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Once upon
a time...
The hunters had hunted the wood for so many years that no
wild animal was any more to be found in it. You might walk from one
end to the other without ever seeing a hare, or a deer, or a boar,
or hearing the cooing of the doves in their nest. If they were not
dead, they had flown elsewhere. Only three creatures remained alive,
and they had hidden themselves in the thickest part of the forest,
high up the mountain. These were a grey-furred, long-tailed tanuki,
his wife the fox, who was one of his own family, and their little
son.
The fox and the tanuki were very clever, prudent beasts, and they
also were skilled in magic, and by this means had escaped the fate
of their unfortunate friends. If they heard the twang of an arrow or
saw the glitter of a spear, ever so far off, they lay very still,
and were not to be tempted from their hiding-place, if their hunger
was ever so great, or the game ever so delicious. 'We are not so
foolish as to risk our lives,' they said to each other proudly. But
at length there came a day when, in spite of their prudence, they
seemed likely to die of starvation, for no more food was to be had.
Something had to be done, but they did not know what.
Suddenly a bright thought struck the tanuki. 'I have got a plan,' he
cried joyfully to his wife. 'I will pretend to be dead, and you must
change yourself into a man, and take me to the village for sale. It
will be easy to find a buyer, tanukis' skins are always wanted; then
buy some food with the money and come home again. I will manage to
escape somehow, so do not worry about me.'
The fox laughed with delight, and rubbed her paws together with
satisfaction. 'Well, next time I will go,' she said, 'and you can
sell me.' And then she changed herself into a man, and picking up
the stiff body of the tanuki, set off towards the village. She found
him rather heavy, but it would never have done to let him walk
through the wood and risk his being seen by somebody.
As the tanaki had foretold, buyers were many, and the fox handed him
over to the person who offered the largest price, and hurried to get
some food with the money. The buyer took the tanuki back to his
house, and throwing him into a corner went out. Directly the tanaki
found he was alone, he crept cautiously through a chink of the
window, thinking, as he did so, how lucky it was that he was not a
fox, and was able to climb. Once outside, he hid himself in a ditch
till it grew dusk, and then galloped away into the forest.
While the food lasted they were all three as happy as kings; but
there soon arrived a day when the larder was as empty as ever. 'It
is my turn now to pretend to be dead,' cried the fox. So the tanuki
changed himself into a peasant, and started for the village, with
his wife's body hanging over his shoulder. A buyer was not long in
coming forward, and while they were making the bargain a wicked
thought darted into the tanuki's head, that if he got rid of the fox
there would be more food for him and his son. So as he put the money
in his pocket he whispered softly to the buyer that the fox was not
really dead, and that if he did not take care she might run away
from him. The man did not need twice telling. He gave the poor fox a
blow on the head, which put an end to her, and the wicked tanuki
went smiling to the nearest shop.
In former times he had been very fond of his little son; but since
he had betrayed his wife he seemed to have changed all in a moment,
for he would not give him as much as a bite, and the poor little
fellow would have starved had he not found some nuts and berries to
eat, and he waited on, always hoping that his mother would come
back.
At length some notion of the truth began to dawn on him; but he was
careful to let the old tanuki see nothing, though in his own mind he
turned over plans from morning till night, wondering how best he
might avenge his mother.
One morning, as the little tanuki was sitting with his father, he
remembered, with a start, that his mother had taught him all she
knew of magic, and that he could work spells as well as his father,
or perhaps better. 'I am as good a wizard as you,' he said suddenly,
and a cold chill ran through the tanuki as he heard him, though he
laughed, and pretended to think it a joke. But the little tanaki
stuck to his point, and at last the father proposed they should have
a wager.
'Change yourself into any shape you like,' said he, 'and I will
undertake to know you. I will go and wait on the bridge which leads
over the river to the village, and you shall transform yourself into
anything you please, but I will know you through any disguise.' The
little tanuki agreed, and went down the road which his father had
pointed out. But instead of transforming himself into a different
shape, he just hid himself in a corner of the bridge, where he could
see without being seen.
He had not been there long when his father arrived and took up his
place near the middle of the bridge, and soon after the king came
by, followed by a troop of guards and all his court.
'Ah! he thinks that now he has changed himself into a king I shall
not know him,' thought the old tanuki, and as the king passed in his
splendid carriage, borne by his servants, he jumped upon it crying:
'I have won my wager; you cannot deceive me.' But in reality it was
he who had deceived himself. The soldiers, conceiving that their
king was being attacked, seized the tanuki by the legs and flung him
over into the river, and the water closed over him.
And the little tanoki saw it all, and rejoiced that his mother's
death had been avenged. Then he went back to the forest, and if he
has not found it too lonely, he is probably living there still.
How the Wicked Tanuki
was punished
from the Crimson Fairy Book
Story Edited
by Andrew Lang |
