Spendor of Okinawa Bonus: A story from the Ryukyu Kingdom (Sunday: 18fe24)

The Giant Serpent’s Sacrificial Maiden

 A long time ago in a certain village, there was a pond where a fearsome giant serpent lived. The pond was dense with vegetation and its surroundings were dark even in the daytime. Not one of the villagers ever went near the pond.

(Jifa are long pointed hairpins of gold, silver, or steel, useful also for self defense.)

When the night became dark, the giant serpent would ravage the rice paddies and fields of the village and attack goats, pigs, cows or any other farm animal it happened upon. For fear of it, the villagers could harvest nothing from their paddies and fields.

“If things remain like this, we’ll just have to accept starving to death,” said one villager and another replied, “Before that, we’re more likely to get eaten up.”

The frightened villagers made offerings at the pond and prayed that the giant serpent would stop its rampage. But even so, the serpent just kept attacking the village. At that point, they decided that had no choice but to kill it. So, they asked the King of Okinawa for help.

In response to their plea, the king assembled samurai skilled in warfare at his castle. But on simply hearing about the giant serpent, these warriors tucked in their tails and not a single one of them offered to face it. Embarrassed by this, the king had his noro (oracle priestess) called to divine a way to get rid of the giant serpent. But the noro proclaimed, “There is no way to kill it. Only if you offer a living young maiden to the giant serpent, will it stop its rampage.”

On hearing the noro’s words, the king was worried about what to do. Using a maiden as a sacrifice was something he really did not want to do. But, since that was the only way left, he had no choice but to issue a notice throughout the country: “We are looking for a maiden to serve as a sacrifice to the giant serpent. To the maiden who applies, we promise, as a nation, to look after the necessities of life for her parents, brothers and sisters.” But the king did not really expect to find such a maiden anywhere.

However one day, one such young maiden stopped by the castle and offered her proposal, “I’ll be your sacrificial victim. But in return, I beg of you to take good care of my mother. She’s sick. Please get a doctor to check her. Will you let me be the sacrifice?”

The maiden had lived with her mother in a small village separated by a mountain from the village where the giant serpent lived. Being a devoted daughter, she worked very hard, but her family was in such a state of poverty that it could not even afford fees for medicine. To have her mother cured, the kind-hearted maiden was willing to trade even her own life.

The next day, preparations for the sacrificial offering were begun. After a sacrificial platform was dutifully set up at the edge of the pond, there was nothing to do but wait.

At dawn the following day, the time came for the maiden to be sacrificed. The king himself would not be a participant in such a grim spectacle. But the maiden, along with the noro and officials, started off to the pond where the giant serpent lived. The maiden’s steps were terribly weak and tired-looking, just like the walk of a ghost. Seeing this procession, the villagers followed after it terrified, saying to one another: “That one! She’s the sacrifice,” and, “How pitiful! What village is the girl from?”

Just then a peddler from far off happened along. When he saw the maiden’s face, he shouted, “What’s going on! Isn’t that a girl I’ve seen from the  village over the mountain?” and dashed off in a panic over the mountain.

.

Meanwhile, the maiden’s mother was praying devoutly to Buddha in front of her household altar, because her daughter had gone out a few days ago and still had not returned. Moreover, before leaving her daughter had said, “Mom, hurry up and get better, okay. And live a long life!” The mother, of course, found her daughter’s words quite unsettling. Unable to control the uneasiness in her heart, the normally bedridden mother was at the altar from the break of dawn since her daughter left home.

Just then, the peddler came running in out of breath and panted, “It’s awful! Your daughter’s going to be sacrificed to the giant serpent.” Shocked, the mother screamed weakly and, in spite of her feebleness, immediately started running off over the mountain to the giant serpent’s pond. On the way, she fell time and time again along the mountain paths. Her feet were covered with blood, but even so, with all her might, she kept on running.

At the pond, the maiden, dressed in white, stood rigid as a pole on the platform. The officials and the villagers could only watch with bated breath from the shadow of the trees. Around the pond there was complete silence except for the low sound of the noro’s chanting.

“Finally,” the mother thought, as she reached the place, calling out her daughter’s name. Just as she ran stumbling up the platform, the waters of the pond suddenly parted, and the terrifying giant serpent appeared. Raising its terrifying snake head, the giant serpent fixed its bright-red burning eyes on the maiden. At the sight, the people around the pond immediately held their breaths and shut their eyes tight.

Holding her shivering daughter tightly, the mother looked straight at the giant serpent and shouted, “In place of my daughter, feast yourself on me! Please spare the life of this child.” But the giant serpent, without hesitation, showed  its sharp fangs, let out a hideous hiss, and started for her daughter.

The mother quickly pulled the long steel jifa (hairpin) from her hair and threw it with all her force at the speedily slithering serpent. The jifa struck and pierced the giant serpent’s head, right between its glaring eyes..

At that very moment, there was an earthshaking roar with a blinding flash from the sky, as a bolt of lightning struck the steel of the jifa that was stuck in the giant serpent’s ugly skull. Bathed in lightning, the giant serpent’s head was burned jet-black. The serpent crumbled and slithered back, sinking dead to the bottom of the pond.

Could it be that the jifa that the mother threw summoned the lightning from heaven?

The villagers came running joyfully up to the mother and daughter, their lives now spared.

“The Lord God of Heaven must have been told of this daughter’s kindness and her mother’s love,” said the King of Okinawa, greatly moved on hearing the story. He gave the mother and daughter a reward, as he had promised, so that their lives would be trouble-free.

With their reward, the kind daughter had her mother’s sickness cured and people say that they lived happily ever after.   

Story: compiled and written in Japanese by Kyoko Ishikawa. English translation by William A. O’Donnell (odomnail@rocketmail.com), edited by Thomas Marsh.