JAPANESE HOME LIFE. 13 



greatest interest among the children, and which are, for the most 

 part, believed in even by the elders. In fact, among the more illit- 

 erate classes to be possessed with the spirit of a fox (kitsune-tsuki) 

 is a form of zoanthropy not infrequently met with, although the 

 disorder is more likely to be assumed than real, and the epithet 

 kitsune-tsuki, or " f ox-hearted," is more apt to be figuratively 

 applied than otherwise. Undoubtedly the popular belief in the 

 magical powers of foxes and badgers in Japan is as extensive as- 

 the frequently unexpressed belief in the supernatural found in 

 this country. The educated classes will decry any such super- 

 stitious belief, and yet will tell you of alleged experiences of their 

 friends or relatives with foxes or badgers, which are " very 

 strange and not to be accounted for." Fox and badger stories 

 are therefore highly appreciated by the juvenile members of any 

 Japanese family, principally on account of their " authenticity," 

 and because of that fascinating condition of fear and " the creeps "" 

 that their recital occasions. Here is a good badger story, the truth 

 of which I can vouch for, insomuch as there is a field of Inami 

 near Kyoto, and that it is a grewsome spot well suited for a tryst- 

 ing place for ghouls and ghosts. 



THE BURIAL AT MIDNIGHT.* 



Not far from Kyoto, in the smiling hill-land of Harima, there- 

 is a broad, open plain known as the " Field of Inami." Although 

 surrounded by verdant hillsides, this plain is bleak and barren ; 

 great gusts of wind sweep over the long, dry grasses, and no 

 farmer or peasant has ever found a home in this desolate spot. 

 Yet the great highway to Kyoto runs just to one side of the plain, 

 and on this road a postman used to carry his load of letters once 

 or twice every week. A little bypath leads across one corner of 

 the plain, lessening the distance to the city, and this path was a 

 great favorite with the postman, as it made his journey so much 

 the shorter. 



Going one day as usual to Kyoto, he reached the field a little 

 later than was his wont, and night came on before he had ad- 

 vanced very far. Without a light or the means of procuring one,, 

 he wandered aimlessly on for a while, but finally seeing that he 

 had missed the path in the darkness, resolved to pass the night 

 where he was, with the sky for a coverlet. Without giving a 

 second thought to all the ugly stories told of the field, the ghosts 

 and malicious fox-sprites said to hold their nightly revels in that 

 spot, the postman bravely determined to make the best of it, and 



* This tale was first translated from the Japanese into German, and read, among others, 

 before the Gesellschaft fur Volkerkunde in Ost-Asien, in Yokohama, by F. Warrington 

 Eastlake, Ph. D. 



