Look around you and tell me what you see." "I see the shadows of the dead," she answered; "they stand about you, gazing at you with angry eyes; but when they come near you, something drives them back, and I cannot understand what it is they say." "Is the ghost of Umsuka among them ?" "It is among them." "Bid him prophesy the future to me." "I have bidden him, but he does not answer.

If you would hear him speak, it must be through the lips of my body; and first my body must be emptied of my ghost, that his may find a place therein." "Say, can his spirit be compelled ?" "It can be compelled, or that part of it which still hover near this spot, if you dare to speak the words you know.

But first its house must be made ready.

Then the words must be spoken, and all must be done before a man can count three hundred; for should the blood begin to clot about my heart, it will be still for ever." "Hearken," said Hokosa.

"When the medicine that I shall give does its work, and the spirit is loosened from your body, let it not go afar, no, whatever tempts or threatens it, and suffer not that the death-cord be severed, lest flesh and ghost be parted for ever." "I hear, and I obey.