After this misfortune, the unhappy princess passed from one
master to another as many as seventy-five times. Her last
purchaser was one Yorodzuya Chobei, well known as the keeper of a
large joroya(1) in the province of Mino.
When Terute-Hime was first brought before this new master, she
spoke meekly to him, and begged him to excuse her ignorance of
all refinements and of deportment. And Chobei then asked her to
tell him all about herself, her native place, and her family.
But Terute-Hime thought it would not be wise to mention even the
name of her native province, lest she might possibly be forced to
speak of the poisoning of her husband by her own father.
So she resolved to answer only that she was born in Hitachi;
feeling a sad pleasure in saying that she belonged to the same
province in which the lord Hangwan, her lover, used to live.
"I was born," she said, "in the province of Hitachi; but I am of
too low birth to have a family name. Therefore may I beseech you
to bestow some suitable name upon me?"
Then Terute-Hime was named Kohagi of Hitachi, and she was told
that she would have to serve her master very faithfully in his
business.
But this order she refused to obey, and said that she would
perform with pleasure any work given her to do, however mean or
hard, but that she would never follow the business of a joro.
"Then," cried Chobei in anger, "your daily tasks shall be
these:--
"To feed all the horses, one hundred in number, that are kept in
the stables, and to wait upon all other persons in the house when
they take their meals.
"To dress the hair of the thirty-six joro belonging to this
house, dressing the hair of each in the style that best becomes
her; and also to fill seven boxes with threads of twisted hemp.
"Also to make the fire daily in seven furnaces, and to draw water
from a spring in the mountains, half a mile from here."
Terute knew that neither she nor any other being alive could
possibly fulfill all the tasks thus laid upon her by this cruel
master; and she wept over her misfortune.
But she soon felt that to weep could avail her nothing. So wiping
away her tears, she bravely resolved to try what she could do,
and then putting on an apron, and tying back her sleeves, she set
to work feeding the horses.
The great mercy of the gods cannot be understood; but it is
certain that as she fed the first horse, all the others, through
divine influence, were fully fed at the same time.
And the same wonderful thing happened when she waited upon the
people of the house at mealtime, and when she dressed the hair of
the girls, and when she twisted the threads of hemp, and when she
went to kindle the fire in the furnaces.
But saddest of all it was to see Terute-Hime bearing the
water-buckets upon her shoulders, taking her way to the distant
spring to draw water.
And when she saw the reflection of her much-changed face in the
water with which she filled her buckets, then indeed she wept
very bitterly.
But the sudden remembrance of the cruel Chobei filled her with
exceeding fear, and urged her back in haste to her terrible
abode.
But soon the master of the joroya began to see that his new
servant was no common woman, and to treat her with a great show
of kindness.
(1)A house of prostitution.