The Story of the Three Dogs - Part One

 

There was once a king who went to another land and there the king married the queen of that land. They both ruled the kingdom and in due course of time, they had a daughter. 

There was joy all over the kingdom as they celebrated the birth of the princess.

However, at that time, a fortune teller came to the kingdom. The fortune teller looked odd, but no one knew where she had come from.

However the fortune teller had something very dangerous to say. “Until fifteen winters were not over, the royal princess is not to be taken into the open air. If this was not followed, the mountain ogres would take away the princess.”

The king heard the words of the fortune teller and the king immediately felt fearful for his daughter. 

The king immediately appointed a guard to look over his daughter and the guard's work was to make sure that the princess never set foot in open air.

After some time the queen had another daughter.

Though this time too, the entire kingdom rejoiced at the birth of the second princess, the fortune teller came back and the fortune teller predicted the same trouble for the second royal child as well.

The same thing happened when the queen gave birth to the third princess.

On hearing the words of the fortune teller, the king became afraid because he loved his three daughters more than anything else.

The king issued stern orders that the three princesses would always be kept within doors.

The king's orders were followed and a few years had passed in this way. The three princesses grew up to be beautiful maidens but they never ventured out in the open air.

Adapted from Swedish Fairy Tales

The Story of a Man who became a Serpent - Part Two

 

The man looked at himself and he was horror struck because he had turned into a serpent. The man did not realise how he had turned into a serpent. 

Dejected, he crawled back through the cave and lay down at the foot of a huge pine tree.

There, the man fell asleep and he had a dream. 

In his dream a woman appeared and the woman looked kindly at him. “ I am the spirit of the pine tree. You have turned into a serpent because you have eaten the fruit of Fengtu.” 

The man was anguished because Fengtu was Hades.

The woman continued in the man's dream. “However, I shall give you a way out. If you climb to the topmost branches of this pine tree and throw yourself down on earth, you will return to who you originally were.”

The man woke up from his dream and realised that he had to follow the advice of the woman and the hunter was determined to follow the advice because he decided that it was better to be smashed into pieces because of the fall from the pine tree, than remain as a serpent.

The man did as he was told.

Luckily for the man, as soon as he followed the advice, he turned into his own self.

After that the hunter set up an inao which is an offering beneath the pine tree 

Adapted from Japanese Folklore