Prevod

Once, an aged monk, his hair gone white, came to Seimei’s house in Tsuchimikado, bringing with him two boys of about ten. “Who might you be?” Seimei asked. “I am from Harima Province,” the monk replied. “I wish to study the arts of yin and yang. Having heard that you are especially accomplished in this way, I have come to ask you to teach me something of it.” Seimei thought, “This priest looks to be a cunning fellow. He has come to put me to the test. I must not let him think poorly of me. I shall take him down a little. Those boys attending him must be shikigami spirits he has brought in disguise.” Thinking, “If they are shikigami, let them be hidden from sight,” he formed a magic seal inside his sleeve and quietly chanted an incantation. Then he said to the priest, “Pray return home for now. Come again on an auspicious day, and I shall teach you whatever you wish to learn.” “How gracious of you!” said the priest, rubbing his hands together and raising them to his forehead before hurrying away. Just when Seimei thought he must have gone, the priest stopped and began peering into likely places here and there, including the carriage shed. At last he came back before Seimei and said, “Both the boys who accompanied me have disappeared. Please give them back, so that I may go home.” “What an extraordinary thing to say, good priest!” Seimei replied. “Why should I take someone else’s attendants?” “Indeed, my lord, you are entirely in the right,” said the priest. “Even so, I beg you to forgive me.” When he continued pleading, Seimei said, “Very well, very well. I found it vexing that you should come here with shikigami to test another man’s powers. You may try such things on others, but how could you think to do so to Seimei?” He then murmured as though reciting a spell, and after a little while the two boys came running in from outside and appeared before the priest. At this the priest said, “In truth, I did come to test you. Making shikigami is easy enough, but to hide those another man commands is quite beyond me. From this day forward, I shall be your devoted disciple.” And drawing from the bosom of his robe a written pledge bearing his name, he presented it to Seimei.