parted, the Oni asked him to come again another night and show them more of his art. The old man consented, but the devils insisted on a pledge. They might have taken his nose or ears, but decided to take the lump on his right cheek,[1] for he made them believe that was the thing he was most loth to part with.
When the old man got home to his village, the people were amazed to see the lump gone from his cheek, and the story soon circulated through the whole community. Now there was another old man in the same village who had a lump on his left cheek. Hearing the wonderful story, this man wished that the devils might remove his lump in the same way. The following night he went to the mountain, as he had been instructed, and waited for the coming of the devils. They came as before and began to eat and drink and dance. The old man crept out of his shelter timidly and tried to dance. But he was no dancer, and the devils soon saw by his awkward movements that he was no match for the man who had danced for them the night before. They were very angry; they seized the old man and consulted among themselves how they should punish him for his impertinence. They finally decided to attach the lump which they had taken as a pledge from the first man to the right cheek of their prisoner. So the old man with a lump on his left cheek got one on his right cheek as well and came back to the village in great distress.
The story teller adds a didactic remark to the effect that one should never envy another's fortune. But the moral is apparently an afterthought of the writer; the original motive of the story was purely humorous.
The same collection contains other stories about devils, in which they appear now as terrible, now as comic objects. For instance, a wandering itinerant monk once met a frightful devil among the mountains. In spite of his monstrous and dreadful aspect, the devil was weeping bitterly. The monk wondered at
- ↑ 3
