Once upon a time, there lived a cooper in a certain village of Japan. One morning when he went out to work, he saw that it had snowed. Suddenly, a frightful monster with only one eye and one leg appeared in front of him. Looking at him, the cooper thought, ‘This must be yama-chichi which I have heard about in stories,’ The monster at once said, “You are thinking I must be yama-chichi, aren’t you?” The cooper thought, ‘How terrible! He observes right away what I think.’ Then the monster said, “Say, Cooper, you think it is terrible because I observe right away what you think, don’t you?” Whatever the cooper thought was observed until he was confused. But the cooper kept working. Suddenly, his frozen hands slipped. The bamboo hoop that was lying in front of him sprang out and slapped yama-chichi in the face. Yama-chichi was surprised. ‘These human beings are dangerous,’ he thought and went back to the mountain.
The Yama-chichi
