described. The ro is usually a square shallow cavity, lined with metal and
half-filled with ashes, in which charcoal is lighted.
(3) Direct translation of "suzumushi," a kind of cricket with a
distinctive chirp like a tiny bell, whence the name.
(4) Now a rokuro-kubi is ordinarily conceived as a goblin whose neck
stretches out to great lengths, but which nevertheless always remains
attached to its body.
(5) A Chinese collection of stories on the supernatural.
[4] A present made to friends or to the household on returning from a
journey is thus called. Ordinarily, of course, the miyage consists of
something produced in the locality to which the journey has been made: this
is the point of Kwairyo's jest.
(6) Present-day Nagano Prefecture.

A DEAD SECRET
(1) On the present-day map, Tamba corresponds roughly to the central area
of Kyoto Prefecture and part of Hyogo Prefecture.
[1] The Hour of the Rat (Ne-no-Koku), according to the old Japanese method
of reckoning time, was the first hour. It corresponded to the time between
our midnight and two o'clock in the morning; for the ancient Japanese hours
were each equal to two modern hours.
[2] Kaimyo, the posthumous Buddhist name, or religious name, given to the
dead. Strictly speaking, the meaning of the work is sila-name. (See my
paper entitled, "The Literature of the Dead" in Exotics and
Retrospectives.)

YUKI-ONNA
(1) An ancient province whose boundaries took in most of present-day
Tokyo, and parts of Saitama and Kanagawa prefectures.
[1] That is to say, with a floor-surface of about six feet square.