One Thumb

One Thumb was a peasant who libed at Wall above the Ocean. In 1123 he met a woman he knew only as “Spirit Caller,” who could summon the spirits of the dead and question them. She used threats of evil magic to coerce him into helping her kidnap the young son of a Hiruma samurai stationed in the town as a Crab liaison to the Crane. The child was never found. Mgistrates who were investigating reports from anxious heimin of mahō rituals being conducted in a nearby forest arrested One Thumb, who confessed the crimes, and the peasant was subsequently executed.