Chapter I: Kitsun'e-Bi

The Will-o'-the-wisp is called _kitsun['e]-bi_ ("fox-fire"), because the goblin-fox was formerly supposed to create it. In old Japanese pictures it is represented as a tongue of pale red flame, hovering in darkness, and shedding no radiance upon the surfaces over which it glides.

To understand some of the following _ky[=o]ka_ on the subject, the reader should know that certain superstitions about the magical power of the fox have given rise to several queer folk-sayings,--one of which relates to marrying a stranger. Formerly a good citizen was expected to marry within his own community, not outside of it; and the man who dared to ignore traditional custom in this regard would have found it difficult to appease the communal indignation. Even to-day the villager who, after a long absence from his birthplace, returns with a strange bride, is likely to hear unpleasant things said,--such as: "_Wakaranai-mono we hippat['e]-kita!... Doko no uma no hon['e] da ka?_" ("Goodness knows what kind of a thing he has dragged here after him! Where did he pick up that old horse-bone?") The expression _uma no hon['e]_, "old horse-bone," requires explanation.

A goblin-fox has the power to assume many shapes; but, for the purpose of deceiving _men_, he usually takes the form of a pretty woman. When he wants to create a charming phantom of this kind, he picks up an old horse-bone or cow-bone, and holds it in his mouth. Presently the bone becomes luminous; and the figure of a woman defines about it,--the figure of a courtesan or singing-girl.... So the village query about the man who marries a strange wife, "What old horse-bone has he picked up?" signifies really, "What wanton has bewitched him?" It further implies the suspicion that the stranger may be of outcast blood: a certain class of women of pleasure having been chiefly recruited, from ancient time, among the daughters of ['E]ta and other pariah-people.

Hi tomoshit['e]
Kitsun['e] no kwas['e]shi,
Asobim['e][26] wa--
Izuka no uma no
Hon['e] ni ya aruran!

[Footnote 26: _Asobim['e]_, a courtesan: lit., "sporting-woman." The ['E]ta and other pariah classes furnished a large proportion of these women. The whole meaning of the poem is as follows: "See that young wanton with her lantern! It is a pretty sight--but so is the sight of a fox, when the creature kindles his goblin-fire and assumes the shape of a girl. And just as your fox-woman will prove to be no more than an old horse-bone, so that young courtesan, whose beauty deludes men to folly, may be nothing better than an ['E]ta."]

[_--Ah the wanton (lighting her lantern)!--so a fox-fire is
kindled in the time of fox-transformation!... Perhaps she is
really nothing more than an old horse-bone from somewhere or
other...._]

Kitsun['e]-bi no
Moyuru ni tsuk['e]t['e],
Waga tama no
Kiyuru y[=o] nari
Kokoro-hoso-michi!

[_Because of that Fox-fire burning there, the very soul of me
is like to be extinguished in this narrow path (or, in this
heart-depressing solitude)._[27]]

[Footnote 27: The supposed utterance of a belated traveler frightened by a will-o'-the-wisp. The last line allows of two readings. _Kokoro-hosoi_ means "timid;" and _hosoi michi_ (_hoso-michi_) means a "narrow path," and, by implication, a "lonesome path."]