The Evil One and the Rat

When the Spirit of Creation had finished his work, he came down from Heaven and looked upon what he had made. He saw the mountains shining pure against the blue sky, the rivers winding silver to the sea, the rice fields lying warm and damp in the valleys—and it was good. He looked at the trees swaying in the wind, the iris fields and the lotus ponds, the cherry blossoms and the plum blossoms, and he smiled, well pleased.

Then the Evil One appeared to him and said in a hateful voice, “Do not flatter yourself that you have done everything well in this world. Indeed, you have not. There are many things that are neither pretty nor useful. Look at how ugly this thistle is, and what use is the bramble? If I had made things, I would have done much better.”

The Spirit of Creation was very angry. He thought a wrathful thought and created a rat. It was large and fierce, and it quickly jumped into the mouth of the Evil One and bit out his tongue.

Then the Evil One was in a great rage, and he uttered horrible cries and danced an evil dance upon the grass. He thought to himself, “Since the rats are here, they shall be made a torment to the earth,” and he made them increase greatly until they overran the Land of the Ainu. [Illustration: “HE DANCED AN EVIL DANCE UPON THE GRASS”]

At this, the people were very unhappy. “Oh, Creating Spirit,” they cried, “take away these pests, for they eat our grain and our rice, they gnaw our huts, they frighten our children. Destroy them, oh kind Creating Spirit.”

But the Spirit shook his head. “Not so,” he said. “I may not destroy that which I have once made. But I will create another thing which shall war with the rats, and so you shall be helped in your distress.” He created cats straightaway, and the cats warred greatly upon the rats, so that they grew fewer. Then the people were pleased and rejoiced. But an old man said to them, “Speak not evil of the rats, nor of anything which the Creating Spirit has made. It must be that the Creating Spirit is displeased when his works are spoken ill of, for he punished the Evil One for so doing. Besides, everything created is of some use. Even the rat bit off the tongue of the Evil One.”