| Tengu feature in many folktales, one of which involves a motif that can be found in nearly every culture in the world. A good old man with an unsightly tumor on his cheek stays in a ruined house one night while out traveling, for he cannot find any other shelter. During his stay a group of tengu come there to dance and make merry, and insist that the poor old man participate. He makes the best of his situation, dancing lively and tirelessly, and at the end of the night the tengu take away his tumor as insurance, to make sure he returns the next night. When the man returns home, a neighbor with a similar tumor on his cheek hears about his fortune and goes off to the abandoned house seeking the same reward. He too dances all night long and the tengu, again grateful for the company, mistake him for the first old man and give him the good old man’s tumor, leaving the poor neighbor with two tumors instead of one. | | Tengu feature in many folktales, one of which involves a motif that can be found in nearly every culture in the world. A good old man with an unsightly tumor on his cheek stays in a ruined house one night while out traveling, for he cannot find any other shelter. During his stay a group of tengu come there to dance and make merry, and insist that the poor old man participate. He makes the best of his situation, dancing lively and tirelessly, and at the end of the night the tengu take away his tumor as insurance, to make sure he returns the next night. When the man returns home, a neighbor with a similar tumor on his cheek hears about his fortune and goes off to the abandoned house seeking the same reward. He too dances all night long and the tengu, again grateful for the company, mistake him for the first old man and give him the good old man’s tumor, leaving the poor neighbor with two tumors instead of one. |