Lisičji duh v usnjeni vreči

Besedilo

Lisičji duh v usnjeni vreči

Han You, whose courtesy name was Jingxian, was a native of Shu in Lujiang. He was skilled in divination and also practiced Jing Fang’s arts of warding off evil. Liu Shize’s daughter had been afflicted by a spirit for years. Shamans performed rites and offered prayers to drive it out, hunting among abandoned tombs and ruined city walls and capturing several dozen wildcats and alligators, yet her illness did not improve. Han You consulted the divining stalks and ordered a cloth sack to be made. When the girl next suffered an attack, they were to hang it open by the window. He shut the door and summoned his vital force, as though driving something before him. Before long, the sack swelled as if being blown full of air, then split and burst. The girl suffered another violent attack. Han You then had two leather sacks made, fitted one inside the other, and hung open as before. Once again, the sacks swelled until they were full. Their mouths were quickly tied shut, and they were hung from a tree. Over the next twenty days or so, they gradually shrank. When opened and examined, they were found to contain two jin of fox fur. The girl’s illness was then cured.