It is believed that the Man-fox (Hito-kitsune) cannot be seen. But if
he goes close to still water, his SHADOW can be seen in the water. Those
'having foxes' are therefore supposed to avoid the vicinity of rivers
and ponds.
The invisible fox, as already stated, attaches himself to persons. Like
a Japanese servant, he belongs to the household. But if a daughter
of that household marry, the fox not only goes to that new family,
following the bride, but also colonises his kind in all those families
related by marriage or kinship with the husband's family. Now every fox
is supposed to have a family of seventy-five--neither more, nor less
than seventy-five--and all these must be fed. So that although such
foxes, like ghosts, eat very little individually, it is expensive to
have foxes. The fox-possessors (kitsune-mochi) must feed their foxes at
regular hours; and the foxes always eat first--all the seventy-five.
As soon as the family rice is cooked in the kama (a great iron
cooking-pot), the kitsune-mochi taps loudly on the side of the vessel,
and uncovers it. Then the foxes rise up through the floor. And although
their eating is soundless to human ear and invisible to human eye, the
rice slowly diminishes. Wherefore it is fearful for a poor man to have
foxes.
But the cost of nourishing foxes is the least evil connected with the
keeping of them. Foxes have no fixed code of ethics, and have proved
themselves untrustworthy servants. They may initiate and long maintain
the prosperity of some family; but should some grave misfortune fall
upon that family in spite of the efforts of its seventy-five invisible
retainers, then these will suddenly flee away, taking all the valuables
of the household along with them. And all the fine gifts that foxes
bring to their masters are things which have been stolen from somebody
else. It is therefore extremely immoral to keep foxes. It is also
dangerous for the public peace, inasmuch as a fox, being a goblin, and
devoid of human susceptibilities, will not take certain precautions. He
may steal the next-door neighbour's purse by night and lay it at his own
master's threshold, so that if the next-door neighbour happens to get up
first and see it there is sure to be a row.
Another evil habit of foxes is that of making public what they hear said
in private, and taking it upon themselves to create undesirable scandal.
For example, a fox attached to the family of Kobayashi-San hears his
master complain about his neighbour Nakayama-San, whom he secretly
dislikes. Therewith the zealous retainer runs to the house of
Nakayama-San, and enters into his body, and torments him grievously,
saying: 'I am the retainer of Kobayashi-San to whom you did
such-and-such a wrong; and until such time as he command me to depart, I
shall continue to torment you.'
And last, but worst of all the risks of possessing foxes, is the danger
that they may become wroth with some member of the family. Certainly
a fox may be a good friend, and make rich the home in which he is
domiciled. But as he is not human, and as his motives and feelings are
not those of men, but of goblins, it is difficult to avoid incurring his
displeasure. At the most unexpected moment he may take offence without
any cause knowingly having been given, and there is no saying what
the consequences may be. For the fox possesses Instinctive Infinite
Vision--and the Ten-Ni-Tsun, or All-Hearing Ear--and the Ta-Shin-Tsun,
which is the Knowledge of the Most Secret Thoughts of Others--and
Shiyuku-Mei-Tsun, which is the Knowledge of the Past--and
Zhin-Kiyan-Tsun, which means the Knowledge of the Universal Present--and
also the Powers of Transformation and of Transmutation. [12] So that
even without including his special powers of bewitchment, he is by
nature a being almost omnipotent for evil.