She was accordingly taken outside the city and
beheaded. This caused some consternation among the rebels, as the death
of the girl was looked upon as an omen of direct misfortune.
For a very long time she had been going around the country dropping
beans into the ground outside any houses she came across, the
superstition being that wherever a bean was dropped there in the very
spot, perhaps at the very moment, for aught that we know, an invincible
warrior would spring up. She had dropped some millions of beans, but the
ranks were not swelled as a consequence.
The _ch'en-tai_ had also been out all night, and as men were captured so
they were beheaded on the spot without mercy and their heads
subsequently hung outside the city gates. The headman of a small
village--some forty li from the city--succeeded in capturing one of the
leaders, and great credit was due to him; but soon the leader was
rescued again by his followers, who then brutally killed and mutilated
the body of the headman, causing him to undergo the ignominy of having
his tongue and his heart cut out. Fighting was going on everywhere, and
by the end of March things were at their height. The fact that rain was
badly needed tended only to aggravate the situation, and that lustrous
comet made things worse.
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