It was she who went before me who loved that white man whose face was as your face is, but her ghost lives on in me and tells me the tale.

There have been many Asikas, for thousands of years they have ruled in this land, yet but one spirit belongs to them all; it is the string upon which the beads of their lives are threaded.

White man, I, whom you think young, know everything back to the beginning of the world, back to the time when I was a monkey woman sitting in those cedar trees, and if you wish, I can tell it you." "I should like to hear it very much indeed," answered Alan, when he had mastered her meaning, "though it is strange that none of the rest of us remember such things.

Meanwhile, O Asika, I will tell you that I desire to return to my own land, taking with me that gift of gold that you have given me.

When will it please you to allow me to return ?" "Not yet a while, I think," she said, smiling at him weirdly, for no other word will describe that smile.