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120 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
road eastward, being now fifteen years old, he put
on the cap of manhood and took the name of Yo-
shitsune'. After some weeks he reached Shimosa.
The boy soon showed the stuff he was made of by
capturing a robber empty-handed. Afterwards with
his sword he drove off a whole gang of burglars,
killing four on the spot. Afterwards he went north
and entered the service of Hidehira, a
prince,
wealthy
who had in his train many men of
and faithful warriors who owned horses.
renown
This is
the same nobleman who presented the bell to the
temple at He'isenji, which is a few miles north of
Fukui, and which still rings out the hours.
" When Yoshitsune' went to war or took horseback
exercise he put on his full suit of armor and equipments.
His black lacquered bow, made of oak and
bamboo, was strung with silk. His trusty blade was
hilted with white shark-skin, and sheathed in a scabbard
of ash-wood covered with tiger-skin, which was
the mark of a commander in the Japanese army.
His helmet was of iron, with the sign of a dragon
and two frontlets of brass like horns, called skyscrapers.
At his back was his quiver, well stored
with heavy steel-headed and hawk's-feathered arrows.
His sashimono, or white banneret, was marked
with three black bars and the Genji crest of three
gentian blossoms on three bamboo leaves. The
sashimono was fastened to a rod and stuck in a
wooden socket strapped to his back. His face was
completely covered by a visor of lacquered iron, the
chin and nose piece having a long white tuft of hair