text: The hills the yamabushi group was walking through now were higher and much wilder-looking. They followed a highway traversed by crowds of pilgrims. Most were dressed in traditional white: gaiters, pants, jackets, and hats. Some sported banners that proclaimed their destination. Most of them, Tsuneyoshi explained, were heading for the great monastery at Mount Koya, where the sage Kobo Daishi, founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism, was buried. As they walked Tsuneyoshi expounded on Shingon lore and told Satsuki tales of magic and demons that made her head spin. He also explained something of their own objective. He and his band were followers of a daisendatsu, a master of the yamabushi. This master, Daisangyoja by name, a true holy man, was envied by other yamabushi leaders. Daisangyoja had called a meeting of his followers to perform a pilgrimage to the holiest of yamabushi sites, the mountains of Yoshino. There, he had promised his followers, he would perform a miracle that would reaffirm his claims, strengthen his powers, and overwhelm his opponents.
  
  "All of that?" asked Satsuki innocently.
  
  Tsuneyoshi peered at her suspiciously from between his hanging locks. She was not, as far as he could determine, laughing at him.
  
  "Yes," he said gruffly. "The Master will reaffirm the principles of the universe with his ritual. He will cleanse himself and us, and at the end of the ritual of the Summer Peak, he will announce himself to the world. The millennium will then surely come to this bright land of ours."
  
  She bowed in respect for the miracle as they walked.
  
  By evening they were at the outskirts of a substantial village, almost a town. There was drumming going on, and the unmistakable smell of a festival.
  
  On a wooden hill outside the village nestled a large thatch-roofed shrine. Several vermillion-painted gateposts marked the entrances to subsidiary shrine buildings. The giant cryptomerias that shaded the shrine sighed in the wind, ignoring the bustling crowds below them. Visitors came to pay their respects, receiving their sip of wine and seaweed, a share of the kami's bounty, in return.
  
  The yamabushi began looking around anxiously. Satsuki was beginning to feel apprehensive herself, when they were hailed. Greetings were exchanged, and the two bands of Daisangyoja's followers retired to a side clearing in the wood. Around them swirled a cloud of humanity, warned away as before by the paper-festooned ropes. The yamabushi prepared themselves for their various performances. Boxes were unpacked, the shamans and their assistants sought out corners of the forest. Tsuneyoshi and the leader of the other band headed off into the growing darkness, in the direction of the shrine.
  
  Satsuki was conducted by one of the yamabushi to a secluded corner. There was no screened area prepared for her here. She knelt on her mat, waiting passively for her work to begin.
  
  "Well, look what we 'ave 'ere." The rough voice interrupted her thoughts. Satsuki turned her head slowly. In the gloom, which was slowly being lit by flambeaux and candles, she could see three female figures. They were dressed in bright, though stained travel clothes. All three wore their hair unbound. They sprawled gracelessly on the ground. One of them spoke again, her accents the rough village accents of Kyushu Island.
  
  "Oo're you, lovey? So pretty and fine you look." She laughed loudly. "A proper lady, ain't cha?"
  
  Satsuki bowed slightly from her seat. "Osatsuki of Miyako, at your service."
  
  "Wot a luverly snotty accent she've got." The second slattern's tones were if anything rougher than the first's.
  
  "Leave her alone!" said the third figure. Her speech was as rough as the two others', but she spoke in a kindly tone. "I am Midori. Please do not worry. I understand from some of our men that you are new to the band. However, we will take care of you..."
  
  "Sure, sure," sneered one of the others. "We'll 'ave to tyke you down a peg too, Midori love..."
  
  The one called Midori rounded on her companions in fury. "Shut up!" she hissed at them. "Or I'll brain you." Either the tone of her voice or the rock she held in one fist convinced them, because the two women cowered and muttered among themselves.
  
  "Really, this is quite unnecessary. I do hope we can be friends," said Satsuki ingenuously.
  
  The other chuckled out of the darkness. "Well, at least we'll have to work together, so we might as well be friends."
  
  They chatted idly for a while, waiting for the screened area to be erected. All three girls had been living with their band for some time. They travelled the breadth and length of the country, from one pilgrimage center to another, servicing the pilgrims and the townsmen alike. They had been from Mount Haguro in the north to the eighty-eight pilgrimage sites of Shikoku to the south. They were from similar backgrounds. Midori, the third daughter of a poor craftsman, had run away from home and joined the yamabushi. The other two came from poor farm families and had run away as well.
  
  "Ah, there is Hachibei." One of the three women raised her head expectantly.
  
  Satsuki saw Tsuneyoshi approaching through the crowds, accompanied by a yamabushi she assumed was Hachibei. Both men seemed very excited. They stopped and spoke to the men in the compound, and messengers raced off into the darkness. Eventually the two approached the kneeling women.
  
  "This is the one I mentioned to you, Elder Brother." Tsuneyoshi indicated Satsuki. The other looked her over carefully, and his breath hissed from his teeth. He laughed and shook his head. "It is a shame we must refrain from sex for the next day, as the firewalking ritual requires. Otherwise I would like to receive your permission to try her."
  
  Satsuki bent her head and murmured, "I am honored." But her formal greeting was eclipsed by the other women's exclamations of surprise.
  
  "A firewalking? How wonderful!" There was an excited feminine babble.
  
  "Yes, I am afraid you will not be able to work tonight. We must prepare the grounds anyway. The shrine priest is of the Shogun sect, and he has given permission to perform the ritual. The portents have been rather bad for the region, and he is anxious to perform a prophylaxis." The two men moved off while the women relaxed and chatted.