The Farmer and the Badger

Long ago an old farmer and his wife made their home high in the mountains, far from any town. Their only neighbor was a wicked, spiteful badger. Every night the badger ran across to the farmer’s field and ruined the vegetables and rice the old man worked so hard to grow. In the end he grew so reckless and did so much damage all over the farm that the good-natured farmer could bear it no longer and made up his mind to stop him. Day after day and night after night he lay in wait with a big club, but he never caught the badger. So he set traps instead.

His patience paid off. One fine day, going round his land, he found the badger caught in a pit he had dug for the purpose. Delighted, he tied his enemy up tightly with rope and carried him home. “I have caught that bad badger at last,” he told his wife. “Keep an eye on him while I’m at work and don’t let him escape. I want to make him into soup tonight.” Then he hung the badger from the rafters of the storehouse and went off to his fields.

The badger did not like the idea of becoming soup at all, and he thought long and hard about how to get away, though it was difficult to think clearly hanging upside down. Close by, at the entrance to the storehouse, the farmer’s old wife was pounding barley, looking out at the green fields and the sunshine. She looked old and tired. Her face was as wrinkled and brown as leather, and every now and then she stopped to wipe the sweat from it.

“Dear lady,” said the crafty badger, “you must be worn out doing such heavy work at your age. Won’t you let me do it for you? My arms are very strong. I could give you a rest.”

“Thank you, that’s kind,” said the old woman, “but I can’t let you, because I would have to untie you. You might run away, and my husband would be very angry to come home and find you gone.”

This badger was cunning, and he answered in a sad, gentle voice, “How unkind you are. You could untie me. I promise not to run away, and if you’re afraid of your husband, you can tie me up again before he comes home, when I’ve finished the barley. I’m so tired and sore, tied up like this. If you would let me down for just a few minutes, I would be so grateful.”

The old woman was simple and good and could not think badly of anyone, least of all imagine that the badger was tricking her. When she looked at him she felt sorry for him, too, hanging upside down from the ceiling with his legs bound so tightly that the rope cut into his skin. So, out of kindness, and trusting his promise, she untied the cord and let him down. She handed him the wooden pestle and told him to work for a little while she rested.

The badger took the pestle, but instead of pounding the barley he sprang at the old woman and struck her down with the heavy wood. He killed her, and then, wicked creature that he was, he cooked the soup himself and waited for the farmer to come home.

All day the old man worked hard in his fields, happily thinking that the badger would never spoil his crops again. At sunset he set off home, tired out, but cheered by the thought of hot badger soup waiting for him. It never once crossed his mind that the badger might get free and take revenge on his poor wife.

Meanwhile the badger had taken on the old woman’s shape. As soon as he saw the farmer coming, he went out onto the veranda to greet him. “So you’re back at last. I’ve made the badger soup and I’ve been waiting for you a long time.”

The farmer quickly slipped off his straw sandals and sat down at his little dinner tray, never dreaming that it was the badger and not his wife who was serving him, and he asked for his soup at once. Then the badger suddenly turned back into his own shape and shouted, “You foolish old man! That soup was made from your wife!” Laughing loudly and jeering, he ran out of the house and off to his den in the hills.

The old man was left alone. At first he could hardly believe what he had seen and heard. When he understood the whole terrible truth, he was so horrified that he fainted. When he came round he burst into tears and wept loudly and bitterly, rocking back and forth in his grief. It seemed too dreadful to be real: his faithful old wife had been killed by the badger while he worked peacefully in the fields, congratulating himself on being rid of the creature for good. And he had so nearly eaten that soup! “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!” he wailed.

Not far away on the same mountain lived a kind, good-natured old rabbit. Hearing the old man sobbing, he came at once to see what was wrong and whether he could help his neighbor. The farmer told him everything. The rabbit was furious with the wicked, lying badger, and he told the old man to leave everything to him: he would avenge his wife’s death. At last the farmer was comforted. He dried his tears and thanked the rabbit for coming to him in his trouble, and the rabbit, seeing him calmer, went home to make his plans.

The next day was fine, and the rabbit went looking for the badger. He was nowhere to be seen in the woods, on the hillside or in the fields, so the rabbit went to his den and found him hiding there. Ever since his escape the badger had been afraid to show himself in case he met the angry farmer.

“Why are you indoors on such a lovely day?” called the rabbit. “Come out with me and we’ll go and cut grass on the hills.”

The badger never doubted that the rabbit was his friend, and he was glad of a chance to get away from the farmer’s neighborhood. The rabbit led him miles from home to hillsides where the grass grew tall, thick and sweet. They both cut as much as they could carry to store for the winter, tied it into bundles and started home with the bundles on their backs. This time the rabbit made the badger walk in front.

When they had gone a little way, the rabbit took out his flint and steel and, striking a spark over the badger’s back, set his bundle of grass alight. The badger heard the flint and asked, “What’s that noise, crack, crack?”

“Oh, that’s nothing,” said the rabbit. “I only said ‘crack, crack’ because this is called Crackling Mountain.”

The fire quickly spread through the dry grass. Hearing it crackle, the badger asked, “What’s that?”

“Now we’ve come to Burning Mountain,” answered the rabbit.

By then the bundle had almost burned away, and with it all the fur on the badger’s back. The smell of smoke told him at last what had happened, and he ran screaming to his hole as fast as he could. The rabbit followed and found him lying on his bed, groaning. “What bad luck you have!” said the rabbit. “I can’t imagine how it happened. I’ll bring you some medicine that will heal your back in no time.”

He went away smiling to himself, glad that the badger’s punishment had begun. He hoped the creature would die of his burns, for nothing seemed too bad for an animal who had murdered a helpless old woman who trusted him. At home he made an ointment of sauce mixed with red pepper. He took it to the badger, warning him that it would sting terribly but that he must bear it, because it was a marvelous cure for burns and scalds. The badger thanked him and begged him to put it on at once. No words can describe the badger’s agony when the red pepper was spread over his sore back. He rolled over and over, howling, and the rabbit, watching, felt that the farmer’s wife was beginning to be avenged.

The badger stayed in bed for about a month, but in spite of the red pepper his burns healed and he got well. When the rabbit saw him recovering, he thought of another plan. He went to visit the badger to congratulate him on getting better, and in the course of their talk he mentioned that he was going fishing, and described how pleasant it was out on a calm sea in fine weather. The badger listened happily, forgot all about his month of pain, and thought what fun it would be to go fishing too. He asked the rabbit to take him along next time. That was exactly what the rabbit wanted, and he agreed.

The rabbit went home and built two boats, one of wood and one of clay. When they were finished he stood looking at them and felt that all his work would be worth it if his plan succeeded.

On the day of the fishing trip, the rabbit kept the wooden boat and gave the clay one to the badger, who knew nothing about boats and was delighted, thinking how kind it was of the rabbit to give him a new boat. They both rowed out, and when they were some way from shore the rabbit suggested a race to see whose boat was faster. The badger agreed, and for some time they rowed as hard as they could. In the middle of the race the water began to soften the clay, and the badger’s boat started to fall apart. In terror he cried out to the rabbit for help. But the rabbit told him that he was avenging the old woman’s murder, that this had been his plan all along, and that he was glad the badger had finally got what he deserved and would drown with no one to save him. Then he raised his oar and struck at the badger with all his might, until the badger went down with the sinking clay boat and was seen no more.

So the rabbit kept his promise to the old farmer. He rowed back to land, pulled his boat up the beach and hurried to tell the farmer everything. The old man thanked him with tears in his eyes. Until now, he said, he had not been able to sleep at night or rest by day, thinking that his wife’s death was unavenged, but from now on he could sleep and eat as he used to. He begged the rabbit to come and share his home, and from that day the rabbit lived with the old farmer, and the two of them were good friends to the end of their days.

About this tale

“The Farmer and the Badger” is the fourth tale in Yei Theodora Ozaki’s Japanese Fairy Tales. It is a revenge story in two halves: the badger’s cruel trick on the farmer’s trusting wife, and the patient rabbit’s three punishments, the burning grass on Crackling Mountain, the red-pepper “medicine” and the race in a boat made of clay.

Ozaki’s version describes the wife’s death and the badger’s soup more bluntly than this telling does; the events are the same, but the details are left out here.

Read the original: Japanese Fairy Tales (Project Gutenberg)

Reading guidance: older readers; adults should preview the full story. It contains murder, cannibalism, deliberate burning, torture disguised as medicine, and drowning. It is not a gentle animal tale.

When the rescuer uses the deceiver’s methods

The badger offers to do the wife’s work, then uses the tool she hands him to kill her. Later, the rabbit offers companionship, medicine and a boat, using each apparent kindness to hurt the badger. The revenge reverses who is deceived while repeating the abuse of trust. The rabbit’s loyalty to the farmer explains his motive; it does not settle whether every punishment is justified.

The farmer’s grief gives the ending its emotional force. He gains a companion and can sleep again, but his wife cannot be restored. Notice how the final friendship sits beside that irreversible absence. Calling the ending a simple reward for goodness misses the cost of the whole sequence.

List the offers of help in the tale and the action hidden behind each offer. At what point does protection become retaliation? Imagine a resolution that prevents further harm without copying the badger’s cruelty, and explain what the traditional ending would lose or gain.

Talk about it

• How does the badger persuade the old woman to untie him?
• What tricks does the rabbit use to punish the badger?
• Do you think the rabbit was right to take revenge? Why or why not?

Related stories

• The Quarrel of the Monkey and the Crab — friends band together to punish a cruel trickster
• The Sagacious Monkey and the Boar — a clever animal outwits a farmer’s plans
• The Goblin of Adachigahara — a Japanese tale of a host who is not what she seems