so frightened, and when they tried to draw their bows, their fingers had no power and their arms hung by their sides. Even those, who by an effort of will, forced themselves to shoot their arrows, missed their aim and with the rest stood and stared like idiots.
One among the host seemed like a king, so splendidly did his garments glitter in the moonlight; he approached Taketori and began to speak, but the poor old man, who so short a time before had been boasting what he would do, now seemed like a drunken man and fell forward on his face. “Young Gray-beard,” said the moon-man, “the Princess Splendor, for having committed some great sin, was banished from the courts of the moon and forced to live on earth; and |
|
as a reward for your honesty and goodness she was sent to your miserable hovel for a short time and, at the same time, you were given gold enough to make you rich; but now, the time of her punishment having expired, we have come to take her back. Quickly bring her forth.”
The people in the moon, since they never die or grow old, thought Taketori very young in spite of his gray hairs; and to them an earthly palace seemed miserable and dirty, when compared with the glittering palaces of the moon.
The old man thinking to put them off replied, “The Princess Splendor has lived with us for twenty years, and since you say the one you are looking for has been away from the moon for only a short time, there may |
