Once this oxdriver loaded up his ox with dried mackerel and set off to sell them in mountain villages.
Along the way he was heading toward a high pass. Since this was long ago, these mountain passes were lonely places where there were few people, and really frightening things often showed up.
For that reason, the oxdriver wanted to hurry along the road so he wouldn't meet such things. But what he was leading was still an ox, and no matter how much the oxdriver tried to hurry it, the ox just plodded along.
Then, when he was almost to the pass, he had the bad luck to run into a yamanba. A yamanba (or yamauba) is a female oni, with a mask-like face.
The yamanba was coming along from the other side. She saw the load on the back of the ox, and said, "Oxdriver, Oxdriver! Can I have a mackerel?"
The oxdriver thought there was no telling what would happen if he refused, so he pulled one mackerel from the load, and threw it in front of the yamanba. The yamanba took it in her hand and stuffed it into her huge mouth as quick as a flash.
The oxdriver wanted to get away from her, if only by one step, so as she ate, he slapped the ox from behind and said, "Hurry, go on." But whether the ox understood or not, it just slobbered as always and plodded along.
The yamanba quickly caught up, and said, "Oxdriver, Oxdriver! Can I have a mackerel?"
The oxdriver thought there was no telling what would happen if he refused, so he pulled another mackerel from the load, and threw it in front of the yamanba. As she ate it, he did his best to speed the ox up.
But the ox, being an ox, had no sense of the oxdriver's feelings, and plodded along as always. The yamanba caught up and said, "Oxdriver, Oxdriver! Can I have a mackerel?"
The oxdriver thought there was no telling what would happen if he refused, so he threw another mackerel and tried to speed the ox up. Before long, every one of the salted mackerel he was carrying had been fed to the yamanba.
"That's all!" the oxdriver finally said. But the yamanba quickly caught up and said "Feed me the ox, oxdriver! Feed me the ox, oxdriver!"
The oxdriver couldn't bear to let his ox be eaten, but he was terrified of what would happen if he refused. When he didn't reply, the yamanba said, "If you don't feed me the ox, I'll eat you!"
At those words the oxdriver started shaking. He cried out "Oh ..." and ran off without the ox. In a blink the yamanba ate the ox. Then she said, "And now I'll eat you," and chased after him.
From the sound of those terrible words, the oxdriver could tell there was still a little distance between them, but he felt like that mask-like face was peering over his shoulder.
The oxdriver knew he would be eaten if he slowed up, so he ran with all his might, bounding over the surface. As he fled, he came to the dike around a large pond, and he could see a big tree growing atop the dike. The oxdriver was worn out from running, and knew the yamanba would catch him eventually if he kept on running. So with sweat running down his face, he hastily climbed up the tree.
When he reached the top branches of the tree, the oxdriver realized that there were no leaves below him. Therefore, if viewed from below, he was in plain sight. He knew that wasn't good, but at that point there was nothing else he could do. He could hear the yamanba's footsteps coming closer and closer.
As he peered downward, the oxdriver was amazed to see that there was a man below him, straddling a branch of the big tree and peering up at him. Without thinking, the oxdriver shrank down a bit. Well, that's what he wanted to do, but in fact he just pulled his neck in. That was because being higher in the tree was dangerous, and there was nothing he could do. He could see, however, that the man below him pulled his neck in at the same time. Surprised, the oxdriver stretched his neck out, and the man did the same.
"What on earth ..." the oxdriver thought. He certainly didn't speak aloud, in such circumstances. What he had seen was a reflection of himself in the water below. The oxdriver was startled to realize that. That meant the yamanba would be able to see him at the first glance, he thought. He tried shifting his body to the back side of the tree trunk and laying the upper part of his body close to the branch, but nothing he tried did any good. He was still clearly reflected in the water. Since nothing worked, the oxdriver quit trying, and just sat there looking at the water.
The yamanba came running up, huffing and puffing. As expected, she spotted the oxdriver at a glance. When she did, she stood at the edge of the pond, pointed at the oxdriver, opened her big mouth, and laughed. She was probably thinking she could eat one more mouthful. Her meaning was that however much he ran, he could not escape.
Then, because the yamanba had chased hi so hard, she waited a minute to catch her breath. In reality, however, what the yamanba had discovered was the oxdriver's reflection in the water. Perhaps the yamanba was in a daze from running to catch him, and her eyes were bleary. She didn't realize that what she saw was only a reflection, but thought it was the actual oxdriver. After laughing and pointing at the oxdriver, she walked forward with both arms stretched out, like a child wanting to get on its mother's back, and lunged to grab the oxdriver in the water. She grabbed, but naturally she did not catch him. There was a splash, and waves, and the yamanba was standing in water up to her breast.
This was startling even for a yamanba; she rolled her eyes and looked around, and walked noisily here and there through the water. She tried pushing the water away with her hands, and she searched the bottom with her feet. She made waves, and she muddied the water, and finally the yamanba dove under the surface. She could not convince herself that the oxdriver had just disappeared.
The oxdriver, however, used this time to sneak down out of the tree. Then he ran away for all he was worth. As he fled, he saw a solitary, reed-thatched hut at the bottom of the next mountain. He ran straight to the hut as a refuge, and nearly flew through the doorway.
However, there was no one inside. It did not look like a human habitation. Perhaps, he thought, this was where the yamanba lived. The more he thought, the more this seemed to be the lair of a yamanba. No, there was no question about it-- this was the yamanba's place.
The oxdriver thought to himself, "My luck goes from bad to worse. If I escape into a tree, it's a free with no leaves at the bottom so I'm reflected in the water. If I find a house where I can take refuge, it turns out to be the house of the very yamanba that's chasing me. It's just like going to hide in the yamanba's pocket."
But that couldn't be helped now. He looked around for a hiding place. There was none. He stamped his feet in frustration-- he couldn't just stand there. Then he heard more footsteps outside. The yamanba was coming home. There was no time to waste, so he made up his mind to climb up to the roof and hide among the rafters.
As he looked down from above, he saw the yamanba come through the doorway.
"I'm really worn out today, messing with that oxdriver," she grumbled to herself. Then she went to the irori and got the fire going. That's probably because she was soaked from being in the pond. But before she was even dry, she got out some mochi and started to toast it over the embers of the fire. As it cooked, the warmth and her weariness overcame the yamauba, and she soon dozed off. The toasting mochi swelled and steamed and gave off a wonderful smell, but the yamanba dozed on.
At first the oxdriver had felt nothing but terror, but as he watched the yamanba and smelled the mochi, he suddenly became very hungry. He wanted mochi so badly he could hardly stand it. He quietly pulled a long reed out of the thatch of the roof next to where he lay. Then he reached down with the reed, poked it through a piece of mochi right in front of the yamanba, and quietly pulled the reed and mochi back up. The mochi had toasted just the right length of time, and was truly delicious. Hiding in the shadow of the rafters, the oxdriver ate it quickly. When he finished that piece, he looked down again, more hungry than before. Sure enough, the yamanba was still dozing, so he quietly lowered the long reed again, pierced another piece of the mochi in front of the yamanba, and pulled it up to himself.
In the shadow of the rafters, he ate the second piece carefully, to avoid making any sound. When he was done, the oxdriver looked down again. He had an excessive hunger-- more than before-- and an excessive desire for mochi. He could see the yamanba sleeping, and so he took another piece of mochi and ate it. Then all that was left of the mochi in front of the yamanba was a little scrap that had fallen from the grill and been burned black among the embers.
Just then the yamanba opened her eyes and stared at the fire in the irori before her. She could see that the mochi was gone, and roared, "WHO TOOK IT?"
As she looked around, the oxdriver up in the rafters said, in a very small voice, "The fire god, the fire god."
"If it was the fire god, then it can't be helped," the yamanba said. She picked the blackened scrap out of the fire and crunched it down.
Since the mochi was all gone, the yamanba got out a pot, and started to heat some sweet amazake. While she waited for the amazake to warm up, she dozed off again. The fire below the pot of amazake warmed it well, and also warmed the oxdriver up in the rafters. Night had fallen, and the beautiful red glow of the irori lighted the yamanba's hut.
Before long the delicious smell of amazake had wafted up to where the oxdriver was. After eating the mochi, he was quite thirsty. And so, he pulled another long reed out of the thatch. He pushed one end into the amazake, and started sucking. It gurgled down his throat, although he was trying to drink noiselessly. But however much he drank, he was still thirsty. Finally he had swallowed the last drop. Then the yamanba opened her eyes and stared at the pot. Finally she realized what she didn't see, and roared "WHO DRANK IT?"
In a small voice, the oxdriver said, "The fire god, the fire god."
"If it was the fire god, then it can't be helped," the yamanba said.
Then she said, "I might as well just go to sleep. Should I sleep in the stone chest or the wooden chest?"
She thought a moment, then said, "Stone is cold, so I suppose the wooden chest would be better."
She went over to a large wooden chest, opened the lid, and climbed in. Soon, loud snores could be heard from the chest. The yamanba was sound asleep.
Watching this from the rafters, the oxdriver decided to come down. Then he built up the fire in the irori. First he got a large kettle of water boiling, and then he used a gimlet to bore a hole in the lid of the chest.
Inside the chest, the sleeping yamanba didn't recognize the sound of the gimlet, but muttered, "Good weather tomorrow-- I can hear the crickets chirping."
When the hole was ready, the oxdriver poured the boiling water in through it, and then there wasn't anything else that could be done.