狢（むじな）――ラフカディオ・ハーン『怪談』より
解説：池田光穂
Mujina,
by Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo) , from Kwaidan (1904)
On the
Akasaka Road, in Tôkyô, there is a slope called Kii-no-kuni-zaka, ―
which means the Slope of the Province of Kii. I do not know why it is
called the Slope of the province of Kii. On one side of this slope you
see an ancient moat, deep and very wide, with high green banks rising
up to some place of gardens; ― and on the other side of the road extend
the long and lofty walls of an imperial palace. Before the era of
street-lamps and jinrikishas, this neighborhood was very lonesome after
dark; and belated pedestrians would go miles out of their way rather
than mount the Kii-no-kuni-zaka, alone, after sunset.
All
because of a Mujina that used to walk there.
The last
man who saw the Mujina was an old merchant of the Kyôbashi quarter, who
died about thirty years ago. This is the story, as he told it :―
One
night, at a late hour, he was hurrying up the Kii-no-kuni-zaka, when he
perceived a woman crouching by the moat, all alone, and weeping
bitterly. Fearing that she intended to drown herself, he stopped to
offer her any assistance or consolation in his power. She appeared to
be a slight and graceful person, handsomely dressed; and her hair was
arranged like that of a young girl of good family. "O-jochû," he
exclaimed, approaching her,― "O-jochû, do not cry like that!... Tell me
what the trouble is; and if there be any way to help you, I shall be
glad to help you." (He really meant what he said; for he was a very
kind man.) But she continued to weep,― hiding her face from him with
one of her long sleeves. "O-jochû," he said again, as gently as he
could,― "please, please listen to me! ... This is no place for a young
lady at night! Do not cry, I implore you!― only tell me how I may be of
some help to you!" Slowly she rose up, but turned her back to him, and
continued to moan and sob behind her sleeve. He laid his hand lightly
upon her shoulder, and pleaded:― "O-jochû!― O-jochû!― O-jochû!...
Listen to me, just for one little moment!... O-jochû!― O-jochû!"...
Then that O-jochû turned round, and dropped her sleeve, and stroked her
face with her hand;― and the man saw that she had no eyes or nose or
mouth,― and he screamed and ran away.
Up
Kii-no-kuni-zaka he ran and ran; and all was black and empty before
him. On and on he ran, never daring to look back; and at last he saw a
lantern, so far away that it looked like the gleam of a firefly; and he
made for it. It proved to be only the lantern of an itinerant
soba-seller, who had set down his stand by the road-side; but any light
and any human companionship was good after that experience; and he
flung himself down at the feet of the old soba-seller, crying out,
"Aa!― aa!!― aa!!!"...
"Kore!
Kore!" roughly exclaimed the soba-man. "Here! what is the matter with
you? Anybody hurt you?"
"No―
nobody hurt me," panted the other,― "only... Aa!― aa!"...
"― Only
scared you?" queried the peddler, unsympathetically. "Robbers?"
"Not
robbers,― not robbers," gasped the terrified man... "I saw... I saw a
woman― by the moat;― and she showed me... Aa! I cannot tell you what
she showed me!"...
"He! Was it anything like THIS that she showed
you?" cried the soba-man, stroking his own face― which therewith became
like unto an Egg... And, simultaneously, the light went out.
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