from The Dancing Kettle and Other Japanese Folk Tales retold by
Yoshiko Uchida
The Old Man with the Bump
Long, long ago, there lived an old man who had a large bump on his right
cheek. It grew larger and larger each day, and he could do nothing to
make it go away.
“Oh, dear, how will I ever rid myself of this bump on my cheek,” sighed
the old man; and though he went from doctor to doctor throughout the
countryside, not one of them could help him.
“You have been a good and honest man,” said his wife. “Surely some day
there will be someone who can help you.”
And so, the old man kept hoping each day that this “someone” would come
along soon.
Now one day the old man went out into the hills to collect some sticks
for his fire. When the sun began to dip behind the hills, he strapped a
large bundle of wood on his back and slowly began the long walk back to
his little house at the foot of the hill. Suddenly the sky began to
darken, and soon huge drops of rain splashed down on the wooded
hillside. The old man hurriedly looked about for some shelter, and
before long spied a gnarled old pine tree with a large hollow in its
trunk.
“Ah, that will be a good shelter for me during the storm,” he said to
himself, and he quickly crawled into the hollow of the tree. He did this
just in time too, for
soon the rain poured down from the skies as though someone had
overturned an immense barrel of water up in the heavens. The old man
crouched low as the thunder crashed above his head and the lightning
made weird streaks of light in the dark forest.
“My, what a storm this is!” he said to himself, and closed his eyes
tight. But it was just a thundershower, and it stopped as suddenly as it
had begun. Soon, all the old man could hear was the drip, drop … of
the rain slipping down from the shiny pine needles.
“Ah, now that the rain has stopped I must hurry home, or my wife will
worry about me,” said the old man.
He was about to crawl out of the hollow of the tree, when he heard a
rustling like the sound of many, many people walking through the forest.
“Well, there must have been other men caught in the forest by the
storm,” he thought, and he waited to walk home with them. But suddenly
the old man turned pale as he saw who was making the sounds he had
heard. He turned with a leap, and jumped right back into the hollow of
the tree. For the footsteps weren’t made by men at all. They were made
by many, many ghosts and spirits walking straight toward the old man.
The old man was so frightened he wanted to cry out for help, but he knew
no one could help him.
“Oh, dear, ohhhh, dear,” moaned the old man, as he buried his head in
his hands. “What will they do to me?”
But soon he raised his head ever so slightly, for he thought he heard
music in the air. Yes, there were singing voices and laughing voices
floating toward him. The old man lifted his head a little more and ever
so carefully took a peek to see what they were doing. His mouth fell
wide open in surprise at the sight before his eyes. The spirits were
gaily dancing about on the soft carpet of pine needles. They laughed and
sang as they whirled and twirled about. They were feasting, and
drinking, and making merry.
“A feast of spirits! My, I have never seen such a strange sight,” said
the old man to himself. Soon he forgot to be afraid and he poked his
head further and further from the hollow of the tree. The old man’s feet
began to tap in time to the music, and he clapped his hands along with
the spirits. His head swayed from side to side and he smiled happily as
he watched the strange sight before him.
Now he could hear the leader saying, “Such foolish dances! I want to see
some really fine dancing. Is there no one here who can do any better?”
Before he knew what he was doing, the old man had jumped right out of
the hole, and danced out among the ghosts.
“Here, I will show you something different! I will show you some fine
dancing,” he called. The spirits stepped back in surprise and the old
man began to dance before them. With so many spirits watching
him, the old man did his very best, and danced as he had never danced
before.“Good, very good indeed,” said the leader of the spirits, nodding his
head in time to the music.“Yes, yes,” agreed the others. “We have never seen
such fine dancing!”
When the old man stopped, the spirits crowded about him, offering him
food and drink from their feast.
“Thank you, thank you,” said the old man happily.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that he had
pleased the spirits, for he had feared that they might
harm a mortal such as he.
The leader of the spirits then stepped before the old man and said in a
deep, low voice, “We would like to see more of such fine dancing. Will
you return again tomorrow, old man?”
“Yes, yes, of course I will come,” answered the old man, but the other
spirits shook their ghostly heads and lifted warning fingers.
“Perhaps this mortal will not keep his word,” they protested. “Let us
take a forfeit from him—something which he treasures most—then he
will be sure to return for it tomorrow.”
“Ah, a fine plan indeed,” answered the leader. “What shall we take from
him?”
All the spirits stepped around the old man, and examined him from head
to toe to see what would make a good forfeit.
“Shall it be his cap?” asked one.
“Or his jacket?” asked another.
Then finally one spoke up in a loud and happy voice, “The bump on his
cheek! The bump on his cheek! Take that from him and he will be sure to
come for it tomorrow, for I have heard that such bumps bring good luck
to human beings, and that they treasure them greatly.”
“Then that shall be the forfeit we will take,” said the leader, and with
one flick of his ghostly finger he snatched away the bump on the old
man’s cheek. Before he could say, “Oh,” the spirits had all disappeared
into the dusky woods.
The old man was so surprised he scarcely knew what to do. He looked at
the spot where the spirits had just been standing and then rubbed the
smooth, flat cheek where once the bump had been.
“My goodness! My, my,” murmured the old man. Then with a big smile on
his face he turned and hurried home.
Now, the old woman had been very worried, for she was afraid that the
old man had met with an accident during the storm. She stood in the
doorway of their cottage waiting for him to return, and when at last she
saw him trudging down the road, she hastened to greet him.
“My, but I was worried about you,” she said. “Did you get drenched in
that thundershower?” Then suddenly the old woman stopped talking and
looked carefully at the old man.
“Why, wh-hy, where is the bump on your right cheek? Surely you had it
this morning when you went out into the woods!”
The old man laughed happily and told the old woman all about his meeting
with the spirits. “So you see, I have lost my bump at last!” he added.
“My, isn’t that nice!” exclaimed the old woman, admiring the old man’s
right cheek. “We must celebrate this happy occasion,” she said, and
together they feasted with akano gohan and tai.
Early the next morning they heard a knock on their door, and there stood
the greedy man who lived next door to them. He had come to borrow some
food, as he so often did.
Now this man also had a bump on his cheek, but his was on the left side
of his face. When he saw the old man without his bump, he threw up his
hands in surprise and exclaimed. “Why, what has happened? Where is the
bump on your face?” He peered closely at the old man’s face and said,
“How I would like to get
rid of mine too! Perhaps I can if I do exactly as you did.” Then,
because he wanted the same good fortune, he asked anxiously, “Tell me,
exactly what did you do?”
So the old man carefully explained how he hid in the hollow of an old
tree until the spirits came to dance in the dusk. Then he told about the
dance he did for them and how they took his bump for a forfeit.
“Ah, thank you, my friend,” said the neighbor. “Tonight I shall do
exactly the same thing.” And after borrowing a large sack of the old
man’s rice, he hurried home.
That evening, the greedy neighbor trudged out into the woods and found
the same tree. He slipped into the hollow trunk and waited quietly,
peeking out every once in a while to watch for the spirits. Just as the
sky began to darken and the setting sun painted all the clouds in gold,
the spirits again twirled and whirled out into the small clearing in
front of the old tree.
The leader looked about and said, “I wonder if the old man who danced
for us yesterday will soon be here?”
“Yes, yes. Here I am!” cried the greedy neighbor, as he leaped from the
hollow tree trunk. He opened out a fan and then he began his dance. But
alas and alack, this old man had never learned how to dance. He hopped
from one foot to the other, and shook his head from side to side, but
the spirits were not smiling as they had been the day before. Instead
they scowled and frowned, and called out, “This is terrible. We have no
use for you, old man. Here, take back your precious bump,” and with a
big THUMP the leader flung the
bump on the greedy man’s right cheek. Then the spirits disappeared into
the woods just as quickly as they had come.
“Ohhhhh!” cried the greedy man as he sadly walked home. “Never again
will I try to be someone else.”
Now he not only had a big bump on his left cheek, he had one on his
right cheek too. And so the greedy man who had tried to copy his
neighbor went home looking just like a chipmunk with both cheeks full of
nuts!
sk
In the book from which this story came, The Dancing Kettle and Other
Japanese Folk Tales, there are many other fine stories. Yoshiko Uchida
has also written The Magic Listening Cap: More Folk Tales from Japan
and The Sea of Gold and Other Tales from Japan (a story from this book
is in Volume 9 of Childcraft). Or, try The Golden Crane by Tohr
Yamaguichi.
The kid never muffs a grounder or fly no matter how hard it’s hit or how
high. And the new kid always acts quite polite, never yelling or
spitting or starting a fight
We were playing the league champs just last week; they were trying to
break our winning streak.
In the last inning the score was one-one, when the new kid swung and hit
a home run.
Our baseball team never did very much, we had me and PeeWee and Earl and
Dutch And the Oak Street Tigers always got beat until the new kid moved
in on our street.
The kid moved in with a mitt and a bat and an official New York Yankee
hat. The new kid plays shortstop or second base and can outrun us all in
any race.
