that........ YURANOSUKE. Come, we are wasting time. JUTARO. Then, by your leave. RECITATIVE. He burns incense first of all. JUTARO. The second is Master Yura. Come, stand up. YURANOSUKE. No, there is still another to burn incense. JUTARO. Who is that? Which of us? RECITATIVE. Yuranosuke takes out of his bosom a purse of checkered cloth.