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The Badger and the Magic Fan |
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Japanese Folktale |
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In ancient times, in Japan, there lived demons with long noses. They were called tengu. They owned a magic fan. If one slaps his nose with one side of the fan, the nose begins growing; if one slaps his nose with the other side of the fan, the nose becomes short again. One day, three little tengu are playing with the fan in a magic forest. A badger, who is passing by, sees them. The badger decides to deceive the tengu and take the fan for himself. He turns into a little girl, gets four bean dumplings, and visits the tengu. The tengu eat one roll each and start arguing about the fourth. The little girl proposes that they close their eyes and the tengu who keeps his eyes closed the longest will receive the fourth roll. The little tengu agree and the Badger steals the Fan. |
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The Badger goes to the city in order to try the fan. He sees a beautiful girl with servants near the temple. He sneaks up to her and slaps her nose. Her nose grows very long. Her rich father calls all the doctors and announces that he will give his daughter in marriage to the person who can cure her. However, no one knows the cure. At that time, the Badger visits the rich man and says that he will cure the daughter. The rich man becomes happy and leads the Badger to his daughter. The Badger slaps the fan on her nose and it becomes little again. |
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The rich man prepares for the wedding. Everyone is busy; only the Badger is idle and does not know what to do. He slaps himself on the nose and it starts growing. The Badger is looking at it but falls asleep and his nose continues growing. At that moment, the celestial builders are constructing a bridge. They see that from the land a pole is growing. ?This will be a pole for the hand-rails!? They say and drag the Badger by the nose. The Badger awakens and realizes that the land is far down; above his head are the clouds. The Badger cries for help, but no one responds. No one knows what happened to that Badger because no one has seen him since then. |
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