Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/229

 the coins handed to him at his patient's residence were withered leaves. He hastened to revisit the place, and, guided by the tracks of the cart which had come to fetch him the preceding night, had no difficulty in reaching the spot. The house had disappeared. There was only a tea plantation in the midst of which a young fox lay dying. The macaroni alone was real: of that fact the physician was able to assure himself, and its provenance was explained by the discovery that macaroni prepared for a wedding feast in a neighbouring hamlet had been stolen on the same evening. There are scores of such stories, and hundreds of folks that listen to them gravely. There are also weak-minded persons to whose imagination these legends appeal so vividly that they become subjective victims of fox-possession. They bark like a fox, exhibit the utmost aversion to dogs, and otherwise lose their human identity. In many cases these imaginary seizures are cured by the aid of a priest. The patient is informed that means of enticing the fox to return to the hills have been provided, and that, at a certain hour and in obedience to a religious incantation, the animal will take its departure. Such remedies, attended by success, as they generally are, have the effect of confirming the superstition, and in rural districts few Japanese are entirely without belief in the phenomenon of fox-possession (kitsume-tsuki).

History contains records widely credited that