“Here, Chobei, let me offer you some fish;” and with those words he drew his sword, and, picking up a cake of baked fish upon the point of it, thrust it towards the wardsman’s mouth.  Any ordinary man would have been afraid to accept the morsel so roughly offered; but Chobei simply opened his mouth, and taking the cake off the sword’s point ate it without wincing.  Whilst Jiurozayemon was wondering in his heart what manner of man this was, that nothing could daunt, Chobei said to him—­

“This meeting with your lordship has been an auspicious occasion to me, and I would fain ask leave to offer some humble gift to your lordship in memory of it.[24] Is there anything which your lordship would specially fancy?”

“I am very fond of cold macaroni.”

[Footnote 23:  It is an act of rudeness to offer a large wine-cup.  As, however, the same cup is returned to the person who has offered it, the ill carries with it its own remedy.  At a Japanese feast the same cup is passed from hand to hand, each person rinsing it in a bowl of water after using it, and before offering it to another.]

[Footnote 24:  The giving of presents from inferiors to superiors is a common custom.]

“Then I shall have the honour of ordering some for your lordship;” and with this Chobei went downstairs, and calling one of his apprentices, named Token Gombei,[25] who was waiting for him, gave him a hundred riyos (about L28), and bade him collect all the cold macaroni to be found in the neighbouring cook-shops and pile it up in front of the tea-house.  So Gombei went home, and, collecting Chobei’s apprentices, sent them out in all directions to buy the macaroni.  Jiurozayemon all this while was thinking of the pleasure he would have in laughing at Chobei for offering him a mean and paltry present; but when, by degrees, the macaroni began to be piled mountain-high around the tea-house, he saw that he could not make a fool of Chobei, and went home discomfited.

[Footnote 25:  Token, a nickname given to Gombei, after a savage dog that he killed.  As a Chonin, or wardsman, he had no surname.]

It has already been told how Shirai Gompachi was befriended and helped by Chobei.[26] His name will occur again in this story.

[Footnote 26:  See the story of Gompachi and Komurasaki.]

At this time there lived in the province of Yamato a certain Daimio, called Honda Dainaiki, who one day, when surrounded by several of his retainers, produced a sword, and bade them look at it and say from what smith’s workshop the blade had come.

“I think this must be a Masamune blade,” said one Fuwa Banzayemon.

“No,” said Nagoya Sanza, after examining the weapon attentively, “this certainly is a Muramasa."[27]