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Western |
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Vulpines |
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That's not what they meant... |
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Graves, roofs, and your own living room |
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Where next? |
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The Fox-Victim's Revenge In a local community there were several young rakes. On learning that, at the deserted gravesite belonging to a certain clan, there were vixens who could assume form and seduce men, they took traps with them at night and, laying them at the mouths of holes and crannies, caught two. Lest the vixens should change their forms, the rakes quickly stabbed them in their thighs with daggers and tied them up with ropes. Brandishing their knives they threatened the vixens: "If you can assume human form and serve us wine, we'll release you. Or else we'll have you butchered." The two vixens yelped and leapt about, as though they did not understand. The rakes, much angered, stabbed one of them to death. The other then spoke in a human voice: "I have neither clothes nor shoes. How could I face you when transformed into a human being?" The rakes held their knives under her chin. By a series of twists and turns she metamorphosed into a beautiful woman, but stark naked. The group was ecstatic with pleasure, and one after another made indecent advances at [raped] her. With their arms around her, they forced her to present them with wine, all the time holding fast to the rope with which the woman was tied. She spoke softly and enticingly, pleading with them to loosen the rope. Once it left their hands, however, she disappeared in a twinkling. As they approached home, the rakes could see flames at a distance. All their houses were burnt to the ground, and a daughter of the man who killed the vixen was burned to death. From this one knows the revenge of the fox. Although these foxes did not give men trouble, the men chose to disturb them. Appropriate enough are the consequences for those who do evil frequently! This 18th-century story appears in Ji Yun's Random Jottings at the Cottage of Close Scrutiny. Translation: Leo Tak-hung Chan, The Discourse on Foxes and Ghosts: Ji Yun and Eighteenth-Century Literati Storytelling. Honolulu: University of Hawai-i Press, 1998. Pp 205-6. |