'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.

[From Japanische Mahrchen.]



The Crab And The Monkey