It is a popular belief, still widely held in Japan, that certain families own spirit foxes, a kind of family banshee who render them service, but mark them with a curse.

“I do not understand,” said Asako, afraid of this wild talk.

“Do you know why the Englishman went away?” said her cousin brutally.

It was Asako’s turn to cry.

“Oh, I wish I had gone with him.  He was so good to me, always so kind and so gentle!”

“When he married you,” said Sadako, “he did not know that you had the curse.  He ought not to have come to Japan with you.  Now he knows you have the curse.  So he went away.  He was wise.”

“What do you mean by the curse?” asked Asako.

“You do not know how the Fujinami have made so much money?”

“No,” said Asako.  “It used to come for me from Mr. Ito.  He had shares or something.”

“Yes.  But a share that means a share of a business.  Do you not know what is our business?”

“No,” said Asako again.

“You have seen the Yoshiwara, where girls are sold to men.  That is our business.  Do you understand now?”

“No.”

“Then I will tell you the whole story of the Fujinami.  About one hundred and twenty years ago our great-great-grandfather came to Yedo, as Tokyo was then called.  He was a poor boy from the country.  He had no friends.  He became clerk in a dry goods store.  One day a woman, rather old, asked him:  ‘How much pay you get?’ He said, ’No pay, only food and clothes.’  The woman said, ’Come with me; I will give you food and clothes and pay also,’ He went with her to the Yoshiwara where she had a small house with five or six girls.  Every night he must stand in front of the house, calling.  Then the drunken workmen, and the gamblers, and the bad samurai would come and pay their money.  And they pay their money to him, our great-great-grandfather.  When the girls were sick, or would not receive guests, he would beat them, and starve them, and burn o kyu (a medical plant called moxa, used for cauterization) on their backs.  One day he said to the woman who was mistress of the house, ’Your girls are too old.  The rich friends do not come any more.  Let us sell these girls.  I will go into the country and get new girls, and then you will marry me and make me your partner.’  The woman said, ’If we have good luck with the girls and make money, then I marry you.’  So our great-great-grandfather went back to his own country, to Akabo; and his old friends in the country were astonished, seeing how much money he had to spend.  He said ’Yes.  I have many rich friends in Yedo.  They want pretty country girls to be their wives.  See, I pay you in advance five pieces of gold.  After the marriage more money will be given.  Let me take your prettiest girls to Yedo with me.  And they will all get rich husbands.’  They were simple country people, and they believed him because he was a man of their village, of Akabo.  He went back to Yedo