Saint of Mt. Koya
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"The snake departed and just as I had thought, he was an enormous one. His movement made the grass ripple some four or five yards in all directions. Indeed, the grass continued to ripple in a straight line all the way down into the valley below while the encircling peaks above trembled and shook. My body was rigid and cold with fear. Regaining my senses, I noticed that a cool and refreshing wind was blowing down from the peaks above.

"I quickly realized that the wind was reverberating through the mountains and creating an echo. Certainly the wind currents in the mountains are always uncertain, but I had a feeling that this wind was blowing through some sort of natural wind chimney.

"I wondered if this was the reply of the mountain deity to my prayer. In any case, the snake was gone and the heat seemed to relent a little and I once again resumed my journey in better spirits. Soon I was able to see why the wind was suddenly cooler, for there spread out before me was a great forest.

"I had always heard that Amo Pass is a strange and disturbing place, where it rains even when there are no clouds in the sky, and according to people I had talked to, there had not been a woodcutter in these forests since the beginning of time, yet up to this point in my journey there had been very few trees.


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Intangible