/O. 
 
 & 
 
 Told in English. 
 
 hy B. H. Chamherlam 
 
 2^ Minami Sat^^icl/e/ T^OKY ' 
 
«OrYBieHT BBSKIRVKB. 
 
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 [id you ever hear the story of 
 the Eight-Headed Serpent? If 
 not, I will tell it to you. It is rather a 
 long one, and we must go a good way 
 back to get to the beginning of it. 
 
In fact, we must go 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 fairy 
 was about to die, he divided it 
 between his two boys and his girl. 
 
 i 
 
 iC 
 
 
The girl called Ama, was given 
 the sun; the eldest boy, called 
 
 Susano, 
 
 was 
 
 given the sea; 
 
 and the second boy, 
 
fr 
 
 \ 
 
 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 full. 
 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 
 j weaving gold and silver dresses, 
 broke their spindles, trampled upon 
 their work, and in short did all the 
 i mischief he could, and frightened the 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
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 
 the brightness of her own bright eyes. 
 Anyhow, there was great trouble over 
 her disappearance. What was to be 
 done to make the world light again? 
 
r 
 
 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 
 
When Ama heard the noise of 
 the dancing and singing and laugh- 
 ing, she could not help opening 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 watching for. 
 ‘^Look here!” cried they; ^dookatthis 
 new fairy more beautiful than your- 
 self!” and therewith they thrust 
 forward a mirror. Ama 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 up the 
 , entrance of the cave with big rocks, 
 I so that no one could ever go into it 
 again. Seeing that she had been 
 tricked into coming out of the cave, 
 and that there was no use in sulking 
 any longer, Ama agreed to go back 
 to the sun and shine upon the world 
 as before, provided her brother were 
 punished and sent away in disgrace; 
 for really he was not safe to live with. 
 This was done. Susa was beaten 
 to within an inch of his life, 
 
c 
 
 and expelled 
 from the society of the other fairies, 
 with orders never to 
 show himself 
 
 again. 
 
 t 
 
So poor Susa, having been turned 
 out of fairy-land, was obliged to come 
 down to the earth. While walking 
 one day on the bank of a river, he 
 
 happened to see an 
 old man and an 
 old woman with 
 their arms 
 round their 
 
“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 
 
r 
 
 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 not do some- 
 thing to help us”?— “Of course,” 
 answered Susa; “it will 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 
 
 V- 
 
 J 
 
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 wrig- 
 
 I 
 
 j gled along. But as he had eight 
 i heads, he also had eight noses, 
 which made him able to smell eight 
 times as quickly as any other crea- 
 ture. So, smelling the beer from 
 afar off, he at once glided towards 
 it , went inside the fence, dipped one 
 
his heads 
 each of 
 the eight 
 vats, and 
 drank and 
 drank and drank, 
 till he got quite 
 tipsy. Then all his heads 
 dropped down fast asleep; and Susa, 
 jumping up from the hole where he 
 had lain hidden, drew his sword, and 
 cut them all off. He cut the body 
 to pieces too. But, strange to say, 
 when cutting the tail, the blade of 
 his sword snapped. It had struck 
 
I against something hard. As the ji 
 I Serpent was now dead, there was no 
 
 i 
 
 I danger in going up to it, and 
 j finding out what the hard thing was. 
 
 I It turned out to be itself a sword 
 all set with precious stones —the 
 most beautiful sword you ever saw. 
 j Susa took the sword, and married 
 i the beautiful young girl; and he was 
 
 J 
 
 very bind 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 th^re too. 
 
< S 
 
 When the old father and mother, 
 and Susa and his wife had all died, 
 the sword was handed down to 
 their children, and grandchildren; 
 and it now belongs to the Emperor 
 of Japan, who looks upon it as one 
 of his most precious treasures. 
 
 
^he ^obun^ha’^ Japanese |Jairy ^ale ^erie^. ;! 
 
 1 . 
 
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 11 . 
 12 . 
 
 Momotaro. 
 
 Shitakiri Suzume. 
 Saru Kani Kassen. 
 Hanasaki Jiji. 
 
 Kachi Kachi Yama. 
 Nedzumi no Yomeiri. 
 Kobutori. 
 
 Urashima. 
 
 Yamata no Orochi. 
 Matsuyama Kagaml. 
 Inaba no Shiro-Usagl^ 
 Kitsune no Tegara. 
 
 I I 
 
 KQ8UNSHA, 3. Minami Saegicho, TOKYO