Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/228

 a girl he is the central figure in numerous legends. His very name — ki-tsu-ne, "come and sleep" — is derived from such a legend, an ancient legend of the year 545 A.D. Ono, an inhabitant of Mino, spent the seasons longing for his ideal of female beauty. He met her one evening on a vast moor and married her. Simultaneously with the birth of their son, Ono's dog was delivered of a pup, which, as it grew up, became more and more hostile to the lady of the moors. She begged her husband to kill it, but he refused. At last, one day, the dog attacked her so fiercely that she lost heart, resumed her proper shape, leaped over a fence, and fled. "You may be a fox," Ono called after her, "but you are the mother of my son, and I love you. Come back when you please; you will always be welcome." So, every evening, she stole back and slept in his arms. The illiterate Japanese, even of the present day, though he may not entertain any very positive faith in such occurrences, preserves toward them a demeanour of respectful uncertainty. Not many years ago, a Tōkyō journal published a recent experience of a physician in Tochigi prefecture. Summoned at midnight to assist a lady in her confinement, he found, on arrival at her house, that the event was over, and that only some trifling medicines were needed. Having received his fee and been regaled with macaroni, he returned home. But the next morning, when he opened his purse, he saw that