also an honorific term _mikagé_, applied to divinities and emperors,
which signifies "august aspect," "sacred presence," etc.... No literal
rendering can suggest the effect, in the fifth line, of the latter
reading. _Kagé_ signifies "shadow," "aspect," and "power"--especially
occult power; the honorific prefix _mi_, attached to names and
attributes of divinities, may be rendered "august."]


XII. UMI-B[=O]ZU

Place a large cuttlefish on a table, body upwards and tentacles
downwards--and you will have before you the grotesque reality that
first suggested the fancy of the _Umi-B[=o]zu_, or Priest of the Sea.
For the great bald body in this position, with the staring eyes below,
bears a distorted resemblance to the shaven head of a priest; while
the crawling tentacles underneath (which are in some species united
by a dark web) suggests the wavering motion of the priest's upper
robe.... The Umi-B[=o]zu figures a good deal in the literature of
Japanese goblinry, and in the old-fashioned picture-books. He rises
from the deep in foul weather to seize his prey.

Ita hitoë
Shita wa Jigoku ni,
Sumizomé no
B[=o]zu no umi ni
Déru mo ayashina!

[_Since there is but the thickness of a single plank (between
the voyager and the sea), and underneath is Hell, 'tis indeed
a weird thing that a black-robed priest should rise from