Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/572

 224 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

He has given us authority over all the power of Satan. In the strength of this I spoke to the evil spirits in his name. We had been unable to quiet her before, but she listened while I said : ' This house and all in it belongs to our God Jehovah. We will never give so much as one rice grain to such as you. Go and get offerings from those who worship you.' I commanded the evil spirits in the name of Jesus to come out of her and never come again."

The demon was exorcised by prayer, and by reading appropriate pas- sages from the New Testament, namely Mark ix. 14-29, Matthew xvii. 14- 20, Mark v. 1-20, and after struggles, in which the patient exhibited intense fear, she recovered, and proved herself in the future an obedient pupil.

In noticing this case, the editor of the " Japan Evangelist " cites from the " Japan Mail " the notice of a series of articles by Mr. Haga Yaichi, now appearing in the " Teikoku Bungaku."

" A series of articles on ' The Fox in Japanese Literature ' is appearing in the ' Teikoku Bungaku.' The writer is Mr. Haga Yaichi. . The general conclusion which Mr. Haga reaches is that in the main the qualities attrib- uted to this animal, and the symbolic expressions which Reynard has given to literature are the same in the East and the West. Mr. Haga gives a large number of examples, a few of which we quote : Just as in English the fox is used as a symbol of craft in ' foxy, fox-like, foxish, and foxiness,' etc., so we have Kogi, suspicion, lit., to suspect like a fox. A lattice door, because in Japan things are often hidden behind it, is called Kitsune-do. An arrow that glances off into the air without striking the object aimed at is called Kitsune-ya. False fires are called Kitsune-bi in Japan and ' fox- fires ' with us. Weather that is made up half of sunshine and half of rain is called in Japan Kitsune-no yome-iri (a fox's wedding) and ' fox-weather ' in England. The word is used to describe certain plants in both England and Japan. There is in Japan the Kitsune-bana, the Kitsune-mame, the Kitsune-azami, the Kitsune no chabukuro, and others, as there is in English the 'fox-glove, the fox-grape, the fox-tail,' and so on. yEsop's fable about the fox deceiving the lion has its counterpart in the Japanese tale (borrowed from China) about the fox that made use of the tiger in the same way. Hence the Japanese expression Tora no i wo karu kitsune. Where the East differs from the West is in the wonderful transformations that are ascribed to the fox in China and Japan and the power to bewitch people said to be possessed by it. As far as my knowledge goes, says Mr. Haga, there is no instance in Western literature of foxes transforming themselves into human shape for the sake of obtaining human offspring. But this practice has constantly been resorted to by our Japanese foxes according to certain authorities. Mr. Haga is of opinion that most of Japan's fox- lore is borrowed from China. In that country, however, Mr. Haga ob- serves, the fox is by no means exclusively used as a symbol of various types of wickedness. It is often spoken of in terms of praise, and a very high destiny is assigned to it. After fifty years it is said to transform itself into a woman and to beget children; at the age of a hundred it assumes the form of a very beautiful woman, or becomes a man, according to fancy. It

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