"Oh, you wicked man! Oh, you devil! Only a man with the heart of a
devil could do what you have done!... And I would rather die than
continue to be the wife of such a man!"
And she sprang to the door, without waiting even to put on her sandals.
He caught her sleeve as she leaped; but she broke away from him, and
ran out, sobbing as she ran. And she ceased not to run, barefooted,
till she reached the town, when she hastened directly to the residence
of the Jitō. Then, with many tears, she told the Jitō everything: her
dream of the night before the hunting, and how she had hidden the
pheasant in order to save it, and how her husband had mocked her, and
had killed it.
The Jitō spoke to her kindly, and gave orders that she should be well
cared for; but he commanded his officers to seize her husband.
[Illustration]
Next day the farmer was brought up for judgment; and, after he had
been made to confess the truth concerning the killing of the pheasant,
sentence was pronounced. The Jitō said to him:--
"Only a person of evil heart could have acted as you have acted; and
the presence of so perverse a being is a misfortune to the community
in which he happens to reside. The people under Our jurisdiction are
people who respect the sentiment of filial piety; and among them you
cannot be suffered to live."
So the farmer was banished from the district, and forbidden ever
to return to it on pain of death. But to the woman the Jitō made a
donation of land; and at a later time he caused her to be provided with
a good husband.
[Footnote 1: The lord of the district, who acted both as governor and
magistrate.]