SUPERSTITIONS
burden, teeth that bit through swords and spears, and the faculty of becoming pregnant by inhaling miasma. They defy the control of the celestial deities, and are altogether an unruly, tameless band. The demon proper (oni) has his permanent abode in other worlds, but the tengu is still supposed to frequent the recesses of high mountains. He is not a particularly malevolent being. Sometimes he spirits men away and restores them to their homes in a semi-demented condition. This is called tengu-kakushi (hidden by a tengu). A great scholar of the eighteenth century, Hirata Atsutane, has recorded an example furnished by his own era: On the evening of the 17th of March in the year 1740, Kiuchi Heizayemon disappeared. A retainer of Ishikawa Seiyemon, he had accompanied his master from Otsu, the latter being deputed to superintend some repairs at the monastery of Hiei-zan. Kiuchi's comrades searched for him everywhere. They found only his wooden clogs cast far apart; the scabbard of his sword broken into fragments; the blade bent like the handle of a kettle, and his girdle cut into three pieces. At midnight, between the sobs of a dying storm, a voice, hoarse as the wind itself, was heard calling for help. Passing through the rain and sleet, Suzuki Shichiro saw a winged figure standing on the roof of the temple. The others drew near, and observing that the wing-like appendages were only a torn umbrella flapping in the gale, they called out to know
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