Oil of the Oirubeibī

In fifteenth-century Japan oil lamps were common. These lamps were simple wicks placed at the edge of small saucers of perilla oil. At any rate, although perilla oil smells nutty when it’s burned, people would occasionally smell something decidedly off, which would last only for a moment, as though a small toxic bug had flown into the flame. Almost universally, however, people attributed this passing odor to the behavior of “oil babies,” known as the Oirubeibī. The believed that these invisible creatures were attracted to the flames, especially on cold nights, and to make the lamp last longer they squirt a bit of their own oil into the saucer.