Now Sentaro determined to set out to find the hermits, and if he
could, to become one, so that he might obtain the water of perpetual
life. He remembered that as a child he had been told that not only did
these hermits live on Mount Fuji, but that they were said to inhabit
all the very high peaks.
So he left his old home to the care of his relatives, and started out
on his quest. He traveled through all the mountainous regions of the
land, climbing to the tops of the highest peaks, but never a hermit
did he find.
At last, after wandering in an unknown region for many days, he met a
hunter.
"Can you tell me," asked Sentaro, "where the hermits live who have the
Elixir of Life?"
"No," said the hunter; "I can't tell you where such hermits live, but
there is a notorious robber living in these parts. It is said that he
is chief of a band of two hundred followers."
This odd answer irritated Sentaro very much, and he thought how
foolish it was to waste more time in looking for the hermits in this
way, so he decided to go at once to the shrine of Jofuku, who is
worshipped as the patron god of the hermits in the South of Japan.
Sentaro reached the shrine and prayed for seven days, entreating
Jofuku to show him the way to a hermit who could give him what he
wanted so much to find.
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