Kitsuné no kwaséshi,
Asobimé[26] wa--
Izuka no uma no
Honé ni ya aruran!

[Footnote 26: _Asobimé_, a courtesan: lit., "sporting-woman." The Éta
and other pariah classes furnished a large proportion of these women.
The whole meaning of the poem is as follows: "See that young wanton
with her lantern! It is a pretty sight--but so is the sight of a fox,
when the creature kindles his goblin-fire and assumes the shape of
a girl. And just as your fox-woman will prove to be no more than an
old horse-bone, so that young courtesan, whose beauty deludes men to
folly, may be nothing better than an Éta."]

[_--Ah the wanton (lighting her lantern)!--so a fox-fire is
kindled in the time of fox-transformation!... Perhaps she is
really nothing more than an old horse-bone from somewhere or
other...._]

Kitsuné-bi no
Moyuru ni tsukété,
Waga tama no
Kiyuru y[=o] nari
Kokoro-hoso-michi!

[_Because of that Fox-fire burning there, the very soul of me
is like to be extinguished in this narrow path (or, in this
heart-depressing solitude)._[27]]

[Footnote 27: The supposed utterance of a belated traveler frightened