Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/69

 his way through the besiegers, and reaching the bank of a river, cut off his own head so that it fell into the stream. His body was thereafter hewed into eight pieces, and these, according to Korean custom, were exposed at eight places. It is related that a white dog which had been his pet, ran perpetually for several days from fragment to fragment of the corpse, guarding them from birds and beasts of prey, and finally, finding the head in the river, carried it into a deserted house, and having secreted it there, remained at the place until death from hunger ended the vigil. The Emperor, hearing of these things, caused the parts of the dead rebel's body to be collected and decently buried, and erected in memory of the dog a tomb which may be seen to this day in the province of Kawachi. Numerous instances of similar intelligence and fidelity made it easy for people to believe that the dog was more than a mere beast, and as for the fox, its cunning had always been counted supernatural. The fox-tamer spoken of above did not actually exhibit the uncanny animal at public performances. His business was to conjure in its name. There had once been a rustic who by virtue of the incantations of a Buddhist priest obtained the brush of a fox in a dream. Some intricate process of deduction led men to believe that if certain formulæ were repeated and certain rites observed, one could procure the services of a fox to benefit oneself at the cost of injuring some one else. If three