u sure it is still upon your
head?" Sun raised his hand, and lo! the helmet was gone.

After this the great assembly broke up, and each of the Immortals
returned in peace to his own celestial abode.

CHAPTER XV

Fox Legends

The Fox

Among the many animals worshipped by the Chinese, those at times
seen emerging from coffins or graves naturally hold a prominent
place. They are supposed to be the transmigrated souls of deceased
human beings. We should therefore expect such animals as the fox,
stoat, weasel, etc., to be closely associated with the worship of
ghosts, spirits, and suchlike creatures, and that they should be the
subjects of, or included in, a large number of Chinese legends. This
we find. Of these animals the fox is mentioned in Chinese legendary
lore perhaps more often than any other.

The subject of fox-lore has been dealt with exhaustively by
my respected colleague, the late Mr Thomas Watters (formerly
H.B.M. Consul-General at Canton, a man of vast learning and extreme
modesty, insufficiently appreciated in his generation), in the _Journal
of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, viii, 45-65,
to which the reader is referred for details. Generally, the fox is
a creature of ill omen, long-lived (living to eight hundred or even
a thousand years), with a peculiar virtue in every part of his body,
able to produce fire by striking the ground with his tail, cunning,
cautious, sceptical, able to see into the future, to transform himself
(usually into old men, or scholars, or pretty young maidens), and
fond of playing pranks and tormenting mankind.

Fox Legends

Many interesting fox legends are to be found in a collection of stories
entitled _Liao chai chih i_, by P'u Sung-ling (seventeenth century
A.D.), part of which was translated into English many years ago by
Professor H.A. Giles and appeared in two fascinating volumes called
_Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio_. These legends were related
to the Chinese writer by various people as their own experiences.

Friendship with Foxes

A certain man had an enormous stack of straw, as big as a hill, in
which his servants, taking what was daily required for use, had made
quite a large hole. In this hole a fox fixed his abode, and would
often show himself to the master of the house under the form of an
old man. One day the latter invited the master to walk into his abode;
he at first declined, but accepted on being pressed; and