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