No.

Japanese Fairy Tale

o
Series, 9.

THE SEftfENT WITH EICHT HEADS*

TRANSLATED BY .
ft. PHAMBERLAIN,

Published by T, HASEGAWA, 17 Kami Negishi, Tokyo,

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 " '

'

THB
WITH EIGHT 8EAOS

ID hear the story of

you ever
the Eight-Headed Serpent!
tell it to you. It is
If not, I will

rather a long one, and

we must

back to get to the

go a good way
it. In we must go
beginning of fact,
back to the beginning of the world.

After the world had been

created, it became the property of

a very powerful fairy; and when

this was about to die, he

fairy

divided it between his two boys

and his girL

^ **=*<
 The girl called Ama, was given
the sun; the eldest boy,, called

Susano,

was given the sea*

and the second boy,

* -

fe

>
whose name I forget, was given

the moon. Well, the Moon-Boy

behaved himself properly; and you

can still see his jolly round face on

a clear night when the moon is

foil. But Susano was very angry

and disappointed at having nothing

but the cold wet sea to live in.

So up he rushed into the sky, burst

into the beautiful room inside the

sun, where his sister was sitting

with her maidens
weaving gold
and silver dresses, broke their

spindles, trampled upon their

 work, and in short did all the mis-
chief he could, and
frightened the
poor maids to death. As for Ama,
she ran
away as fast as she could,
and hid herself in a cave on the
side of a mountain full of rocks

and crags. When she had got into

the cave and had shut the door,

the whole world became pitch-
dark. For she was the fairy who
ruled the sun, and could make it

shine or not as she chose. In fact,

some people say that the light of

the sun is really nothing else than

f
the blightness of her own bright

eyes. Anyhow, there was great

trouble over her disappearance.

What was to be done to make the

world light again? All sorts of plans

were tried. At last, knowing that
she was curious and always liked

to see every thing that was going

on, the other fairies got up a

dance outside the door of the cave.

When A ma heard the noise of

the dancing and singing and

laughing, she could not help open-

ing the door a tiny bit, in order to

peep through the chink at the fun

the other fairies were having. This

was just what they had been wat-

ching for. <<Look here!" cried they;

"look at this new fairy more beau-

tiful than yourself!" and therewith

a mirror. Ama
they thrust forward
did not know that the face in the

mirror was only the reflection of

her own; and, more and more

curious to know who the new fairy

could be, she ventured outside the

door, where she

was caught hold

of by the other fairies, who piled

of the cave with

up the entrance
so that no one could
big rocks,
ever go into it again. Seeing that
1

into coming
she had been tricked
and that there
out of the cave,
was no use in sulking any longer,
to the sun
Ama
,
agreed to go back
and shine upon the world as before,
her brother were punished
provided
in for
and sent away disgrace:

he was not safe to live with.

really
This was done. Susa was beaten to

within an inch of his life, and ex-

. <*

pelled from the society of the other

fairies, with orders never to show

himself again.

So poor Susa,

having been

turned out of

fairy-land,

was obliged

to come down

to the earth.

"While walk-

ing one day

on the bank of a river, he happened

to see an old man and an old

. v3

woman with their arms round their

young daughter, and crying bitterly.

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"What
'

is the matter?" asked Susa.

"Oh!" said they, their voice choked

with sobs, "we used to have

eight daughters. But in a marsh

near our hut there lives a huge

Eight-Headed Serpent, who comes

out once every year, and eats up

one of them. We have now only

one daughter left and to-day is the

day when the Serpent will come

to eat her, and then we shall have

none. Please good Sir! Can you

j!

II not do something to help us"?_"Of

answered Susa; "it will

course,"
be quite easy. Do not be sad any

longer. I am a fairy, and I will

save your daughter." So he told

them to brew some beer, and

showed them how to make a fence

with eight gates in it, and a wooden

stand inside each gate, and a

large vat of beer on each stand.

This they did; and just as all had

been arranged in the way Susa
had bidden them, the Serpent
came. So huge was he, that his

body trained over eight hills and

eight valleys as he wriggled along.

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But as he

had eight

heads, he

also had

eight noses,

which made him

able to smell

eight times as quickly

as any other creature. So, smelling

the beer from afar off, he at

once glided towards it, went inside

the fence, dipped one of his heads

But as he had eight heads, he also

had eight noses, which made him

 to and finding
ger in going up it,

out what the hard thing was. It

turned out to be itself a sword all

set with precious stones,_the most

beautiful sword you ever saw. Susa

took the sword, and married the

beautiful young girl;

and he was

very kind to her, although

he had

been so rude to his elder sister.

They spent the rest of their lives

in a beautiful palace, which was

built on purpose for them; and the

old father and mother lived there

too. When the old father and

mother, and Susa and his wife had
all died, the sword was handed

down to their children, and grand-

children ;
and it now belongs to the

Emperor of Japan, who looks upon

it as one of his most precious

treasures.
 JAPANESE FAIRY TALE SERIES.

1. Momotaro or Little Peachling.

2. The Tongue Cut Sparrow.
3. The Battle of the Monkey and the Crab.
4. The Old Man who made the Dead Trees Blossom
5. Kachi-Kachi Mountain.
6. The Mouses' Wedding.
7. The Old Man and the Devils.
8. Urashima, the Fisher-boy.
9. The Eight-Headed Serpent
IO. The Matsuyama Mirror.
,11. The Hare of Inaba.
12, The Cub's Triumph.
:

13. The Silly Jelly-Fish.

14. The Princes Fire-Flash and Fire-Fade

15. My Lord Rag-o'-Rice.

1 6. The Wonderful Tea-Kettle.

17. Schippeitaro.
1 8. The Ogre's Arm.
19. The Ogres of Oyeyama.
20. The Enchanted Waterfall.
2nd Seres No. I. The Goblin-Spider,
* " 2. The Wonderful Malet
I * 9 The Broken Imagq
3.