. _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