be stunned to death. However he resolved to make another still more
tremendous effort. He did so, while the fox again hid his head in the
hole; and the tiger burst his inside in the attempt.
For this reason there are no tigers in Aino-land. For this reason, also,
foxes are crafty and eloquent even at the present day.--(Written down
from memory. Told by Ishanashte, 27th November, 1886.)
xv.--_The Punishment of Curiosity._
In very ancient days, when the world had just been made, everything was
still unsettled and dangerous. The crust of the earth was thin, and all
was burning beneath. For this reason the people did not dare to venture
outside of their huts even to obtain food: for they would have scorched
their feet. So they were fed by the god Okikurumi, who used to fish for
them, and then send round his wife Turesh with what he had caught. But
he commanded the people to ask no questions, and never to attempt to
look at Turesh's face. But one day an Aino in one of the huts was not
content with being fed for nothing, and disobeyed Okikurumi's commands.
He wished to see who the woman was that came round every day with food.
So he waited till her hand was stretched in at the window, seized hold
of it, and pulled her in by main force. She screamed and struggled; and,
when she was inside the hut, she turned into a wriggling, writhing
dragon. The sky darkened, the thunder crashed, the dragon vanished, and
the hut was consumed by lightning. Okikurumi was very angry at what the
man had done. So he left off feeding the people, and went away, none,
knew whither. That is why the Ainos have been poor and miserable ever
since that time.--(Written down from memory. Told by Kuteashguru, July,
1886.)
xvi.--_How it was settled who should rule the World._
When the Creator had finished creating this world of men, the good and
the bad gods were all mixed together promiscuously, and began disputing
for the possession of the world. They disputed,--the bad gods wanting to
be at the head of the government of this world, and the good gods
likewise wanting to be at the head. So the following arrangement was
agreed to: Whoever, at the time of sunrise, should be the first to see
the luminary, should rule the world. If the bad gods should be the first
to see it rise, then they should rule; and if the good gods should be
the first, then they should rule. Thereupon both the bad Gods and the
brilliant gods looked towards the place where the luminary was to rise.
But the fox[-god] alone stood looking towards the west. After a little
time, the fox cried out: "I see the sunrise." On the gods, both bad and
good, turning round and gazing, they saw in truth the refulgence of the
luminary in the west. This is the cause for which the brilliant gods
rule the world.--(Translated literally. Told by Ishanashte, 10th July,
1886.)
xvii.--_The Man who lost his Wife._
A man had lost his wife, and was searching for her everywhere, over hill
and dale, forest and sea-shore. At last he came to a wide plain, on
which stood an oak-tree. Going up to it he found it to be not so much an
oak-tree as a house, in which dwelt a kind-looking old man. Said the old
man: "I am the god of the oak-tree. I know of your loss, and have seen
your faithful search. Rest here awhile, and refresh yourself by eating
and smoking. After that, if you hope to find your wife again, you must
obey my orders, which are as follows: Take this golden horse, get on his
back, fly up on him to the sky, and, when you get there, ride about the
streets, constantly singing."
So the man mounted the horse, which was of pure gold. The saddle and all
the trappings were of gold also. As soon as he was in the saddle, the
horse flew up to the sky. There the man found a world like ours, but
more beautiful. There was an immense city in it; and up and down the
streets of that city, day after day, he rode, singing all the while.
Every one in the sky stared at him, and all the people put their hands
to their noses, saying: "How that creature from the lower world stinks!"
At last the stench became so intolerable to them that the chief god of
the sky came and told him that he should be made to find his wife if
only he would go away. Thereupon the man flew back to earth on his
golden horse. Alighting at the foot of the oak-tree, he said to the
oak-god: "Here am I. I did as you bade me. But I did not find my wife."
"Wait a moment," said the oak-god; "you do not know what a tumult has
been caused by your visit to the sky, neither have I yet told you that
it was a demon who stole your wife. This demon, looking up from hell
below, was so much astonished to see and hear you riding up and down the
streets of heaven singing, that his gaze is still fixed in that
direction. I will profit hereby to go round quietly, while his attention
is absorbed, and let your wife out of the box in which he keeps her shut
up."
The oak-god did as he had promised. He brought back the woman, and
handed over both her and the gold horse to the man, saying: "Do not use
this horse to make any more journeys to the sky. Stay on earth, and
breed from it." The couple obeyed his commands, and became very rich.
The gold horse gave birth to two horses, and these two bred likewise,
till at last horses filled all the land of the Ainos.--(Written down
from memory. Told by Ishanashte, 21st July, 1886.)
xviii.--_The First Appearance of the Horse in Aino-land._
A very beautiful woman had a husband. He was a very skilful fellow. Once
he went to the mountains, and disappeared. But at night he returned,
bearing a deer on his back. After feasting on the deer, they went to
bed. But in the middle of the night, the woman wept and screamed,
saying: "This man is not my husband. Though with shame, I will declare
the fact as it is. His penis is so big, so big, so big, that it will not
get into my vagina; and if it did get in, I should die."
Alarmed by her cries, the neighbours ran out, and came into her house;
and one strong fellow took a stick, and beat the husband, saying: "You
must be some sort of devil," whereupon the husband turned into a horse,
and ran away neighing. Afterwards he was beaten to death.
The truth was that the husband had been killed and supplanted by the
horse. That was the first the Ainos saw of horses. In ancient days every
sort of creature could thus assume human shape. So it is
said.--(Translated literally. Told by Penri, 12th July, 1886.)
xix.--_Sunrise._
When the sun rises at the head of the world [_i.e._ in the east], a
devil tries to swallow it. But some one thrusts two or three crows or
foxes into the devil's mouth. Meanwhile the sun mounts on high. The
creatures, than which there are none more numerous in this world, are
the crows and the foxes. That is why things are thus. In return for this
service of theirs, the crows and foxes share in all man's eatables. It
is because of the above fact.--(Translated literally. Told by Penri,
13th July, 1886.)
xx.--_The Sex of the Two Luminaries._
Formerly it was the female luminary that came out at night. But she was
so greatly shocked at the immoralities which she saw going on out of
doors among the grass, that she exchanged with the male luminary, who,
being a man, did not care so much. So now the sun is a female deity, and
the moon is a male deity. But surely the sun must be often shocked at
what she sees going on even in the day-time, when the young people are
in the open among the grass.--(Written down from memory. Told by
Ishanashte, November, 1886.)
II.--MORAL TALES.
xxi.--_The Kind Giver and the Grudging Giver._
A certain man had laid his net across the river; having laid his net, he
killed a quantity of fish. Meanwhile there came a raven, and perched
beside him. It seemed to be greatly hungering after the fish. It was
much to be pitied. So the fisherman washed one of the fish, and threw it
to the raven. The raven ate the fish with great joy. Afterwards the
raven came again. Though it was a raven, it spoke thus, just like a
human being: "I am very grateful for having been fed on fish by you. If
you will come with me to my old father, he too will thank you. So you
had better come."
The man went with the raven. Being a raven, it flew through the air. The
man followed it on foot. After they had gone a long way, they came to a
large house. When they got there, the raven went into the house. The man
went in also. When he looked, it appeared like a human being in form,
though it was a raven. There were also a divine old man and a divine old
woman besides the divine girl. This girl was she who had led the man
hither. The divine old man spoke thus: "I am very grateful to you. As I
am very grateful to you for feeding my daughter with good fish, I have
had you brought here in order to reward you." Thus spoke the divine old
man.
Then there were a gold puppy and a silver puppy. Both these puppies were
given to the man. The divine old man spoke thus: "Though I should give
you treasures, it would be useless. But if I give you these puppies, you
will be greatly benefited. As for the excrements of these two puppies,
the gold puppy excretes gold and the silver puppy excretes silver. This
being so, you will be greatly enriched if you sell these excrements to
the officials. Understand this!" Then the man, with respectful
salutations, went away, carrying with him the two puppies, and came to
his own house. Then he gave the puppies a little food at a time. When
the gold puppy excreted, it excreted gold for him. When the silver puppy
excreted, it excreted silver for him. The man greatly enriched himself
by selling the metal.
Thereupon another man, for the sake of imitation, set his net in the
river. He killed a quantity of fish. Then the raven came. The man
smeared a fish with mud, and then threw it to the raven. The raven flew
away with it. The man went after it, and at last, after going a long
way, reached a large house. He went in there. The divine old man was
very angry. He spoke thus: "You man are a man with a very bad heart.
When you gave my daughter a fish, you gave it smeared all over with mud.
I am very angry. Still, though I am angry, I will give you some puppies,
as you have come to my house. If you treat them properly, you will be
benefited." Thus spoke the divine old man, and gave a gold puppy and a
silver puppy to the man. With a bow, the man went home with them.
The man thought thus: "If I feed the puppies plentifully, they will
excrete plenty of metal. It would be foolish to have them excreting only
a little at a time. So I will do that, and become very rich." Thinking
thus, he fed the puppies plentifully on anything, even on dirty things.
Then they excreted no metal for him. They only excreted dirty dung. The
man's house was full of nothing but dirty dung. As for the former man,
who had received puppies from the divine old man, he fed his on nothing
but good food, a little at a time. Gradually they excreted metal for
him. He was greatly enriched.
Thus in ancient times, with regard to men who wished to grow rich, they
could grow rich if their hearts were as good as possible. As for
bad-hearted men, the gods became angry at all their various misdeeds.
It was for this reason that, on account of their anger, even a gold
puppy excreted nothing but dung. As for the house of that bad-hearted
man, it grew so full of dung as to be too dirty for other people to
enter. This being so, oh! men, do not be bad-hearted. That is the story
which I have heard.--(Translated literally. Told by Ishanashte, 20th
July, 1886.)
xxii.--_The Man who was changed into a Fox_.
A certain man's conduct was as follows: he went to every place, making
it his business to do nothing but tell lies and extort things from
people. Then, after a time, when wanting to extort again, he went on to
another place. While walking along he used to think of what lies he
could tell. Afterwards he heard a voice. It was not human language. He
walked saying--"Pau! pau!"[C] When he looked at his own body, it was a
fox's. Then he thought that, whether he might return to his own village,
or go to another place, the dogs would kill him. So, with tears, he went
away from the road into the mountains. There he found a large, leafy
oak-tree. He lay down crying beneath it.
Then he fell asleep. He dreamt that there was a large house. He was
outside of that house. A divine woman came out of it, and spoke thus:
"Oh! what a bad man! what a villain! You have become a bad god, a devil,
as a divine punishment for your misdeeds. Being thus made into a devil,
why do you come and stand near my house? I should like to leave you
alone. But as I am this tree, which is made the chief of trees by
heaven, and as it would defile me to have you die beside my house, I
will turn you into a man again and send you home. Do not misbehave
yourself henceforth!" Thus spoke the divine woman.
Such was his dream. Meanwhile the branches at the top of the tree broke,
and came crashing down, and he was greatly frightened. But when he
started up, he was a man again. Then he worshipped the tree. Then he
returned home. Then afterwards he did not misbehave. So also must you
not misbehave, you men who live now!--(Translated literally. Told by
Penri, 19th July, 1886.)
[C] An onomatopoeia for the bark of the fox.
xxiii.--_The Rat Boy._
In a certain village there lived a very rich couple; but they were
childless. They were very anxious for a child. But one day, as the wife
went to the mountains to fetch wood, she found a little boy crying
beside a tree. Rejoiced at this, she took him down with her to the
village. Thenceforth they kept the boy with them. It was a place where
there was plenty of deer and also of fish; it was a place provided with
all the things which people like to eat. But though they hunted the
deer, they could not catch them; though they angled for the fish, they
could not catch them. They were very hungry. Hearing that great
quantities both of fish and of deer were killed in the village next to
theirs, towards the mountains, the wife went off to buy food there,
taking the child with her. She went to the village next to theirs,
towards the mountains. She went to the house of the chief.
The woman looked and saw fish hanging on poles, and flesh hanging on
poles. With tears she longed for some. She went in, she went in to the
chief's house. Then she stayed there. She was feasted on the best bits
of the fish and on the best bits of the flesh. After that, as she lay
down with her little boy, he rose quietly in the middle of the night.
Then there was the sound of a rat nibbling at the fish and flesh on the
poles. The woman thought it very strange. So at dawn the boy came
quietly back, lay down by the woman's side, and slept there till the day
was bright. The people of the house rose, and the chief went out and
mumbled thus to himself: "Never were there such rats as this. There have
been rats nibbling my good fish and my good flesh."
So the woman bought a quantity of fish and flesh and went off with it.
She wanted the little boy to walk in front of her; but he disliked to do
so. He would only walk after her. Then there was the sound of a rat
nibbling at her load. When she looked back, the little boy was grinning.
So they went on; they went home. Then she put both the fish and the
flesh into the store-house. Then she whispered to her husband. Then her
husband went into the next room, and made a trap. Then the trap was set
in the store-house. Then they went to bed. The little boy lay between
the woman and her husband; but after awhile he quietly rose and went
out. He stayed away, without coming back. Daylight came. On the man of
the house going into the store-house, there was a large rat in the trap.
So he brought it down, beat it to death, and swept it on to the
dust-heap. That night he had a dream. A person of divine aspect spoke to
him thus; "You were childless, and wanting to have a child. The most
wicked of the rats, seeing this, took the shape of a little boy, and
dwelt in your house. For this reason, your village has been polluted.
But as you have now killed the rat, all will now be right. I am sorry
for you, so you shall have a child." Thus did he dream that the god
spoke to him. As it was true, they got a child, though they had been
childless.
For this reason, whether it be on the shore or in the mountains or
anywhere else that one finds either a child or a puppy, one should not
let it dwell in one's house without knowing its origin.--(Translated
literally. Told by Penri, 20th July 1886.)
xxiv.--_Don't throw Useful Things away._
A certain man had a little boy. A divine little boy and a divine little
girl used to come and play with him every day. But the little boy alone
could see them. His parents could not see them, but believed their child
to be alone.
Now one day he fell ill, and during his illness his two playmates did
not come to see him. Only at the very last did they come, when he seemed
to be on the point of death. Then they came, and the little girl said:
"We know the cause of your illness. Your grandfather possessed a
beautiful axe. I myself am a small tray which he fashioned with that
axe, and the little boy who comes with me is a pestle which was also
fashioned with it. So the axe was our chieftain, and we are its
children. But your father has been bad. He has thrown away the axe,
which is now rusting under the floor. For this are you ill, in order to
punish your father, because our chieftain the axe is angry. Therefore,
as we were your playmates, we have come to warn you that, if you wish to
live, you must tell your father to search for the axe, to polish it, to
make a new handle for it, and to set up the divine symbols in its
honour. Then may you be cured, and the axe too will pay you a visit in
human shape."
So the boy told his father of this. The father thought that his son had
been instructed in a dream. He searched under the floor of the house,
and found the axe, and polished it, and made a new handle for it, and
set up the divine symbols in its honour. Then his son was immediately
healed.
After that, the axe (who appeared as a very handsome man), the tray, and
the pestle all came, and became the little boy's brothers and sisters.
The axe, being a god, knew all that went on and the causes of
everything; and it and the tray and the pestle used always to tell the
boy everything. Thus, if any one was sick, he knew why the sickness had
come, and how it should be treated. He was looked upon as a great
soothsayer and wizard, who could turn death into life. This was because
other people only saw him. They did not see his divine informants, the
axe, the tray, and the pestle.
For this reason never throw away anything that has belonged to your
ancestors. You will be punished by the gods if you do so.
[In a variant of this tale, the death of child after child borne by a
certain woman was owing to the fact that the doll with which she herself
had played as a child (a piece of wood shaped like a bird) had been
thrown away in the grass, and had thus had its anger aroused. A
conversation on the subject between the spoon, the cup, and the iron
chain whereby the kettle is hung over the fire from a hook in the
ceiling, is overheard by a half-burnt piece of firewood, who warns the
woman's husband in a dream. The doll is then looked for; and, when
found, the divine symbols are set up in its honour. Thereupon the woman
bears again. This time the child survives, to the delight of both its
parents.]--(Written down from memory. Told by Ishanashte, 2nd December,
1886.)
xxv.--_The Wicked Wizard punished._
One day a wizard told a man whom he knew that, if any one were to climb
a certain mountain-peak and jump off on to the belt of clouds below, he
would be able to ride about on them as on a horse, and see the whole
world. Trusting in this, the man did as the wizard had told him, and in
very truth was enabled to ride about on the clouds. He visited the whole
world in this fashion, and brought back a map which he had drawn of the
whole world both of men and of gods. On arriving back at the
mountain-peak in Aino-land, he stepped off the cloud on to the mountain,
and, descending to the valley, told the wizard how successful and
delightful the journey had been, and thanked him for the opportunity
kindly granted him of seeing sights so numerous and so strange.
The wizard was overcome with astonishment. For what he had told the
other man was a lie, a wicked lie invented with the sole intention of
causing his death; for he hated him. Nevertheless, seeing that what he
had simply meant for an idle tale was apparently an actual fact, he
decided to see the world himself in this easy fashion. So, ascending the
mountain-peak, and seeing a belt of clouds a short way below, he jumped
off on to it, but was instantly dashed to pieces in the valley below.
That night the god of the mountain appeared to the good man in a dream,
and said: "The wizard has met with the death which his fraud and folly
deserve. You I kept from hurt, because you are a good man. So when,
obedient to the wizard's advice, you leapt off on to the cloud, I bore
you up, and showed you the world in order to make you a wiser man. Let
all men learn from this how wickedness leads to condign
punishment!"--(Written down from memory. Told by Ishanashte, 21st July,
1886.)
xxvi.--_The Angry Crow._
A man came to a certain village--whence was not known,--dressed only in
fine black robes. While he was there, some rice-beer was brewed. On
being given some of it to drink, he was very joyful, and then danced.
Then, as he went out-of-doors, he re-entered the house with a piece of
hard dung in his mouth, and put it in the alcove. As the master of the
house became angry and beat him, he, being a large crow, flew out of the
window, making the sound "K[=a]! k[=a]!" For this reason, even crows are
creatures to be dreaded. Be very careful!--(Translated literally. Told
by Penri, 11th July, 1886.)
[In another version of this story, communicated to me by Mr John
Batchelor, the crow, enraged at not having received an invitation to a
feast given by some of the more handsome birds, flies high into the air
with a piece of hard dung in its mouth, and lets it drop into the middle
of the party, to the great confusion of the guests. Some of the smaller
birds take counsel together as to the advisability of interfering to
restore the harmony of the occasion, but finally decide that it is not
for them, who were also omitted from the list of invitations, to mix
themselves up with such a matter. _Moral_: If you give a feast, ask all
your friends to it. If any are left out, they are sure to feel hurt.]
xxvii.--_Okikurumi, Samayunguru, and the Shark._
Okikurumi and his henchman Samayunguru went out one day to sea, and
speared a large shark, which ran away, up and down the sea, with the
line and the boat. The two men grew very tired of pulling at him, and
could not prevent the boat from being pulled about in all directions.
Their hands were bloody and blistered both on the backs and on the
palms, till at last Samayunguru sank dead in the bottom of the boat. At
last Okikurumi could hold on no longer, and he cursed the shark, saying:
"You bad shark! I will cut the rope. But the tip of the harpoons, made
half of iron and half of bone, shall remain sticking in your flesh; and
you shall feel in your body the reverberation of the iron and the
scraping of the bone; and on your skin shall grow the _rasupa_-tree and
the _shiuri_-tree of which the spear-handle is made, and the _hai_-grass
by which the tip of the harpoon is tied to the body of it, and the
_nipesh_-tree of which the rope tying the harpoon itself is made, so
that, though you are such a mighty fish, you shall not be able to swim
in the water; and you shall die, and a last be washed ashore at the
river-mouth of Saru; and even the carrier-crows and the dogs and foxes
will not eat you, but will only void their foeces upon you, and you
shall at last rot away to earth."