....
Besides these you may see various smaller texts, or little prints,
pasted above or beside windows or apertures,--some being names of
Shinto gods; others, symbolical pictures only, or pictures of Buddhas
and Bodhi-sattvas. All are holy charms,--_o-fuda_: they protect the
houses; and no goblin or ghost can enter by night into a dwelling so
protected, unless the _o-fuda_ be removed.

[Footnote 59: _H['e]gashi_ is the causative form of the verb
_h['e]gu_, "to pull off," "peel off," "strip off," "split off." The
term _Fuda-h['e]gashi_ signifies "Make-peel-off-august-charm Ghost."
In my _Ghostly Japan_ the reader can find a good Japanese story about
a _Fuda-h['e]gashi_.]

Vengeful ghosts cannot themselves remove an _o-fuda_; but they will
endeavor by threats or promises or bribes to make some person remove
it for them. A ghost that wants to have the _o-fuda_ pulled off a door
is called a _Fuda-h['e]gashi_.

H['e]gasan to
Rokuji-no-fuda wo,
Yur['e][:i] mo
Nam'mai d[=a] to
Kazo[:e]t['e] zo mini.

[_Even the ghost that would remove the charms written with six
characters actually tries to count them, repeating: "How many
sheets are there?" (or, repeating, "Hail to thee, O Buddha
Amit['a]bha!"[60])_]

[Footnote 60: The fourth line gives these two readings:--

_Nam'mai da?_--"How many sheets are there?"

_Nam[u] A[m]ida!_--"Hail, O Amit[^a]bha!"

The invocation, _Namu Amida Butsu_, is chiefly used by members of the
great Shin sect; but it is also used by other sects, and especially in
praying for the dead. While repeating it, the person praying numbers
the utterances upon his Buddhist rosary; and this custom is suggested
by the use of the word _kazo[:e]t['e]_, "counting."]

Tada ichi no
Kami no o-fuda wa
Sasuga ni mo
Norik['e] naku to mo
H['e]gashi kan['e]k['e]ri.

[_Of the august written-charms of the god (which were pasted
upon the walls of the house), not even one could by any effort
be pulled off, though the rice-paste with which they had been
fastened was all gone._]

XIV. FURU-TSUBAKI

The old Japanese, like the old Greeks, had their flower-spirits and
their hamadryads, concerning whom some charming stories are told. They
also believed in trees inhabited by malevolent beings,--goblin trees.
Among other weird trees, the beautiful _tsubaki_ (_Camellia Japonica_)
was said to be an unlucky tree;--this was said, at least, of the
red-flowering