t on to
another place. While walking along he used to think of what lies he
could tell. Afterwards he heard a voice. It was not human language. He
walked saying--"Pau! pau!"[C] When he looked at his own body, it was a
fox's. Then he thought that, whether he might return to his own village,
or go to another place, the dogs would kill him. So, with tears, he went
away from the road into the mountains. There he found a large, leafy
oak-tree. He lay down crying beneath it.

Then he fell asleep. He dreamt that there was a large house. He was
outside of that house. A divine woman came out of it, and spoke thus:
"Oh! what a bad man! what a villain! You have become a bad god, a devil,
as a divine punishment for your misdeeds. Being thus made into a devil,
why do you come and stand near my house? I should like to leave you
alone. But as I am this tree, which is made the chief of trees by
heaven, and as it would defile me to have you die beside my house, I
will turn you into a man again and send you home. Do not misbehave
yourself henceforth!" Thus spoke the divine woman.

Such was his dream. Meanwhile the branches at the top of the tree broke,
and came crashing down, and he was greatly frightened. But when he
started up, he was a man again. Then he worshipped the tree. Then he
returned home. Then afterwards he did not misbehave. So also must you
not misbehave, you men who live now!--(Translated literally. Told by
Penri, 19th July, 1886.)

[C] An onomatopoeia for the bark of the fox.

xxiii.--_The Rat Boy._

In a certain village there lived a very rich couple; but they were
childless. They were very anxious for a child. But one day, as the wife
went to the mountains to fetch wood, she found a little boy crying
beside a tree. Rejoiced at this, she took him down with her to the
village. Thenceforth they kept the boy with them. It was a place where
there was plenty of deer and also of fish; it was a place provided with
all the things which people like to eat. But though they hunted the
deer, they could not catch them; though they angled for the fish, they
could not catch them. They were very hungry. Hearing that great
quantities both of fish and of deer were killed in the village next to
theirs, towards the mountains, the wife went off to buy food there,
taking the child with her. She went to the village next to theirs,
towards the mountains. She went to the house of the chief.

The woman looked and saw fish hanging on pole