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Page 16
A goblin-fox has the power to assume many shapes; but, for the purpose
of deceiving _men_, he usually takes the form of a pretty woman. When
he wants to create a charming phantom of this kind, he picks up an old
horse-bone or cow-bone, and holds it in his mouth. Presently the bone
becomes luminous; and the figure of a woman defines about it,--the
figure of a courtesan or singing-girl.... So the village query about
the man who marries a strange wife, "What old horse-bone has he picked
up?" signifies really, "What wanton has bewitched him?" It further
implies the suspicion that the stranger may be of outcast blood: a
certain class of women of pleasure having been chiefly recruited, from
ancient time, among the daughters of �ta and other pariah-people.
Hi tomoshit�
Kitsun� no kwas�shi,
Asobim�[26] wa--
Izuka no uma no
Hon� ni ya aruran!
[Footnote 26: _Asobim�_, a courtesan: lit., "sporting-woman." The �ta
and other pariah classes furnished a large proportion of these women.
The whole meaning of the poem is as follows: "See that young wanton
with her lantern! It is a pretty sight--but so is the sight of a fox,
when the creature kindles his goblin-fire and assumes the shape of
a girl. And just as your fox-woman will prove to be no more than an
old horse-bone, so that young courtesan, whose beauty deludes men to
folly, may be nothing better than an �ta."]
[_--Ah the wanton (lighting her lantern)!--so a fox-fire is
kindled in the time of fox-transformation!... Perhaps she is
really nothing more than an old horse-bone from somewhere or
other...._]
Kitsun�-bi no
Moyuru ni tsuk�t�,
Waga tama no
Kiyuru y[=o] nari
Kokoro-hoso-michi!
[_Because of that Fox-fire burning there, the very soul of me
is like to be extinguished in this narrow path (or, in this
heart-depressing solitude)._[27]]
[Footnote 27: The supposed utterance of a belated traveler frightened
by a will-o'-the-wisp. The last line allows of two readings.
_Kokoro-hosoi_ means "timid;" and _hosoi michi_ (_hoso-michi_) means a
"narrow path," and, by implication, a "lonesome path."]
II. RIKOMBY[=O]
The term _Rikomby[=o]_ is composed with the word _rikon_, signifying
a "shade," "ghost," or "spectre," and the word _by[=o]_, signifying
"sickness," "disease." An almost literal rendering would be
"ghost-sickness." In Japanese-English dictionaries you will find the
meaning of _Rikomby[=o]_ given as "hypochondria;" and doctors really
use the term in this modern sense. But the ancient meaning was _a
disorder of the mind which produced a Double_; and there is a whole
strange literature about this weird disease. It used to be supposed,
both in China and Japan, that under the influence of intense grief
or longing, caused by love, the spirit of the suffering person would
create a Double. Thus the victim of _Rikomby[=o]_ would appear to have
two bodies, exactly alike; and one of these bodies would go to join
the absent beloved, while the other remained at home. (In my "Exotics
and Retrospectives," under the title "A Question in the Zen Texts,"
the reader will find a typical Chinese story on the subject,--the
story of the girl Ts'ing.) Some form of the primitive belief in
doubles and wraiths probably exists in every part of the world; but
this Far Eastern variety is of peculiar interest because the double
is supposed to be caused by love, and the subjects of the affliction
to belong to the gentler sex.... The term _Rikomby[=o]_ seems to be
applied to the apparition as well as to the mental disorder supposed
to produce the apparition: it signifies "doppelg�nger" as well as
"ghost-disease."
* * * * *
--With these necessary explanations, the quality of the following
_ky[=o]ka_ can be understood. A picture which appears in the _Ky[=o]ka
Hyaku-Monogatari_ shows a maid-servant anxious to offer a cup of tea
to her mistress,--a victim of the "ghost-sickness." The servant cannot
distinguish between the original and the apparitional shapes before
her; and the difficulties of the situation are suggested in the first
of the _ky[=o]ka_ which I have translated:--
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