" 'I guess you saw the horse I took away from there yesterday. Well, I expect that on the road before you reached the house you must have met a medicine peddler from Toyama. He was a lecherous fellow and right away he turned into a horse, and then I took him to the market and changed him from a horse into money, and then the money was changed into this carp. After all, this is my girl's favorite food. You look surprised, but what did you think she was anyway?' "

Without thinking I blurted out, "What was she?" rudely interrupting the priest's story.