and with him he brought the two animals. Upon seeing these animals Tu Tzuchun was very amazed, for they were none other than his own parents. Though their bodies were those of starved-looking horses, they had the faces of his deceased parents.
“Why were you sitting on the top of the mountains of Emeishan? If you do not answer at once, I will put your parents to the torture instead of you.”
Tu Tzuchun did not make any answer to this threat.
“You undutiful wretch! You think, then, that all is well so long as you are happy and unharmed. You do not mind if your parents suffer?”
Then Yama, with a voice so loud and fierce that it shook the very foundations of the palace, cried:
“Beat these two animals, you devils. Beat them until all their flesh and bones are crushed to pulp!”
At his command the devils sprang up and seizing whips made of the hardest iron, began to beat the horses most unmercifully. Their whips whistled as they passed through the air, and the lashes descended upon the poor animals one after another. The animals—his parents who had taken the form of horses—writhed in agony, and shedding tears of blood, they screamed so hideously that it was horrible to hear.
“How now? Won’t you speak?”
Yama ordered the devils to cease their beating for a minute, and again pressed Tu Tzuchun to answer. The two horses lay gasping for breath, and their flesh, cut to the bone, was dripping with blood. Their bones were so broken and crushed that they both lay in a pool of gore at the foot of the throne.