'And this I desire to know: Can a man separate his Souls? Can he, for instance, have one Soul in Kyoto and one in Tokyo and one in Matsue, all at the same time?'
'He cannot; they remain always together.'
'How? One within the other—like the little lacquered boxes of an inro?'
'Nay: that none but the gods know.'
'And the Souls are never separated?'
'Sometimes they may be separated. But if the Souls of a man be separated, that man becomes mad. Mad people are those who have lost one of their Souls.'
'But after death what becomes of the Souls?'
'They remain still together. . . . When a man dies his Souls ascend to the roof of the house. And they stay upon the roof for the space of nine and forty days.'
'On what part of the roof?'
'On the yane-no-mune—upon the Ridge of the Roof they stay.'