One day a hunter came across a pair of mandarin ducks - oshidori - swimming together in a river that he was about to cross. To kill oshidori is not good; but Sonjô happened to be very hungry, and he shot at the pair. His arrow pierced the male; the female escaped into the rushes of the farther shore, and disappeared. Sonjô took the dead bird home, and cooked it. That night he dreamed a dreary dream....