In ancient times, there lived a demon near a village. The old people remembered that he was once an ordinary village guy, but trouble happened - he learned to catch other people’s chickens and bulls and eat them raw. The peasants got angry with him for this and drove him away from the village. The demon found a cave among the coral reefs and began to live in the din. Years passed, he became completely wild and finally turned into a real savage. He brought a lot of grief to the peasants: he would either kill a poor man’s horse or a bull; or even attack a person. People became afraid to live in their village.
One day, peasants gathered at the elder’s house to take advice. “How to deal with a demon?” they think.
“His strength is terrible,” said the elder. “You just can’t defeat him.” We should come up with some trick.
“Let’s put poison in his food,” one suggested. “He won’t even notice how he dies.”
“No,” the elder shook his head, “we won’t succeed.” After all, then someone must go to the demon’s cave. And this is death. No wonder people laugh: the mice decided to hang a bell around the cat’s neck!
The peasants thought and thought, but they didn’t come up with anything. Just as they were about to leave, a young woman stepped forward and said:
- Allow me to go to the demon’s cave. Maybe he won’t eat me - after all, I’m his younger sister.
People began to dissuade her.
“Don’t go there,” they say. “Your brother has become completely like an animal.” He won’t even notice that his sister has come - he will tear it into pieces and eat it.
Her fellow villagers did not let her into the cave. But the woman didn’t want to change her decision. She returned home, kneaded the dough and steamed it into mochi rice cakes. She wrapped them in fragrant peach leaves and put them in a large basket. She remembered that mochi cakes had once been her brother’s favorite food. The flatbreads lie in the basket - soft, juicy, only one of them is hard: the hostess put a piece of tile in it so that the brother would bite off the flatbread and break his own tooth.
The woman waited until morning, put the basket on her head and set off. She walked for a long time until she finally came to the cave.
“My brother, where are you?” she called quietly. Everything inside the cave began to hum, and a demon jumped out, ferocious with anger. My sister looked at him and almost lost her mind from fear: her brother had become an unprecedented monster - his hair and beard were flying in the wind, his eyes were sparkling with red lights, and on his forehead were either two bumps or two horns sticking out! The demon bent closer to his sister and laughed as he pleased:
- Ha-ha-ha! Who would have thought it, I waited! My dear sister decided to visit! Well, come in now that you have arrived! My stomach has been cramping for a long time! Do you hear how it growls!?
“I knew that you were hungry,” said the woman, “so I brought you a treat!”
- I love you very much. Well, sister, come in -
all sorts of gifts! - the demon thundered, - look how I live here!
He grabbed the woman’s hand with an eagle’s grip and dragged her into the cave. She looked around - there were bones lying around in the cave: bovine and horse bones, and among them there were also human bones.
“Well, sister, show me what you brought me,” said the demon. The woman opened a large basket in which the cakes lay, took out a small pan from it, where she had also put a horse’s liver at home, and handed it to the demon:
“Try it, brother, maybe you’ll like it.” I prepared some old lady's offal for you.
- Well done! — the demon laughed. “I really love old women’s offal.”
He grabbed the pan and instantly swallowed the horse's liver.
“Listen, brother,” the sister said here, “you smell really bad here.” Let's climb to the top of the cliff, admire the sea and feast on flatbreads.
The demon agreed. They went to the top of the cliff. They got up and sat down on a large stone. The demon sister looked down - it took her breath away: the sea was raging under the rock, the waves were flying up, the top of the rock was about to be reached!
- What are you thinking about, sister? - the demon rumbled. - Show me what cakes you brought me!
The woman took out a flat cake from the basket, into which she had baked a piece of tile, and handed it to her brother.
“Eat,” he says, “but just be careful, the cakes turned out to be too hard, don’t break your tooth.”
The demon looked at his sister intently, but said nothing. He bit off a piece of flatbread and howled in pain - he broke his tooth! The demon jumped up, anger sparkling in his eyes. He was about to attack his sister, but stumbled and fell into the raging waves.
The peasants got rid of the evil demon. They now lived calmly and happily.
Since then, they say, this custom has appeared in Okinawa: on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the very same day when deliverance came to the peasants, people prepare steamed mochi cakes, wrap them in fragrant peach leaves and treat each other. They call them “demon cakes.” In this region they believe that the flatbreads protect against diseases and evil spirits.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru