Insect Studies
In the last half of the book, Hearn presents collected Chinese/Japanese superstitions and his own personal thoughts on various members of the insect world.
- Butterflies: Personification of the human soul.
- Mosquitoes: Karmic reincarnation of jealous or greedy people in the form of Jiki-ketsu-gaki or "blood-drinking pretas".
- Ants: Mankind's superior in terms of chastity, ethics, social structure, longevity and evolution.
Read more about this topic: Kwaidan: Stories And Studies Of Strange Things
Famous quotes containing the words insect and/or studies:
“The insect fable is the certain promise.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“His life itself passes deeper in nature than the studies of the naturalist penetrate; himself a subject for the naturalist. The latter raises the moss and bark gently with his knife in search of insects; the former lays open logs to their core with his axe, and moss and bark fly far and wide. He gets his living by barking trees. Such a man has some right to fish, and I love to see nature carried out in him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)