The Romance of the Milky Way by Lafcadio Hearn

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Samuk['e]sa ni
Zotto[38] wa sur['e]do
Yuki-Onna,--
Yuki or['e] no naki
Yanagi-goshi ka mo!

[_Though the Snow-Woman makes one shiver by her coldness,--ah, the
willowy grace of her form cannot be broken by the snow (i.e. charms us
in spite of the cold)._]

[Footnote 38: _Zotto_ is a difficult word to render literally: perhaps
the nearest English equivalent is "thrilling." _Zotto suru_ signifies
"to cause a thrill" or "to give a shock," or "to make shiver;"
and of a very beautiful person it is said "_Zotto-suru hodo no
bijin_,"--meaning! "She is so pretty that it gives one a shock merely
to look at her." The term _yanagi-goshi_ ("willow-loins") in the
last line is a common expression designating a slender and graceful
figure; and the reader should observe that the first half of the term
is ingeniously made to do double duty here,--suggesting, with the
context, not only the grace of willow branches weighed down by snow,
but also the grace of a human figure that one must stop to admire, in
spite of the cold.]

VII. FUNA-Y[=U]R['E][:I]

The spirits of the drowned are said to follow after ships, calling for
a bucket or a water-dipper (_hishaku_). To refuse the bucket or the
dipper is dangerous; but the bottom of the utensil should be knocked
out before the request is complied with, and the spectres must not
be allowed to see this operation performed. If an undamaged bucket or
dipper be thrown to the ghosts, it will be used to fill and to sink
the ship. These phantoms are commonly called _Funa-Y[=u]r['e][:i]_
("Ship-Ghosts").

The spirits of those warriors of the H['e][:i]k['e] clan who perished
in the great sea-fight at Dan-no-ura, in the year 1185, are famous
among Funa-Y[=u]r['e][:i]. Ta[:i]ra no Tomomori, one of the chiefs of
the clan, is celebrated in this weird r[^o]le: old pictures represent
him, followed by the ghosts of his warriors, running over the waves to
attack passing ships. Once he menaced a vessel in which Benk['e][:i],
the celebrated retainer of Yoshitsun['e], was voyaging; and
Benk['e][:i] was able to save the ship only by means of his Buddhist
rosary, which frightened the spectres away....

Tomomori is frequently pictured as walking upon the sea, carrying a
ship's anchor on his back. He and his fellow-ghosts are said to have
been in the habit of uprooting and making off with the anchors
of vessels imprudently moored in their particular domain,--the
neighborhood of Shimonos['e]ki.

Erimoto y['e]
Mizu kak['e]raruru
Kokochi seri,
"Hishaku kas['e]" ch[=o]
Fun['e] no kowan['e] ni.

[_As if the nape of our necks had been sprinkled with cold
water,--so we felt while listening_ _to the voice of the
ship-ghost, saying:--"Lend me a dipper!"_[39]]

[Footnote 39: _Hishaku_, a wooden dipper with a long handle, used to
transfer water from a bucket to smaller vessels.]

Y[=u]rei ni
Kasu-hishaku yori
Ichi-hayaku
Onor['e] ga koshi mo
Nuk['e]ru sench[=o].

[_The loins of the captain himself were knocked out very much
more quickly than the bottom of the dipper that was to be
given to the ghost._[40]]

[Footnote 40: The common expression _Koshi ga nuk['e]ru_ (to have
one's loins taken out) means to be unable to stand up by reason of
fear. The suggestion is that while the captain was trying to knock
out the bottom of a dipper, before giving it to the ghost, he fell
senseless from fright.]

Benk['e][:i] no
Zuzu no kuriki ni
Tomomori no
Sugata mo ukamu--
Fun['e] no y[=u]r['e][:i].

[_By the virtue of Benk['e][:i]'s rosary, even_ _the
ship-following ghost--even the apparition of Tomomori--is
saved._]

Y[=u]r['e][:i] wa
Ki naru Izumi no
Hito nagara,
A[:o]-umibara ni
Nadot['e] itsuran?

[_Since any ghost must be an inhabitant of the Yellow Springs,
how should a ghost appear on the Blue Sea-Plain?_[41]]

[Footnote 41: The Underworld of the Dead--_Yomi_ or K[=o]sen--is
called "The Yellow Springs;" these names being written with two
Chinese characters respectively signifying "yellow" and "fountain." A
very ancient term for the ocean, frequently used in the old Shint[=o]
rituals, is "The Blue Sea-Plain."]

Sono sugata,
Ikari wo [=o]t['e],
Tsuki-mato[:u]
Fun['e] no h['e]saki ya
Tomomori no r['e][:i]!

[_That Shape, carrying the anchor on its back, and following
after the ship--now at the bow and now at the stern--ah, the
ghost of Tomomori._[42]]

[Footnote 42: There is an untranslatable play upon words in the last
two lines. The above rendering includes two possible readings.]

Tsumi fukaki
Umi ni shidzumishi,
Y[=u]r['e][:i] no
"Ukaman" tot['e] ya!
Fun['e] ni sugar['e]ru.

[_Crying, "Now perchance I shall be saved!" The ghost
that sank into the deep Sea of Sin clings to the passing
ship!_[43]]

[Footnote 43: There is more weirdness in this poem than the above
rendering suggests. The word _ukaman_ in the fourth line can be
rendered as "shall perhaps float," or as "shall perhaps be saved" (in
the Buddhist sense of salvation),--as there are two verbs _ukami_.
According to an old superstition, the spirits of the drowned must
continue to dwell in the waters _until such time as they can lure the
living to destruction_. When the ghost of any drowned person succeeds
in drowning somebody, it may be able to obtain rebirth, and to leave
the sea forever. The exclamation of the ghost in this poem really
means, "Now perhaps I shall be able to drown somebody." (A very
similar superstition is said to exist on the Breton coast.) A common
Japanese saying about a child or any person who follows another too
closely and persistently is: _Kawa de shinda-y[=u]r['e][:i] no yona
tsur['e]-hoshigaru!_--"Wants to follow you everywhere like the ghost
of a drowned person."]

Ukaman to
Fun['e] we shita[:e]ru
Yur['e][:i] wa,
Shidzumishi h['i]to no
Omo[:i] naruran.

[_The ghosts following after our ship in their efforts to rise
again (or, "to be saved") might perhaps be the (last vengeful)
thoughts of drowned men.[44]]

[Footnote 44: Here I cannot attempt to render the various plays upon
words; but the term "_omo[:i]_" needs explanation. It means "thought"
or "thoughts;" but in colloquial phraseology it is often used as a
euphemism for a dying person's last desire of vengeance. In various
dramas it has been used in the signification of "avenging ghost." Thus
the exclamation, "His _thought_ has come back!"--in reference to a
dead man--really means: "His angry ghost appears!"]

Uram['e]shiki
Sugata wa sugoki
Yur['e][:i] no,
Kaji we jama suru
Fun['e] no Tomomori.

[_With vengeful aspect, the grisly ghost of Tomomori
(rises) at the stern of the ship to hinder the play of her
rudder._[45]]

[Footnote 45: There is a double meaning given by the use of the name
_Tomomori_ in the last line. _Tomo_ means "the stern" of a ship;
_mori_ means "to leak." So the poem suggests that the ghost of
Tomomori not only interferes with the ship's rudder, but causes her to
leak.]

Ochi-irit['e],
Uwo no ['e]jiki to
Nari ni ken;--
Funa-y[=u]r['e][:i] mo
Nama-kusaki kaz['e].

[_Having perished in the sea, (those H['e][:i]k['e]) would
probably have become food for fishes. (Anyhow, whenever) the
ship-following ghosts (appear), the wind has a smell of raw
fish!_[46]]

[Footnote 46: _Namakusaki-kaze_ really means a wind having a "raw
stench;" but the smell of bait is suggested by the second line of the
poem. A literal rendering is not possible in this case; the art of the
composition being altogether suggestive.]

VIII. H['E][:I]K['E]GAN[`I]

Readers can find in my "Kott[=o]" a paper about the
H['e][:i]k['e]-Crabs, which have on their upper shells various
wrinklings that resemble the outlines of an angry face. At
Shimono-s['e]ki dried specimens of these curious creatures are offered
for sale.... The H['e][:i]k['e]-Crabs are said to be the transformed
angry spirits of the H['e][:i]k['e] warriors who perished at
Dan-no-ura.

Shiwo-hi ni wa
S['e][:i]zoro[:e] shit['e],
H['e][:i]k['e]gani
Ukiyo no sama we
Yoko ni niramitsu.

[_Marshaled (on the beach) at the ebb of the tide, the
H['e][:i]k['e]-crabs obliquely glare at the apparition of this
miserable world._[47]]

[Footnote 47: _Hi_, the third syllable of the first line of the poem,
does duty for _hi_, signifying "ebb," and for _hikata_, "dry beach."
_S['e][:i]zoro[:e]_ is a noun signifying "battle-array"--in the sense
of the Roman term _acies_;--and _s['e][:i]zoro['e] shit['e]_ means
"drawn up in battle-array."]

Saikai ni
Shizumi-nur['e]domo,
H['e][:i]k['e]gani
K[=o]ra no iro mo
Yahari aka-hata.

[_Though (the H['e][:i]k['e]) long ago sank and perished in
the Western Sea, the H['e][:i]k['e]-crabs still display_ _upon
their upper shells the color of the Red Standard._[48]]

[Footnote 48: The ensign of the H['e][:i]k['e], or Ta[:i]ra clan was
red; while that of their rivals, the Genji or Minamot[=o], was white.]

Mak['e]-ikusa
Munen to mun['e] ni
Hasami ken;--
Kao mo makka ni
Naru H['e][:i]k['e]gani.

[_Because of the pain of defeat, claws have grown on their
breasts, I think;--even the faces of the H['e][:i]k['e]-crabs
have become crimson (with anger and shame)._]

Mikata mina
Oshi-tsubusar['e]shi
H['e][:i]k['e]gani
Ikon we mun['e] ni
Hasami mochik['e]ri.

[_All the (H['e][:i]k['e]) party having been utterly crushed,
claws have grown upon the breasts of the H['e][:i]k['e]-crabs
because of the resentment in their hearts._[49]]

[Footnote 49: The use of the word _hasami_ in the fifth line is a
very good example of _keny[=o]gen_. There is a noun _hasami_, meaning
the nippers of a crab, or a pair of scissors; and there is a verb
_hasami_, meaning to harbor, to cherish, or to entertain. (_Ikon wo
hasamu_ means "to harbor resentment against.") Reading the word only
in connection with those which follow it, we have the phrase _hasami
mochik['e]ri_, "got claws;" but, reading it with the words preceding,
we have the expression _ikon wo mun['e] ni hasami_, "resentment in
their breasts nourishing."]

IX. YANARI

Modern dictionaries ignore the uncanny significations of the word
_Yanari_,--only telling us that it means the sound of the shaking of
a house during an earthquake. But the word used to mean the noise of
the shaking of a house moved by a goblin; and the invisible shaker was
also called _Yanari_. When, without apparent cause, some house would
shudder and creak and groan in the night, folk used to suppose that it
was being shaken from without by supernatural malevolence.

Tokonoma ni
Ik['e]shi tachiki mo
Taor['e]-keri;
Yanari ni yama no
Ugoku kak['e]mono!

[_Even the live tree set in the alcove has fallen down; and
the mountains in the hanging picture tremble to the quaking
made by the Yanari!_[50]]

[Footnote 50: The _tokonoma_ in a Japanese room is a sort of
ornamental recess or alcove, in which a picture is usually hung, and
vases of flowers, or a dwarf tree, are placed.]

X. SAKASA-BASHIRA

The term _Sakasa-bashira_ (in these _ky[=o]ka_ often shortened into
_saka-bashira_) literally means "upside-down post." A wooden post or
pillar, especially a house-post, should be set up according to the
original position of the tree from which it was hewn,--that is to say,
with the part nearest to the roots downward. To erect a house-post in
the contrary way is thought to be unlucky;--formerly such a blunder
was believed to involve unpleasant consequences of a ghostly kind,
because an "upside-down" pillar would do malignant things. It would
moan and groan in the night, and move all its cracks like mouths, and
open all its knots like eyes. Moreover, the spirit of it (for every
house-post has a spirit) would detach its long body from the timber,
and wander about the rooms, head-downwards, making faces at people.
Nor was this all. A _Sakasa-bashira_ knew how to make all the affairs
of a household go wrong,--how to foment domestic quarrels,--how to
contrive misfortune for each of the family and the servants,--how
to render existence almost insupportable until such time as the
carpenter's blunder should be discovered and remedied.

Saka-bashira
Tat['e]shi wa tazo ya?
Kokoro ni mo
Fushi aru hito no
Shiwaza naruran.

[_Who set the house-pillar upside-down? Surely that must have
been the work of a man with a knot in his heart._]

Hidayama we
Kiri-kit['e] tat['e]shi
Saka-bashira--
Nanno takumi[51] no
Shiwaza naruran?

[_That house-pillar hewn in the mountains of Hida, and thence
brought here and erected upside-down--what carpenter's work
can it be? (or, "for what evil design can this deed have been
done?")_]

[Footnote 51: The word _takumi_, as written in _kana_, may signify
either "carpenter" or "intrigue," "evil plot," "wicked device." Thus
two readings are possible. According to one reading, the post was
fixed upside-down through inadvertence; according to the other, it was
so fixed with malice prepense.]

U[:e] shita wo
Chiga[:e]t['e] tat['e]shi
Hashira ni wa
Sakasama-goto no
Ur['e][:i] aranan.

[_As for that house-pillar mistakenly planted upside-down, it
will certainly cause adversity and sorrow._[52]]

[Footnote 52: Lit., "upside-down-matter-sorrow." _Sakasama-goto_,
"up-side-down affair," is a common expression for calamity,
contrariety, adversity, vexation.]

Kab['e] ni mimi
Arit['e], kik['e] to ka?
Sakashima ni
Tateshi hashira ni
Yanari suru oto!

[_O Ears that be in the wall![53] listen, will ye? to the
groaning and the creaking of the house-post that was planted
upside-down!_]

[Footnote 53: Alluding to the proverb, _Kab['e] ni mimi ari_ ("There
are ears in the wall"), which signifies: "Be careful how you talk
about other people, even in private."]

Uri-iy['e] no
Aruji we to[:e]ba,
Oto arit['e]:
War['e] m['e] ga kuchi wo
Aku saka-bashira.

[_When I inquired for the master of the house that was
for sale, there came to me only a strange sound by way of
reply,--the sound of the upside-down house-post opening its
eyes and mouth![54] (i.e. its cracks)._]

[Footnote 54: There is a pun in the fourth line which suggests more
than even a free translation can express. _War['e]_ means "I," or
"mine," or "one's own," etc., according to circumstances; and _war['e]
m['e]_ (written separately) might be rendered "its own eyes." But
_war['e]m['e]_ (one word) means a crack, rent, split, or fissure. The
reader should remember that the term _saka-bashira_ means not only
"upside-down post," but also the goblin or spectre of the upside-down
post.]

Omo[:i]kiya!
Sakasa-bashira no
Hashira-kak['e]
Kakinishit uta mo
Yamai ari to wa!

[_Who could have thought it!--even the poem inscribed upon
the pillar-tablet, attached to the pillar which was planted
upside-down, has taken the same (ghostly) sickness._[55]]

[Footnote 55: That is to say, "Even the poem on the tablet is
up-side-down,"--all wrong. _Hashira-kak['e]_ ("pillar-suspended
thing") is the name given to a thin tablet of fine wood, inscribed or
painted, which is hung to a post by way of ornament.]

XI. BAK['E]-JIZ[:O]

The figure of the Bodhi-sattva Jiz[:o], the savior of children's
ghosts, is one of the most beautiful and humane in Japanese Buddhism.
Statues of this divinity may be seen in almost every village and by
every roadside. But some statues of Jiz[:o] are said to do uncanny
things--such as to walk about at night in various disguises. A statue
of this kind is called a _Bak['e]-Jiz[=o]_[56],--meaning a Jiz[=o];
that undergoes transformation. A conventional picture shows a little
boy about to place the customary child's-offering of rice-cakes before
the stone image of Jiz[=o],--not suspecting that the statue moves, and
is slowly bending down towards him.

[Footnote 56: Perhaps the term might be rendered "Shape-changing
Jiz[=o]." The verb _bak['e]ru_ means to change shape, to undergo
metamorphosis, to haunt, and many other supernatural things.]

Nanig['e] naki
Ishi no Jiz[=o] no
Sugata sa[:e],
Yo wa osoroshiki
Mikag['e] to zo naki.

[_Though the stone Jiz[=o] looks as if nothing were the matter
with it, they say that at night it assumes an awful aspect
(or, "Though this image appears to be a common stone Jiz[=o],
they say that at night it becomes an awful Jiz[=o]; of
granite."_[57])]

[Footnote 57: The Japanese word for granite is _mikag['e]_; and there
is also an honorific term _mikag['e]_, applied to divinities and
emperors, which signifies "august aspect," "sacred presence," etc....
No literal rendering can suggest the effect, in the fifth line, of
the latter reading. _Kag['e]_ signifies "shadow," "aspect," and
"power"--especially occult power; the honorific prefix _mi_, attached
to names and attributes of divinities, may be rendered "august."]

XII. UMI-B[=O]ZU

Place a large cuttlefish on a table, body upwards and tentacles
downwards--and you will have before you the grotesque reality that
first suggested the fancy of the _Umi-B[=o]zu_, or Priest of the Sea.
For the great bald body in this position, with the staring eyes below,
bears a distorted resemblance to the shaven head of a priest; while
the crawling tentacles underneath (which are in some species united
by a dark web) suggests the wavering motion of the priest's upper
robe.... The Umi-B[=o]zu figures a good deal in the literature of
Japanese goblinry, and in the old-fashioned picture-books. He rises
from the deep in foul weather to seize his prey.

Ita hito[:e]
Shita wa Jigoku ni,
Sumizom['e] no
B[=o]zu no umi ni
D['e]ru mo ayashina!

[_Since there is but the thickness of a single plank (between
the voyager and the sea), and underneath is Hell, 'tis indeed
a weird thing that a black-robed priest should rise from
the sea (or, "'tis surely a marvelous happening that,"
etc.!_[58])]

[Footnote 58: The puns are too much for me.... _Ayashii_ means
"suspicious," "marvelous," "supernatural," "weird," "doubtful."--In
the first two lines there is a reference to the Buddhist proverb:
_Funa-ita ichi-mai shita wa Jigoku_ ("under the thickness of a single
ship's-plank is Hell"). (See my _Gleanings in Buddha-Fields_, p. 206,
for another reference to this saying.)]

XIII. FUDA-H['E]GASHI[59]

Homes are protected from evil spirits by holy texts and charms. In any
Japanese village, or any city by-street, you can see these texts when
the sliding-doors are closed at night: they are not visible by day,
when the sliding-doors have been pushed back into the _tobukuro_.
Such texts are called _o-fuda_ (august scripts): they are written in
Chinese characters upon strips of white paper, which are attached
to the door with rice-paste; and there are many kinds of them. Some
are texts selected from sutras--such as the S[^u]tra of Transcendent
Wisdom (Prag[~n]a-P[^a]ramit[^a]-Hridaya-S[^u]tra), or the S[^u]tra
of the Lotos of the Good Law (Saddharma-Pundarik[^a]-S[^u]tra). Some
are texts from the dh[^a]ran[^i]s,--which are magical. Some are
invocations only, indicating the Buddhist sect of the household....
Besides these you may see various smaller texts, or little prints,
pasted above or beside windows or apertures,--some being names of
Shinto gods; others, symbolical pictures only, or pictures of Buddhas
and Bodhi-sattvas. All are holy charms,--_o-fuda_: they protect the
houses; and no goblin or ghost can enter by night into a dwelling so
protected, unless the _o-fuda_ be removed.

[Footnote 59: _H['e]gashi_ is the causative form of the verb
_h['e]gu_, "to pull off," "peel off," "strip off," "split off." The
term _Fuda-h['e]gashi_ signifies "Make-peel-off-august-charm Ghost."
In my _Ghostly Japan_ the reader can find a good Japanese story about
a _Fuda-h['e]gashi_.]

Vengeful ghosts cannot themselves remove an _o-fuda_; but they will
endeavor by threats or promises or bribes to make some person remove
it for them. A ghost that wants to have the _o-fuda_ pulled off a door
is called a _Fuda-h['e]gashi_.

H['e]gasan to
Rokuji-no-fuda wo,
Yur['e][:i] mo
Nam'mai d[=a] to
Kazo[:e]t['e] zo mini.

[_Even the ghost that would remove the charms written with six
characters actually tries to count them, repeating: "How many
sheets are there?" (or, repeating, "Hail to thee, O Buddha
Amit['a]bha!"[60])_]

[Footnote 60: The fourth line gives these two readings:--

_Nam'mai da?_--"How many sheets are there?"

_Nam[u] A[m]ida!_--"Hail, O Amit[^a]bha!"

The invocation, _Namu Amida Butsu_, is chiefly used by members of the
great Shin sect; but it is also used by other sects, and especially in
praying for the dead. While repeating it, the person praying numbers
the utterances upon his Buddhist rosary; and this custom is suggested
by the use of the word _kazo[:e]t['e]_, "counting."]

Tada ichi no
Kami no o-fuda wa
Sasuga ni mo
Norik['e] naku to mo
H['e]gashi kan['e]k['e]ri.

[_Of the august written-charms of the god (which were pasted
upon the walls of the house), not even one could by any effort
be pulled off, though the rice-paste with which they had been
fastened was all gone._]

XIV. FURU-TSUBAKI

The old Japanese, like the old Greeks, had their flower-spirits and
their hamadryads, concerning whom some charming stories are told. They
also believed in trees inhabited by malevolent beings,--goblin trees.
Among other weird trees, the beautiful _tsubaki_ (_Camellia Japonica_)
was said to be an unlucky tree;--this was said, at least, of the
red-flowering variety, the white-flowering kind having a better
reputation and being prized as a rarity. The large fleshy crimson
flowers have this curious habit: they detach themselves bodily from
the stem, when they begin to fade; and they fall with an audible thud.
To old Japanese fancy the falling of these heavy red flowers was like
the falling of human heads under the sword; and the dull sound of
their dropping was said to be like the thud made by a severed head
striking the ground. Nevertheless the tsubaki seems to have been
a favorite in Japanese gardens because of the beauty of its glossy
foliage; and its flowers were used for the decoration of alcoves. But
in samurai homes it was a rule never to place tsubaki-flowers in an
alcove _during war-time_.

The reader will notice that in the following _ky[=o]ka_--which, as
grotesques, seem to me the best in the collection--the goblin-tsubaki
is called _furu-tsubaki_, "old tsubaki." The young tree was not
supposed to have goblin-propensities,--these being developed only
after many years. Other uncanny trees--such as the willow and the
_['e]noki_--were likewise said to become dangerous only as they became
old; and a similar belief prevailed on the subject of uncanny animals,
such as the cat--innocent in kittenhood, but devilish in age.

Yo-arashi ni
Chishiho itadaku
Furu tsubaki,
Hota-hota ochiru
Hana no nama-kubi.

[_When by the night-storm is shaken the blood-crowned and
ancient tsubaki-tree, then one by one fall the gory heads of
the flowers, (with the sound of) hota-hota!_[61]]

[Footnote 61: The word _furu_ in the third line is made to do double
duty,--as the adjective, _furu[i]_, "ancient"; and as the verb _furu_,
"to shake." The old term _nama-kuhi_ (lit., "raw head") means a human
head, freshly-severed, from which the blood is still oozing.]

Kusa mo ki mo
N['e]mur['e]ru koro no
Sayo kaz['e] ni,
M['e]hana no ugoku
Furu-tsubaki kana!

[_When even the grass and the trees are sleeping under the
faint wind of the night,--then do the eyes and the noses of
the old tsubaki-tree (or "the buds and the flowers of the old
tsubaki-tree") move!_[62]]

[Footnote 62: Two Japanese words are written, in _kana_, as
"m['e]"--one meaning "a bud;" the other "eye." The syllables "hana" in
like fashion, may signify either "flower" or "nose." As a grotesque,
this little poem is decidedly successful.]

Tomoshibi no
Kag['e] ayashig['e] ni
Miy['e]nuru wa
Abura shiborishi
Furu-tsubaki ka-mo?

[_As for (the reason why) the light of that lamp appears to be
a Weirdness,[63]--perhaps the oil was expressed from (the nuts
of) the ancient tsu-baki?_]

[Footnote 63: _Ayashig['e]_ is a noun formed from the adjective
_ayashi_, "suspicious," "strange," "supernatural," "doubtful." The
word _kag['e]_ signifies both "light" and "shadow,"--and is here used
with double suggestiveness. The vegetable oil used in the old Japanese
lamps used to be obtained from the nuts of the _tsubaki_. The reader
should remember that the expression "ancient tsubaki" is equivalent to
the expression "goblin-tsubaki,"--the tsubaki being supposed to turn
into a goblin-tree only when it becomes old.]

* * * * *

--Nearly all the stories and folk-beliefs about which these _ky[=o]ka_
were written seem to have come from China; and most of the Japanese
tales of tree-spirits appear to have had a Chinese origin. As the
flower-spirits and hamadryads of the Far East are as yet little
known to Western readers, the following Chinese story may be found
interesting.

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