It was the month of May. Hachiman Taro Yoshiie (a famous warrior), Abe-no Seimei (a noted augur), Tada Akira (the distinguished physician) and Kanju-Sojo (a well-known priest) all met at the home of Mido Kampaku Michinaga. They decided to spend a great time together. Nara had sent a basket of early melons as a gift at the palace. But it was a day of fasting. So, everyone was doubtful if things from outside the palace were allowed to be brought in or not. Mido asked Abe-no-Seimei to make an angury. He announced that there was poison in one of the melons. So, Kanju-Sojo then performed an incantation. He prayed for a while. Suddenly, one of the melons from the basket started jumping up and down. Now, everyone knew that the jumping melon was poisonous.
The Jumping Melon
All the people looked at the physician, Tada Akira. They asked him to use needles to draw out the poison. Tada Akira picked up the melon in his hands. He, then, turned it around and stuck needles into two places. As soon as the needles were stuck, the melon stopped jumping. Thereafter, Hachiman Taro Yoshiie, the warrior, drew his sword from his hip and cut the melon open to see. As soon as the melon was cut, everyone was shocked. There was a small poisonous snake inside, just as Abe-no Seimei had hinted. The two needles which the physician Tada Akira had stuck into the melon had each pierced an eye of the snake. Though Yoshiie had only casually tried to cut the melon open, his sword had exactly cut off the head of the snake. Everyone was now relaxed!
