Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/233

 They lose their colour after emerging from the lake, and gradually pine away with symptoms that do not bear description.

Even the dog has a place in Japanese demonology. How the faithful animal originally fell under suspicion of supernatural wickedness, it is difficult to ascertain, but tradition represents him, not as naturally malevolent, but merely as the agent of human passion. An old woman, consumed with hatred of a powerful enemy whom her vengeance could not reach, buried her favourite dog in the ground so that its head alone emerged, and then, having fondled the head for a time, cut it off with a bamboo saw, saying: "If you have a soul, kill my enemy and I will worship you as a deity." Her wish was granted, but the spirit of the dog became thenceforth an inmate of her house, and made her suffer for her cruelty. The example set by this vengeful old woman is said to have been followed by others in a more logical fashion. Their idea being to convert the spirit of longing into a physical agency, they buried a dog, leaving only the head exposed, and surrounding it with tempting viands, suffered it to starve to death. Having thus received a vivid object lesson in the pain of unsatisfied desire, the dog's spirit was supplicated to save its former master or mistress from similar suffering.

The superstition outlined by this legend generally takes the form of a belief that the blood