Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/130

118 ''myōhō renge kyō! Namu myōhō renge kyō!''" At last, to some of the more nervous among them, wearied and excited as they are, the statues eyes seem suddenly to start into life, and they themselves rise wildly, feeling a snake, or maybe a tiger, inside their body, this unclean animal being regarded as the physical incarnation of their sins. Then, with a cry, the snake or serpent goes out of them, and they themselves are left fainting on the ground.—

"So far Dr. Baelz. His account may be supplemented by the remark that not only are there persons believed to be possessed by foxes (kitsune-tsuki), but others believed to possess foxes (kitsune-mochi), in other words, to be wizards or witches commanding unseen powers of evil which they can turn loose at will upon their enemies. The following extract from a Japanese newspaper (the Nichi-Nichi Shimbun of the 14th August, 1891) may serve to illustrate this point:

"In the province of Izumo, more especially in the western portion, there exists a peculiar custom called fox-owning, which plays an important part in marriages and transfers of landed property. When a marriage is being arranged between persons residing several leagues apart and unacquainted with each other, enquiries into such points of family history as a possible taint of leprosy or phthisis are subordinated to the first grand question: is or is not the other party a fox-owner? To explain this term, we may say that fox-owning families are believed to have living with them a tribe of small, weazle-like foxes to the number of seventy-five, called human foxes, by whom they are escorted and protected wherever they go, and who watch over their fields and prevent outsiders from doing them any damage. Should, however, any damage be done either through malice or ignorance, the offender is at once possessed by the fox, who makes him blurt out his crime and sometimes even procures his death. So great is the popular fear of the fox-owners that any one marrying into a fox-owning family, or buying land from them, or failing to repay money borrowed from them, is considered to be a fox-owner too.