Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/573

 Notes and Queries.

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��is said to have great foresight and in all matters to be far more knowing than man. At the age of iooo it is transformed into a god. Mr. Haga explains that in very ancient Japanese literature, though there is mention of almost every conceivable kind of transformation, there is no instance of a fox being described as transforming itself into a human being with a dis- tinctly sexual object in view in the way that it is habitually said to do in China. This abomination of literature ancient Japan was free from, ac- cording to Mr. Haga. But in later days these revolting transformations are constantly said to have taken place in Japan, and all the supernatural powers attributed to the animal in China were ascribed to it here. Reli- gious teachers helped to perpetuate the superstitious awe felt for the animal, and often represented themselves as possessing power to counteract its influence. Serious incurable diseases are often called Kitsa-ne-tsuki yamai, originating with the story of a fox whose spirit entered the body of the man that had killed it, and caused the man to contract a mortal disease. Mr. Haga has collected a very large amount of material bearing on the subject, and his essay is well worthy of being published in pamphlet form."

��NOTES AND QUERIES.

The Celestial Bear. — Since the publication in the preceding number of this Journal (p. 92) of the paper thus entitled, the author's attention has been drawn to Mrs. Zelia Nuttall's valuable paper on American Astro- nomy, in which is suggested an origin of the svastika in the circular motion and four seasonal positions of the stars of this asterism. If I rightly remember, the same suggestion has been made as to the source of the svastika in the eastern continent by Hewitt, in his " Ruling Prehistoric Races of Asia." When we recall that many authorities regard the svastika as a symbol of celestial motion or revolution, the suggestion becomes at least worthy of careful consideration. It is neither difficult nor unjustifiable to consider, for example, the probability that the elements of the primitive Bear legend would, when conventionalized in art, give rise to such a figure. The fact that the svastika has not been found among the less advanced Indian tribes of the north is of little account as an objection, when bal- anced against the use of the symbol by the Pueblos and other tribes who were acquainted with a form of the Bear legend. Nor does Dr. Brinton's objection as to the svastika as a symbol of revolution — that it presupposes the knowledge of the wheel — hold good against this conspicuous and easily observed revolution of the celestial Bear, which we find has played a part so important in myth and legend.

Stansbury Hagar.

Map exhibiting the Stars of the Celestial Bear (p. 92). — In con- sulting this map should be taken into consideration the following remarks, intended by the author to appear on the map, and omitted through mis- apprehension : —

vol. xiv. — no. 50. 15

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