76 STRANGE STORIES FROM
put me in the charge of the disembodied spirit of an old woman, with whom I remained for a period of over ten years. I have no brothers : only you to whom I can look. And now my foster-mother is lying on the hill-side with no one to bury her and appease her discontented shade. If not too much, I would ask you to do this, that her spirit may be at rest, and know that it was not neglected by her whom she brought up." Wang consented, but said he feared they would not be able to find her grave ; on which Ying-ning said there was no danger of that, and accordingly they set forth together. When they arrived, Ying-ning pointed out the tomb in a lonely spot amidst a thicket of brambles, and there they found the old woman's bones. Ying-ning wept bitterly, and then they proceeded to carry her remains home with them, subsequently interring them in the Ch'in family vault. That night Wang dreamt that the old woman came to thank hijn, and when he waked he told Ying-ning, who said that she had seen her also, and had been warned by her not to frighten Mr. Wang. Her husband asked why she had not detained the old lady ; but Ying-ning repUed, '* She is a disembodied spirit, and would be ill at ease for any time surrounded by so much life."** Wang then inquired after Hsiao-jung, and his wife said, "She was a fox too, and a very clever one. My foster-mother kept her to wait on me, and she was always getting fruit and cakes for me, so that I have a friendship for her and shall never forget hen My foster-mother told me yesterday she was married."
After this, whenever the great fast-day i** came round, husband and wife went off without fail to worship at the Ch'in family tomb ; and by the time a year had passed she gave birth to a son, who wasn't a bit afraid of strangers, but laughed at everybody, and in fact took very much after his mother.
- These disembodied spirits are unable to stand for any length
of time the light and life of this upper world, darkness and death being as it were necessary to their existence and comfort.
^* The day before the annual spring festival.
