There was once a man, whose name I have forgotten, who went fishing in the river to provide food for his mother and his wife. On one occasion he caught no fish for two whole days, and on the third day it began to rain. Now, with the fish that he caught on one day he was able to buy two measures of rice, which was enough for the next day; and therefore he was very worried when he caught nothing for three days. While he was brooding on his troubles, there was a movement in the net, and he quickly pulled it out of the water, hoping he had caught a large fish. He saw something dark wildly thrashing about in the net, and he bravely shouted out: ‘A ghost! A ghost! Wife, hurry up and bring me a rope to bind him with. He is the cause of my catching no fish for three days.’
His wife was terrified when she heard that he had caught a ghost, but she brought him the rope that she used to tie up crab. Before the man had time to use it, the ghost cried out from the net: ‘Please don’t bind me. Please don’t. I will help you to catch fish.’ The fisherman replied: ‘You are a ghost. How can you be of any assistance to me?’ ‘It is true that I am the ghost of a drowned man,’ it replied, ‘but I can collect the fishes together in the water and drive them into your net.’ ‘All right! I won’t keep you,’ said the fisherman, and he let his net down into the water again. After a while he pulled it up again, to find it full of large fish, gaily jumping about.
This continued for two or three days, and the fisherman and the ghost became such close friends that they swore brotherhood, with the ghost as elder brother, since death takes precedence of life. From time to time, the fisherman bought some wine and some food, which he took down to the river to eat in the company of the water spirit. Three years passed in this manner, till one evening, when the moon was shining on the river bank, the spirit came out of the water and said to the fisherman: ‘Brother, I must now depart.’ The fisherman asked him where he was going, and the ghost added: ‘Now that three years have gone by, my time is up; I must go away and be born again. Tomorrow a woman is coming down to the river with her daughter-in-law to fetch water, and I will choose one of them as a substitute. If you happen to meet them, for God’s sake don’t breathe a word.’
The next morning, two women did come down to the river to fetch water. The daughter-in-law wanted to go into the stream in place of her mother-in-law, but the fisherman rushed out and pulled her back. That evening the water spirit came ashore and said angrily to his brother: ‘Why do you harm me? Now I have missed my chance, and must wait another three years.’ The fisherman replied: ‘Brother, the two women were closely related. If one had been drowned, the other would have jumped into the water out of despair.’ The water spirit answered sadly: ‘I forgive you. You have such a good heart,’ and he continued to drive the fish into the net every day.
Another three years went by, and they got on better together than two human brothers. But one evening the ghost said: ‘Brother, I must leave you.’ The fisherman asked: ‘Brother, do you still have to find a substitute in order to be born again?’ ‘No,’ said the ghost, ‘the King of the Underworld has appointed me city god in such-and-such a place.’ ‘I cannot be separated from you,’ said the fisherman. But there was no way out, and they both began to weep. Before leaving, the ghost added: ‘If ever you are in a bad way, come and visit me.’
After the departure of the spirit, the fish became scarcer and scarcer, until again he caught nothing for two whole days. At last, on the evening of the third day, he caught a red fish more than six feet long. The head of some family wanted to eat it and ordered his cook to pay twenty-five ounces of silver for it. The two cooks in the house prepared the fish and put it in the frying-pan, but the smell was so delicious that first one cook and then the other had a taste. ‘Thank the Lord it is such a large fish,’ they both said, ‘no one will know if we eat a little.’ But after one mouthful they wanted to have another, until finally they had laid bare the bones on the head. Then they suddenly found that they had become quite light, and with outspread arms they flew up into the air.
Meanwhile, the master of the house and his guests grew impatient at the delay, and at last the host sent a servant into the kitchen to see what had happened to the big fish. The servant found the kitchen quite empty, but the smell of the fish in the pan was so exquisite that his mouth began to water. ‘After all,’ he thought, ‘so much of the fish has been eaten already that no one will notice if I have a bite.’ But he was as greedy as the two cooks, and went on eating, till the fish was finished. Then he, too, found himself very light, and stretching out his arms he rose into the air. The master waited for the servant, but when he did not return, he went into the kitchen himself in a terrible temper. There was no sign of anyone, and the frying-pan was empty except for a little fish soup. He nearly died of rage and began to curse loudly, but suddenly he heard a voice cry out above him: ‘Master, drink the fish soup;’ and when he looked up, he saw his two cooks and his servant standing on a white cloud. Then he knew that they had become immortal through eating the fish, and hastily drinking down the soup, he spread out his arms and tried to fly, but not being fated to become an Immortal, he did not succeed.
Meanwhile, I have been forgetting the fisherman, who no longer worked after the sale of the red fish, but lived with his family on the twenty-five ounces of silver and even bought clothes. Money, however, does not last for ever, and half a year later, being reduced to the verge of starvation, the fisherman decided to visit his brother the spirit.
He went along the town and found the temple of the city god; but his brother was not at home, only his sister-in-law. He bought some incense and paper money and burnt it before the statue while he prayed, and then went out to wander through the streets. Towards evening, the god returned and noticed the ashes before his statue. ‘Who burnt these?’ he asked his wife. ‘I don’t know the man,’ she replied. ‘But while he was burning the paper, he called out “brother!” several times.’ ‘He is obviously my brother,’ said the god, and he sent out some spirit servants to look for him and bring him back.
When the fisherman arrived, he said to the god: ‘Brother, please help me, I have become poor again.’ The god replied: ‘Quickly return home. Your wife is dying.’ The fisherman’s eyes nearly started out of his head at the news. ‘Can’t you save her?’ he asked the god. ‘The registers of the living and the dead have never passed through my hands, so how can I save her?’ replied the god. But when the fisherman had beseeched him three or four times, he took out ten strings of cash and said: ‘Take this as journey money. When you reach home, don’t say a word to your wife, but fill the house full of firewood, cover up all the bright places with paper, buy three bushels of rice, which you must grind together with your wife, and tell her to cook it for three days and three nights. If you carry out my instructions, she will not die.’
The fisherman hurried back home with the ten strings of cash, and did everything that the god had told him without saying a word to his wife. His wife had cooked some food for him, but instead of eating it, he rushed out and bought three bushels of rice with the remains of the money. He helped his wife to grind it and then, when it was ready, he told her she was to bake cakes with it and not to sleep until they were finished. The woman had begun by understanding what he wanted, but now she asked him, quite at a loss: ‘When must the cakes be ready?’ But instead of making a reply the fisherman told her to hold her tongue and reserve her energies for the baking. His wife was very angry, but she had to do as she was told, and the old mother ate two of the cakes, because she was very hungry.
The fisherman and his mother soon fell asleep, but his wife went on baking for two days and two nights, until her eyes were red with fatigue. She could not understand, but she went on taking the dish off the fire and putting it on again, till during the third day all the wood had been consumed. She tried to wake up her husband and tell him to fetch some more, but do what she would, he and her mother-in-law went on sleeping like the dead. She put the last two bundles of wood under the stove, and not bothering whether the cakes were burnt or not, she went out to fetch some more wood. But as soon as she opened the door she saw innumerable little ghosts, who produced iron chains, and proceeded to fasten them round her neck. As she fell down she let out a scream, which woke the fisherman, who began to beat his breast in despair and curse himself, when he saw his wife lying dead in the doorway. ‘Why did you fall asleep, you silly fellow? Oh, why did I sleep so soundly?’ he cried.
For the next ten days he and his mother became daily poorer, until at last he decided to return to his spirit brother. On his arrival at the city temple he told the god the sad news of his wife’s death, but the spirit scolded him: ‘You ought not to have fallen asleep. She is now the wife of the spirit servant in the Southern Temple.’ ‘I have such a longing for her. Can’t you let me see her?’ begged the fisherman. ‘You can visit her if you like, but she won’t recognize you,’ said the god, but as the fisherman refused to give up his plan, the god accompanied him to the Southern Temple. She was sitting in a little room doing needlework, but she made no reply to all his questions. The god said to him: ‘You two are no longer for each other. Go home now.’
When they got back to the temple of the City god the fisherman said: ‘Can’t you find me some work to do here, brother?’ ‘All the work here is performed by spirits,’ answered the god, but when the fisherman swore that he had no work and would certainly die of starvation, he added: ‘There is soon to be a performance in honour of the god of the Western Temple. I can recommend you as drummer.’ ‘Good,’ said the fisherman. ‘I might earn a little money.’ During the night the City god went over to the Western Temple and appeared to the leader of the orchestra in a dream: ‘Tomorrow a man is coming here,’ he said. ‘You must employ him as drummer. Don’t send him away,’ and, therefore, when the fisherman came next morning and asked to be engaged as a drummer, the leader obeyed the dream and engaged him. But when he played he did not bother to beat the drum in the correct way, and banged away anyhow, with the result that after four or five days the membrane was full of holes.
He threw away his drumsticks and went back to the City god. ‘I’m no drummer,’ he said. ‘Can’t you find some other job for me?’ ‘Yes,’ said the god. ‘One hundred miles from here to the north-west there is a high mountain, inhabited by hairy men. Many of the people in that district have been devoured by them. They never leave their home by day, so you must go to the caves and build a wall of lime and pour oil on it. The hairy men are very excitable, and will never dare come out for fear of beating themselves to death against the wall. The pumpkin wind-caps and the red jackets they wear are both treasures. If you put the cap on your head and the jacket on your body you become invisible to men. I have here a magic sword, which you can take with you to kill the little hairy men in the cave. If you succeed in freeing the district of these ogres, the people will certainly give you heaps of gold and silver.’ The fisherman took the sword and went towards the north-west.
Just as the sun was beginning to set he arrived in the district of the hairy men. Weeping men and women were shutting their doors; the inns were already closed. He implored a shop- keeper to open the door again, and soon after the man had let him in, there came a tapping and snuffing at the door, and a knocking on the walls and the windows, and the fisherman knew that the hairy men had arrived. They remained all night and only went away at cockcrow.
As soon as it was light the fisherman girded on his sword, bought the lime and oil, and went into the hills. He soon found the cave of the hairy men, in front of which he built a wall of lime and poured the oil on it. At dusk the hairy men pulled on their caps and jackets and came singing out of the cave, but when the leader arrived at the opening and saw the wall, he cried: ‘Who has obstructed our path? We will eat him up if he doesn’t quickly pull it down.’ But the fisherman had hidden behind the wall and did not utter a sound. Then the old hairy man clambered on to the wall, but as the oil was slippery he fell down again. Trembling with rage, he charged it with his head, which split in two, and he fell down dead.
Their leader gone, the little hairy men fled screaming back into the cave, but the fisherman tore down the wall and, pulling on the cap and jacket which were lying beside the dead ogre, he grasped his sword and sprang through the opening. He hit blindly in all directions, and the little hairy men saw their heads rolling about on the floor without being able to see who had struck them. Soon they were all dead and. after hiding the cap and the jacket, the fisherman took the corpse of the old ogre and went back to the village. The news of his deed ran through the village like wildfire, and everyone began to jump with joy when they heard that the hairy men were dead, and they vied with each other in loading their saviour with gold and silver.
But I have heard that later, with the cap and red jacket of invisibility, he committed many evil deeds; but the story never went any further, and we must go on to something else.