Saint of Mt. Koya
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"On one occasion a swarm of hornets built a nest in an ancient loquat tree that stood in front of the grove surrounding the doctor's house. At that time there was a young man named Kumazo who was an apprentice to the doctor and who also worked as a servant cleaning house, preparing medicine, digging potatoes in the garden, and pulling the doctor's riksha. The young man was in his mid twenties and had stolen from the doctor's pharmacy a bottle containing a mixture of hydrochloric acid and sugar water. He hid this in the closet under his formal clothing knowing that the doctor was a stingy man and that he would be scolded if the theft was discovered, but the boy liked to drink the concoction, so he kept pilfering it. One day while cleaning the garden Kumazo discovered the hornets' nest.

"He came to the veranda and called into the house telling the girl she should come and see what he had found, that it was something very interesting. He told her that if she would hold his hand for a while, he would then thrust that hand into the wasps' nest and let them cluster on it. He insisted that even if he was stung on a part of the hand which she had touched, he would feel no pain. Otherwise, if he were to swat the nest with his bamboo broom, the wasps would scatter in all directions and cluster around his body killing him with their stings.

"The girl merely smiled at his bravado, but he implored her and finally made her grasp his hand. Then he approached the wasps' nest where there was the sound of angry buzzing. Moments later the young man returned to the veranda with seven or eight wasps on his left hand beating their wings and twitching their legs, and crawling around between his clenched fingers.


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Intangible