Note 106 — Chapter X
Reading edition
What of the old story which I have heard from Uchimura and others of the Confucian missionary to certain head hunters of Formosa? After many years of labour among them they promised to give up head hunting if they might take just one more head. At last the good man yielded, and told them that a Chinaman in a red robe was coming towards the village the next day and his head might be taken. On the morrow the men lay in wait for the stranger, sprang on him and cut off his head, only to find that it was the head of their beloved missionary. Struck with remorse and realising the evil of head taking, the tribe gave up head hunting for ever.