Japanese Tales Page 1

THE MAIDEN FROM THE SKY

One day long ago an old man who made bamboo baskets went to the bamboo grove to cut some more bamboo and saw that one of the bamboo stems was shining. Inside the stem he found a baby girl only three inches long.

Never having come across anything like that before, he hurried home to his wife with the little girl in one hand and his bundle of bamboo in the other. He and his wife were very happy. They put the tiny baby in a basket and cared for her tenderly. In three months she was a normal size for a child, and the bigger she grew, the lovelier she became. Meanwhile the old man kept going for more bamboo, and each time he found gold in the stems he cut.

Soon he was rich. He built a palatial home peopled by flocks of servants and retainers, and his storehouse overflowed with treasures of all kinds. He and his wife, who now had their heart's desire in everything continued to lavish love on their daughter.

She was so dazzling that it was hard to believe she belonged to this world. Rumors about her beauty began to get around and soon many lords were courting her, but she would have nothing to do with them. When they showered her with love letters anyway, she tried to put them off by setting them hopeless tasks, "I'm yours," she wrote to one, "if you'll bring me the thunder from the sky." She told others she wanted the flower that grows in paradise, or the drum that sounds without being beaten. But her beauty had so intoxicated the suitors that they did their best to obey. Off they went to ask people wise in old lore where they should look for such things. Some ended up roaming the beaches like vagabonds, while others wandered homeless through the mountains. Some died, others never returned.

Finally even the emperor heard she was the most beautiful woman in the world, and he decided to go and see her for himself. "If it's true," he thought, "I'll make her my empress." He set out with all his ministers and officials and was surprised to find, when he reached the house that it was fit for a king. The girl came to him when he called her. No, there was no one like her in all the world. Why, she must have refused everyone just so as to keep herself for him!

"Fine!" he said happily, "We'll go back to my palace and you'll be my empress." That would please me very much, Your Majesty," she replied, "but you see, I'm not actually human." "Well, what are you then? A demon or a god?" "Neither, Your Majesty. But they'll soon be coming from the sky to take me away. You should go home now."

The emperor hardly knew how to take this. "What's she talking about?" he wondered. "Nobody's coming down from the sky to get her! She's just saying that to get rid of me!"

But a throng soon did descend from the heavens, and they carried the maiden away. They looked quite unlike the people of our world.

Well, it had been true. She had not been of this earth. The heartbroken emperor never forgot her, but not even he could follow her to her home. What kind of being had she been, though? And why had she become the old couple's daughter? It's all a mystery.

"Japanese Tales"
© by Royall Tyler

Phenomenal Women Of The WebŪ

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