The Spider Weaver (old story)

Summer 2003


Sayaka Watanabe

   A long time ago, Yosaku, a farmer, was in a small village, and he was a nice person and famous there.  He always worked in a field.  One day he was working as usual and saw that a snake was trying to eat a spider just at that time.  Yosaku was sorry for the spider and helped him.  The spider was not caught by the snake thanks to Yosaku's help.
   The next day, when he was eating breakfast, someone knocked on the door.  He wondered who had come and so he opened the door. In front of the door, there was a young girl and she asked him, "I have lost my way.  Can I stay your house?"  He said, "of course, you can  You can stay at my home for as many days as you want" because he pitied her, and she looked very tired.  After he showed her his house, he went to work.  As soon as it was dark he came back home and was very surprised.  There were beautiful clothes for him.  He asked her and he found out that she had made them in return for staying at his home.  He was very happy and asked her to make some more new clothes.  She agreed willingly; however, she said that the way she weaved cloth was secret, and asked him please did not to look in her room while she was making clothes.  He wondered at her , but he promised to do that.
   During the night, he heard a hiss form her room.  He remembered her wish, but he was very interested and saw her room while she was weaving.  He was very surprised because the big spider that he had helped earlier was weaving.  The spider came to his house to give a reward.  Because he was glad about the spider's help, he did not say anything to her.  Therefore, he decided that he would get a big bundle of cotton for her to make clothes.  Next day, he went shopping to buy it.  When he had gotten some more cotton, the snake, the same one he had seen earlier, got into the cotton without Yosaku's knowledge.  He went back home and gave it to her.  She was very grateful and started to use it happily.  Then the snake put his head out of the cotton and gradually caught up with the spider.
   On that occasion, the sun helped the spider because it watching everything, and had known she was kind and nice, and wanted to help her.  Therefore, the sun hung down a web and pulled her up.  She was thankful to the sun for helping her from the snake, so she weaved clouds in the sky in reward.  That is the reason why cloud are like cotton, and spiders and clouds are called by the same name in Japanese, "jump."