The Tengu's Gourd

Long, long ago in a certain place there were beings called gamblers. These probably don't exist today, but they won or lost money by betting it on cards or dice. Kunisada Chuji and Shimizu no Jirocho were the bosses of such beings. Once one of these gamblers bet his money until he didn't have a single penny left, and then he started home. The night was near dawning-- nowadays we would say it was about 4 a.m. He was about to pass beneath the big pine by the village shrine when he saw a tengu perched on a branch of the pine.

There aren't any tengu around today, but long ago such beings did exist. They had absurdly long noses, and they had wings on their backs. They lived somewhere deep in the mountains. This tengu called out to the gambler.

"Hey! Hey, gambler! Are you going home from losing again?

"Oh, Tengu-sama? I wondered who that was. I dislike losing, so I just loaned my money to the other guy."

The tengu laughed, "Ha. Ha. Ha." He probably knew the gambler didn't like losing. After a while, he spoke again.

"By the way, gambler, what is it you fear the most?"

"Well, if I had to choose, I'd say there's nothing worse than azuki mochi. Or maybe bota mochi. I start to tremble just looking at it. I can't even talk. But what do you fear most, Tengu-sama?"

"Guns. The sound of guns."

Then the tengu must have decided to give the gambler a hard time. Pieces of delicious azuki mochi started falling from the top of the pine tree.

"Oh, help! It's awful, it's terrible!" the gambler called in a loud and very upset voice. At the same time he ran around picking up pieces of mochi and gobbling them down.

When the gambler had finally eaten all he could hold, he loudly called out, "Zudo--n," mimicking a gunshot. That startled the tengu right out of the tree, but it flapped its wings and flew off before hitting the ground.

"Ha. Ha. Ha." This time the gambler at the foot of the tree was laughing. As he laughed, he looked up, and saw a gourd dangling from the pine branch. This was what is called "the tengu's gourd," which will produce whatever one desires. If one just says, for example, "Make sake, make sake," out would come a stream of it. The gambler quickly got it down, and sat on a stone drinking the sake (for example) to his heart's content. And that's the happy ending.


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