Spider Discovers The Wax Girl

This tale has been adapted from the original for readability:

Spider once lived on a farm by the sea with his wife and their children. The farm was a good one, with plenty of rice, but Spider was never satisfied. He begrudged every mouthful his family ate, and he started plotting so he could keep the food for himself.

One day he said to his wife, “When I die, bury me close by the farm house.” Not long after, he began to act terribly ill. He complained that his head hurt, refused food, said the sickness had taken a hard hold of him, and then, after only a short while, he “died”. His wife and children mourned, and everyone helped bury him just where he’d asked, near the farm house. After that, his wife would take the children back to the village at night, and return to work the farm by day, leaving cooked food and supplies behind when they went.

As soon as they were gone each evening, Spider would slip out of his grave. He’d creep into the farm house, wash the big pot, set it on the fire, and cook rice. He’d take fish too, just as much as he wanted, and make himself a proper meal. Before the first cock crowed, he’d sneak back and lie down in his grave again, as still as a corpse. In the morning, the family would come to cook and find only a little rice left, and hardly any fish. They couldn’t understand it. This went on night after night for a whole week, and still no one knew what was happening.

At last someone told Spider’s wife, “Go and see the wise man who can read what’s going on.” So she did. The man listened, considered, and told them what to do. “Make a big figure out of wax,” he said, “shape it like a young girl, and set it in the corner of the house.” They did exactly that, and then they went back to the village as usual, saying nothing.

That night, Spider climbed out of his grave again, pleased with himself, and went straight to the pot. He washed it, set it on the fire, cooked rice, and set the pot down near the flames. He found only a small bit of fish, but he cooked it into soup and set that down beside the rice. Then he washed a plate, ready to serve himself, and went to find a stick to use as a spoon. As he turned, he noticed the wax girl standing there in the corner.

“Well, well,” Spider said. “So you’ve been here all this time, watching me do all the work, and you never once offered to help. Now I’ve cooked the rice, and I’ve made soup. Come on then, dish it up, and let’s eat.”

The wax girl, of course, said nothing.

Spider frowned. “Can’t you hear me? I said, dish up the rice so we can eat.”

Still nothing.

Annoyed, Spider reached out and grabbed her hand. At once his own hand stuck fast.

“Oh, is that how you’re going to be?” he snapped. “Because I didn’t hold you with both hands, you’re holding me tight?”

He grabbed her with his other hand, and that one stuck too.

“Let me go!” he shouted. “If you won’t serve the rice, tell me, and I’ll do it myself. Do you think I’m playing?”

In his temper he kicked her, and his foot stuck.

“Right then, I’ll kick you with my other foot,” he said, and when he did, that stuck as well.

Spider was beside himself. “If you don’t let me go, I’ll butt you with my head,” he threatened, and he slammed his head into her. His head stuck.

“And if that doesn’t do it, I’ll smash you with my chest,” he said, and shoved himself forward. His chest stuck too.

Now Spider could hardly breathe, let alone fight. His voice dropped from shouting to pleading. “Let me go,” he begged. “Please. Let me go, and I’ll go straight away.”

But the wax girl stood there, silent and steady, and the more Spider struggled, the more he stuck. He strained until he was exhausted, and still he couldn’t pull free.

At dawn, his wife came back from the village and found him stuck fast in the house. She looked him up and down and said, “So this is what you’ve been doing, is it? Pretending you were dead so you could steal all the rice and fish for yourself. Well, you’re not slipping away this time. You can stay right there.”

And she called the people from the village. They came, saw Spider caught in his own trick, and gave him a beating he didn’t forget.

And that, people say, is why Spider is flat to this day. Story done.