"That", says Father Lyng to him, "is the headless coach and the devil driving it".

He wasn’t let into heaven and he wasn’t let into hell, so he is now travelling around the world with his wisp of straw, and that is the person we call ‘Will-o-the-Wisp’.

“The power of enchantment is not yet dead, nor banished out of the country yet”

Even as she screamed, her voice became thin, like a crying of wind; then she melted into a bright white mist that spired to the roof-beams, and shuddered away through the smoke hole…

The rigid cultural bulwark of Japanese society is reminiscent of Irish-Ireland; a vision of revitalised Irish culture keeping at bay the influence of alien ideals.