(i) How did the spirit of the dog help the farmer first? (ii) How did it help him next?
Answers
Answer:
(i) The spirit of the dog asked the farmer to cut down the pine tree over its grave, and make from it a mortar for rice pastry and a mill for bean sauce.
The farmer did so.
Some time close to the New Year, the farmer wanted to make some rice pastry.
When the rice was boiled, his wife put it into the mortar and he pounded the mass into dough. When the pastry was ready for baking, the whole mass turned into a heap of gold coins.
Similarly, when beans were ground in the hand-mill, gold started dropping from it like rain and in a few minutes, the tub under the mill was filled with gold.
(ii) Informing the farmer about how his wicked neighbours had burned the hand-mill, the spirit of the dog asked him to take the ashes of the mill and sprinkle them on withered trees to make them bloom.
The old man did so and found to his delight that the words of the spirit were indeed true.
The bare cherry tree in his garden sprouted blossoms when a pinch of the ashes were sprinkled on it.
Later, he was rewarded by the daimio for making an old withered cherry tree blossom once again.
(1) How did the spirit of the dog help the farmer first ?
The spirit of the dog came in the farmer's dream and first asked him to chop the pine tree and make mortar and hand - mill out of it . With the mortar and mill , it gave the farmer heaps of gold .
(2) How did it help him next ?
The dog's spirit again came in the farmer's dream for the second time and told the farmer to collect the ash of the mortar and the mill and sprinkle it on the wintered trees and they will blossom .