Near a big river, and between two high mountains, a man and his
wife lived in a cottage a long, long time ago. A dense forest
lay all round the cottage, and there was hardly a path or a tree
in the whole wood that was not familiar to the peasant from his
boyhood. In one of his wanderings he had made friends with a
hare, and many an hour the two passed together, when the man was
resting by the roadside, eating his dinner.

Now this strange friendship was observed by the Tanuki, a wicked,
quarrelsome beast, who hated the peasant, and was never tired of
doing him an ill turn. Again and again he had crept to the hut,
and finding some choice morsel put away for the little hare, had
either eaten it if he thought it nice, or trampled it to pieces
so that no one else should get it, and at last the peasant lost
patience, and made up his mind he would have the Tanuki's blood.

So for many days the man lay hidden, waiting for the Tanuki to
come by, and when one morning he marched up the road thinking of
nothing but the dinner he was going to steal, the peasant threw
himself upon him and bound his four legs tightly, so that he
could not move. Then he dragged his enemy joyfully to the house,
feeling that at length he had got the better of the mischievous
beast which had done him so many ill turns. 'He shall pay for
them with his skin,' he said to his wife. 'We will first kill
him, and then cook him.' So saying, he hanged the Tanuki, head
downwards, to a beam, and went out to gather wood for a fire.

Meanwhile the old woman was standing at the mortar pounding the