Legends of Japan (4 page)

8. The hunter's trick

L
ONG, LONG AGO
, in the province of Mimasaka
(Okayama Prefecture), there was a small Shinto shrine called Takano Jinja. It was dedicated to Monkey and Serpent. Every year the shrine celebrated a festival, and it was the customary practice to offer a human sacrifice to the deities on the occasion of the festival. This custom had been practiced continuously from time immemorial. The sacrifice was a pretty girl chosen from among the daughters of the people living in the province. Therefore, as the festival came near, the parents of all daughters became restless, wondering who should be the victim of the year.

One year, a sixteen-year-old girl was chosen as a sacrifice. She was the only daughter of an old couple, who loved her so dearly that they wept bitterly over their hapless fate. From the day of selection the daughter and her parents bewailed their ill fortune day and night, numbering the decreasing days of their union at home. It was the practice that the chosen girl be fed attentively until the time of feasting.

One day an "Inuyama" hunter visited this province. The Inuyama was a brave hunter who used a pack of hounds in hunting wild boars and deer in the mountains.

This hunter became very sympathetic with the sorrowful family and offered them his help. He said he would be glad to take her place in the festival, and told them to hang sacred festoons about the house and to keep themselves away from the villagers. Then he selected two strong hounds from among his dogs and trained them to fight monkeys. He also sharpened his sword for a fight.

The day of feasting came around at last, and the shrine priests and the villagers came to take the girl to the shrine. They had a big wooden chest to contain the sacrifice. Taking the place of the girl, however, the hunter, who was wearing her kimono and carrying a sword, secretly hid himself in the chest. He also had the two hounds hidden in it. The girl's parents, as planned, pretended to wail over their sad farewell to the departing chest, so no one imagined that the box contained the hunter and his dogs. The villagers unwittingly carried the chest to the shrine at the foot of a sacred mountain.

Meanwhile, the old couple and their daughter at home were uneasy, thinking that should the deities find the sacrifice to be the wrong person, they would punish the whole family.

The villagers carrying the chest soon reached the shrine, where they solemnly held a rite to offer the sacrifice to the deities. Then they opened the old door of the shrine, put in the chest, and closed the door. And in front of the shrine they waited attentively to see what would happen to the chest.

When left behind in the shrine, the hunter opened the cover of the chest slightly and looked out. And lo! Right in front of an altar was seated a big monkey about seven feet tall. The animal looked very happy with the human sacrifice. On each side of him were about fifty small monkeys, who cried something in their language. A big chopping board and a big knife were placed before the boss monkey, who would cut the sacrifice and eat it.

When the boss monkey stood up laboriously and tried to open the chest, the hunter sent out the hounds to battle with the monkeys and he himself jumped out with his sword. The hounds attacked the bis monkey furiously and bit him. The boss monkey received many wounds and fell down there. Then the hunter dragged him up to the chopping board and said: "As you ate many girls, I will kill you as punishment and let my dogs eat you up. Now, prepare for death!"

The boss monkey cried for help, with his hands clasped before his eyes, and apologized, "Please forgive me for what I have done. I promise you I will never eat people again. So please spare my life!"

"Shut up!" the hunter cried, and tried to kill him. Meanwhile the two hounds killed some small monkeys and other monkeys ran away for their lives.

While the priests and villagers were anxiously waiting, the chief priest suddenly started running about wildly as if he had gone mad. Then he said solemnly, "Listen, you all! I am deity of the shrine. I do not want sacrifices any more. Today I have decided to stop eating girls. Now I have been caught by a hunter who will kill me. So, help me." So saying, the priest fainted away.

"The deity must have entered into the priest!" the villagers cried, and ran into the shrine, where they found the hunter ready to kill the big monkey. They told him of the divine message and asked him to forgive the animal, but the hunter would not meet their request, saying that the monkey must pay dearly for what he had done.

"Through the mouth of the priest, I have said I would never eat people again. So, please do not kill me," the big monkey entreated. Whereupon the hunter reluctantly freed the monkey, which ran away into the mountain.

It is said that the hunter later married the sacrificial girl and lived a happy life with her.

9. No melon to spare

L
ONG, LONG AGO
, one summer day, a caravan of
horses was traveling along the highway between Yamato Province and Kyoto, capital of this country. Each horse carried many watermelons. From olden times Yamato Province was noted for its watermelons. The caravan was on its way to a market in Kyoto.

It was very hot. As the caravan came near the capital, one of the horse drivers proposed a rest on the roadside. And they halted their horses in the shade of a big tree and put down the burdens from the sweating backs of the animals.

"I am thirsty. Let's eat a watermelon," one of them said. The others were also thirsty, so they agreed to his suggestion. They immediately sliced a watermelon and ate it.

As they were thus quenching their thirst, an old man appeared. He wore a summer kimono and straw sandals, and was carrying a cane. He silently stood by the drivers and watched them eat the watermelon. He looked quite tired and after a while, he humbly asked for some.

"We're very sorry for you, old man. Though we carry so many watermelons here, we have none to spare," one of the drivers said.

Then, the old man said, "It's very unkind of you to keep an old man thirsty under the burning sun. If you cannot spare me even a slice, I will grow many watermelons here and eat them."

"Grow many watermelons here!" the drivers laughed.

The old man set to work at once. He picked up a piece of wood and dug up the ground with it as if to plow the fields.

"What's he going to do?"

"He's turning up the soil as if to plant seeds."

"He must have gone mad."

The old man soon finished his digging work. Then he picked up the seeds of the watermelon which the drivers scattered all over the place, and sowed them in the soil. After a second or two, small leaves turned out of the planted seeds.

"How strange!" the drivers exclaimed.

The small leaves began to grow and soon they became dense. Before the drivers winked their eyes, they sent out buds and turned into the shapes of watermelons which soon began to grow bigger and at last became fine watermelons. The ill-natured drivers, who saw this strange show, were impressed with the old man's magic.

"He might be a kami-sama [a deity]," they thought. And they were struck with awe.

The old man took up one of the fresh water-melons and ate it with gusto. He proudly said, "As you did not spare me a single slice, I have grown them. As I cannot eat them all, you eat too." So saying, the old man picked up some of them and gave them to the amazed drivers. There were so many watermelons there that they could not eat all of them. So the old man invited passers-by to eat them. Since it was very hot, all the persons were delighted with the nice present and gratefully ate watermelons on the road. Before long, they had eaten them all.

"Well, it's time to go," the old man said, and went on his way.

"Let's start, too," the drivers said, and prepared to resume their trip.

"No watermelons!" one of them suddenly cried. The others were also stunned to find their watermelons gone from the baskets.

"They're all gone!"

"How strange!"

"Could such a thing be possible?"

They intently looked for their missing water-melons all over the place, but in vain. The water-melons had all disappeared. The drivers, holding their arms, wondered where their watermelons had gone.

"I suppose the old man took them out of the baskets. Perhaps he played a trick on us in order to keep our eyes off the watermelons."

"I never thought our own watermelons were being eaten up. He must be a magician, indeed."

"Yes, quite a magician! I wonder where he's gone. Well, without the watermelons it's not necessary to go to the market, so let's go back to Yamato."

Thus they agreed to return home. They turned around their horses and went their way back to the province of Yamato.

"They grudged giving only a slice and lost all," a bystander laughed. All the persons who had witnessed this interesting event were mystified by the old man's magic.

10. A water sprite

L
ONG, LONG AGO
, in the capital, an ex-emperor
lived in a very large palace named Reizei-in. After the emperor's death, the Reizei-in palace was opened to the public. One-half of its premises was turned into a residential section, and in the other half there was a big pond. Before long many houses mushroomed around this pond.

One summer evening, when it was very sultry, people living in these houses came out on the verandas facing the pond to enjoy the cool air. All of a sudden an old man about three feet tall appeared from nowhere and passed his hand over their faces. They felt a chill creep over them, but they pretended to be unaware of his presence. The queer old man did nothing else and just went away.

"Who is he? What on earth is he?" they asked after seeing the old man. He stood on the edge of the pond, and the next moment his figure suddenly vanished into thin air.

"Wherever did he go? Beyond the edge there is nothing but water!" they wondered. The pond was so old, with various weeds in it, that it appeared very forbidding.

"He must be the spirit of the pond!" they imagined. From that night on, the strange old man came out nightly to feel their faces. This strange story soon spread all over the capital.

"Every night a mysterious old man appears to feel the faces of the people who are enjoying the cool air by the pond."

"Really? What is he?" they asked.

One day a brave young samurai declared he would catch the old man, and as the evening came he took his position by the pond pretending to be enjoying the cool air. He had a rope to tie the old man with. In the early evening the old man did not make his appearance.

"Tut!" the samurai grumbled. "He is not likely to come out this evening." Bored with doing nothing, he soon dozed off. Shortly after midnight, however, he suddenly felt someone passing a hand over his face and so he quickly pounced upon the rogue and tied him up. Then he cried, "Hey! Come out, all of you. I've caught him!" A crowd of people soon gathered about the mysterious creature. Under the light of a torchfire they found a poor old man about three feet tall, dressed in a worn-out, yellow kimono. He blinked his eyes, for he seemed surprised.

"Who are you?"

"Where did you come from?" they attacked him with many questions all at once, but the old man just remained silent. After a short while, however, he smiled and said in a low voice, "Will you please bring me a basin full of water?"

Whereupon they brought a big basin full of water and put it before the strange old man. Then, letting his face reflect on the surface of the water, the man declared solemnly,

"Now, listen. I am the Water Sprite!"

With that, he jumped into the water and his figure soon faded away into it. Next moment the water suddenly swelled up in the basin. It was strange, indeed! In the water nothing remained but the rope, with which the old man had been tied.

At this sight the people knew that the stranger was really the Water Sprite. They carefully carried the water-filled basin to the edge of the pond and poured the water into it.

From that night on, it was said that the old man never made his appearance again around the pond.