IN the Tojin-san’s absence several aggravating accidents had happened in
his house. While little Taro, the cook’s youngest child, was sitting on
the doorstep in the sun, nibbling on a sammari sembei (thunder cake),
suddenly from behind an adjacent pine-tree the fox-woman had appeared,
and before the frightened child could open its mouth to scream she had
pounced upon him, nipped the cake cleanly from his hand and was off.
The child’s nurse (who was none other than the fat wench of the
morning), who adored her charge, and had already herself suffered at the
hands of the mountain witch, rushed out valiantly at the child’s loud
cry of alarm. Her fury getting the better of her fear, she started in
pursuit of their tormentor.
The latter she discovered serenely seated upon the topmost bough of a
bamboo-tree, where she was demolishing the rice cracknel at her leisure.
From this perch she threw white pebbles, with which her sleeves seemed
loaded, down upon the head of the irate Obun, and while the latter was
execrating her and calling upon Ema (the Lord of Hell) to come to her
assistance the fox-woman slid down the bamboo trunk so swiftly and so
silently she was beside the terrified serving-maid before the latter
knew. She felt her arms caught in a sudden squeezing grip. Sharp fingers
sank into her thick, fat flesh, crept up along her arms to her
shoulders, nipped at her breast, her neck, her cheeks, her great
muscular legs, and with a last vicious tweak at her nose, the fox-woman
had again vanished.
The kitchen was in an uproar, the cook’s wife in hysterics, and Obun
herself reduced to such a state of stunned terror it was impossible to
get her to stir from a corner of the kitchen whither she had fled like a
whipped dog for refuge.
The Tojin-san, as master of the house, was besought to lend his
honorable assistance and advice. He ordered that Obun be brought before
him.
After some delay there was a sound as of scuffling and shoving in the
hall, and presently the perspiring face of the cook was seen through the
parted screens. He was pushing something which looked like a great soft
ball along before him, and, in turn, ordering and pleading with the
object in question to stand upon its feet and help itself. He was
assisted in his pushing endeavors by a small army of lesser menials of
the kitchen, who took turns in pushing and shoving the unwilling Obun
into the presence of her dread master, the Tojin-san. Presently she was
at his feet, her face hidden on the floor.
“Come, come!” said he, suppressing his inclination to laugh. “Stand up,
my good girl.”
This was translated in sharp peremptory tones by his interpreter:
“Thou worm of a slattern! Rise to thy degraded and filthy feet. How dare
thee bring agitation into the chamber of the Guai-koku-jin [outside
countryman] guest and protégé of His Imperial Highness the terrible
Prince of Echizen.”
Whereupon Obun came tremblingly to her feet, and shaking from head to
foot, raised a pair of eyes that rolled with terror to the face of the
Tojin-san. What she saw there must have reassured her. The rugged
features of the giant foreigner were softened humorously. In the keen
gray eyes bent upon her she saw nothing but kindness and understanding.
Instantly she began to whimper, like a great baby unexpectedly
comforted.
“You are in trouble, my good girl,” said the Tojin, in his deep, kindly
voice. “Pray tell me what ails you.”
And the interpreter translated:
“Repeat to your terrible and inflexible master the incidents of the
morning, and arouse not his dreadful wrath with vain exaggerations and
lies.”
She opened her lips to speak, encouraged by his smile, closed them
again, and mutely uncovered first her arms, then her neck, and finally
her great soft breast.
The Tojin-san, his brows now drawn in a slight frown together, examined
the girl’s wounds, and with the quick eye of a surgeon instantly
perceived their nature. She had been pinched sharply by little
relentless fingers which had evidently flown with lightning swiftness
from one portion of the hapless maid’s body to the other, and finally
with a last mischievous tweak had left their mark upon the round bit of
putty which served Obun for a nose. The Tojin-san whistled under his
breath. Obun had certainly been the victim of a most curious and
spiteful antagonist.
He gave some brief directions for healing the wounds, and then turning
gravely to his interpreter admonished his servants for their excitement
and foolish fears.
Undoubtedly, Obun had got the worst of her fight with this fox-woman, as
they chose to name her; but probably, had she not permitted herself to
be overcome with fears, she might have left her own mark upon her
assailant also. It was vain and foolish to regard this troublesome one
who annoyed them so often in the light of a spirit or witch or ghost, as
they believed her to be. There were no such things in the world.
The interpreter repeated these instructions with personal
embellishments, and the little army of servitors with sidelong glances
of wonder and awe at their master sucked in and expelled their breaths,
and, with final servile bumping of heads to the floor, retreated
kitchenward.
The Tojin-san remained for a moment apparently plunged in puzzled
thought. Suddenly he turned toward his interpreter, who was regarding
him with popping eyes of interest. Indeed no move, no word, no action of
the white man escaped the notice of Genji Negato, who found him an
object of absorbing interest and wonder. His manner of eating, his
manner of sleeping, his manner of thinking, talking—all things about
him, were a source of wonder and entertainment to the young samourai,
who was more than satisfied with this interesting position he had
obtained.
“Genji,” now said the Tojin-san abruptly, “you have seen something of
the world. At all events you have lived in the open ports among people
of other lands. You speak English excellently and must have read
considerably. Tell me what is your opinion of this fox-woman?”
Genji Negato was all flattered smiles. He drew up his well-groomed
shoulders in a profound French shrug.
“It would give me supreme pleasure to agree with your excellency,” he
said ambiguously, and smiled apologetically.
“I see,” said the Tojin-san, “you, too! Why?”
The stiff expression on the interpreter’s face relaxed. In a blurt of
confidence he said:
“I have felt the fox-woman’s touch also, honored sir,” and blushed like
a boy at the admission.
The Tojin-san was smiling broadly.
“Ah! When?”
“The first night in your service, excellency—a month before your
coming.”
“Indeed. Tell me about it.”
“I was changing duty with Samourai Hirata. As a large amount of
provisions had been put in the storerooms it was necessary to mount
guard at various points of the Shiro and the grounds. I was assigned by
the Daimio’s officer to the lodge gates, and there, to my humiliating
condemnation be it said, I fell asleep. I carried with me a box
containing my rations for the night, and this was strapped upon my back.
I am addicted to sleeping on my honorable belly, which your excellency
is aware is the proper position for all sleeping animals—to which
kingdom I unworthily belong.
“While I slept, I dreamed I was climbing down a mountain-side when
suddenly an avalanche of rock and earth swooped down upon my defenceless
back, pinioning me to the ground with the excess of its weight. I sought
to throw off the burden, shaking my shoulders from side to side, and as
I cast back my hands, the better to seize it, something caught them in a
quick, elastic grip. I rolled over bodily, and, as I opened my eyes,
perceived the fox-woman leaning over me. She had cut loose the straps of
my luncheon-box and was drawing it from under my back when, with a cry
of rage, I caught her by the shoulders and pulled her down upon me in a
vise-like grip. The blood rushed to her unearthly white face, her
piercing wild eyes blazed upon mine till my own eyeballs felt afflicted
as if with fire. I felt her breath, sweet as the Spring, coming yet
nearer and nearer to my face. I was like one inebriated by saké, with
but one impulse, one desire, to feel the actual touch of her unhuman
face against my own. As finally we touched cheek to cheek, honored
excellency, my fingers released their grip. Just as they did so a sharp
pain stabbed me in the cheek. Before I could regain my wits the witch
was gone.”
He passed his hand nervously across his cheek.
“For weeks afterward my face was marked with the imprint of teeth sharp
as a marmoset’s, your excellency.”
“And the luncheon?” queried the American, smiling in spite of himself.
“Gone, too,” said the interpreter, aggrievedly.
The Tojin-san laughed.
“What a curiously greedy elf it is! All its expeditions among mere
mortals seem to be solely for the purpose of food-getting.”
Genji opened his little black eyes with an expression of surprise.
“But that is natural. Even a fox-woman needs sustenance.”
“Come to think of it, a fox-woman has the body of a human?”
“Certainly.”
“Then why not make proper provision, and thus protect yourselves from
her pilfering?”
“Your excellency forgets that the fox-woman’s origin is malign. No clean
Japanese would undertake to nourish an evil spirit. The priests of our
temples give us certain charms which protect us, to a certain extent,
and we heed their advice, which is ever to avoid and forsake her.”
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