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 "fox-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. 



