Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 8 (Chinese and Japanese).djvu/367



HE Japanese adopted the Buddhist angels and the Taoist immortals with very little modification; but it was otherwise with the demons and other ghostly beings that were taken over from Hindu or Chinese sources, and it is often extremely difficult to trace the identity of such conceptions. It is a fact, however, that the evil spirits of the ancient native mythology are vague and shadowy objects, hardly more than names. Al-most all the demons or ghostly beings in Japanese folk-lore are of foreign origin, though Japanese imagination has shaped them into forms quite unlike those which they wore in other lands.

Creatures of this sort may be divided into three classes, though the lines between the classes are in many cases obscure. They are:

1. Ghosts, pure and simple, which are deteriorated forms of wandering human souls.

2. Demons, beings of infernal origin, created to chastise the wicked, but often busy in pure mischief and then almost comic in character.

3. Aerial vampires, called Tengu, and similar furious spirits that rage in the air.

It may be expedient at this point to say something more concerning the Buddhist doctrine about the transmigration of the soul. Besides the four superior stages on the way to Buddhahood, there are various classes of inferior unperfected spirits. The highest of them inhabit the heavens (Deva). Of these