Japanese Fairy Tales Series No. 4

Japanese Fairy Tale

Series, No. 4.

Who Made The Dead Trees

The Old Man

Blossom.

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HASEGAWA, 17 Kami

Negishi, Tokyo.

NCE

upon a time there was

a kind old couple that kept a pet dog.

One day

the old

man dug

where the dog scratehed and unex-

s

pectedly

Now

found a quantity of gold.

there

was

a

bad-hearted

couple, their neighbors,

who envied

good fortune and asked

them

their

them

to lend their dog.

would take no

refusal,

As they

they got the

dog; but when they took him along the road he would not scratch the

ground. Therefore they made him scratch,

and then dug where he

scratched.

gold,

they

But instead of finding only

found

a lot of

>*

^"*i

filthy stuff.

and

killed

Then they got angry the

dog,

and buried

him under a small pine tree

fHfr

J^'

by

"tp~

r the way-side.

The pine

denly grew to a great

kind old

made

When

man

cut

tree sud-

size;

it

and the

down and

a mortar out of the wood.

he pounded barley in that

mortar the barley would flow up

-'

out of the bottom and over-flow

without end.

His neighbor again

envied

and

him,

borrowed

mortar to pound his barley

But when he did all

so

his

his in.

barley

turned out cracked and worm-

ic

a

1 eaten. still

Then he became

more enraged and broke

the mortar to pieces and used it

for fire

man

wood.

The kind

old

then took some of the ashes of the mortar and scattered

them on dead

trees,

and made

^Hwu-r------

'

s i

them blossm.

He

was

plentifully

rewarded

for this

silver

with gold,

and pieces of silk

of by the prince

the country: so he

and

came

to

be called

V

\V*

"The old man who made dead trees blossom."

Again

his neighbor

envied him, and attempted to

make

dead trees blossom with the ashes.

But when he took a

handfiil

and

sprinkled tree,

the

it

on the limbs of a dead

tree

did

not blossom,

but the ashes blew into the eyes

of the prince of the country.

The

retainers of the prince roared out:

"That's a nice state of things!"

and

seized the old

man, and

all

hands gave him a sore beating-

With

his

head bruised and bloody

he barely escaped. In this condition his wife

saw him returning in the

distance,

"My husband

too, I see,

has been rewarded by the prince

with purple garments," she

But while she was thus

said.

rejoicing,

he came near, when she looked

more

closely

and saw that her

husband instead of being clothed in purple

was stained with

blood.

As

to the

his

bed

man, he then took

sick,

and

at last died.

to

JAPANESE FAIRY TALE 1.

2.

3. 4.

Momotaro or Little Peachling. The Tongue Cut Sparrow. The Battle of the Monkey and the Crab. The Old Man who made the Dead Trees Blossom

5.

Kachi-Kachi Mountain.

6.

The Mouses' Weddin-. o The Old Man and the

7. 8.

14. 15.

My

1 6.

The Wonderful

1 7.

Schippeitaro.

11. 12.

13.

Devils.

Urashima, the Fisher-boy.

The The The The The The

9.

10.

SEHIE3.

Eight-Headed Serpent.

Matsuyama Mirror. Hare of Inaba. Cub's Triumph. Silly Jelly-Fish.

Princes Fire-Flash and Fire-Fade

Lord Rag-o'-Rtce. Tea-Kettle.

The Ogre's Arm, The Ogres of Oyeyama. 20. The Enchanted Waterfall. 2nd Series No. i. The Goblin-Spider. " " "2. The Wonderful Mallet * f * The Broken Images. 3. 1 8.

19.

&

.Art

pztntcz,

JAPANESE FAIR! TALES _

Three

21.

SERIES.

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