Heiji was only too happy to comply. "Okay, then. This one's not really about the night sky, though. So there's this poor farmer, right? He's a great guy, but he barely makes enough for a living. One day, he's bringin' home a pile of wood to heat his home with. When he sets it down, though, this little spider comes skittering out of the bundle, with this snake chasing right after it. He feels sorry for the spider, so he drives the snake away with a hoe. Then the spider disappears into the grass.
"Couple days later, this real cute girl shows up at his house and asks to stay with him and help him around the house. He's surprised, but she seems pretty reliable and doesn't ask for a lot of pay, so he agrees. All she asks in return is that he get her a weaving loom and some cotton. At the end of each day, she's woven all this amazing cloth, and it's so high-quality that soon he's got wealthy people clamorin' just to buy it. Things are going great, but he's just sooo curious about how she does it that one day, he looks in on her when she's not expecting it.
"What he seems is that she's actually a spider -- the same one that he rescued before. She spins the cotton into thread inside her own body, and that's how it comes out so fine. The farmer's real grateful, so he decides not to say anything and just buy her the day's cotton like usual, right? But then the snake from before sneaks into the bundle of cotton. When the farmer gives the cotton to the weaving girl, the snake slithers out and starts chasing her. She runs and runs, but she can't get away.
"The sun takes pity on her and grabs the thread hanging from the spider's mouth. He pulls her up into the sky, away from the snake, and she's so grateful to be saved that from then on, she spins fluffy white clouds for the sky. That's why the word for 'spider' and 'cloud' are the same in Japanese -- 'kumo'."
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"Couple days later, this real cute girl shows up at his house and asks to stay with him and help him around the house. He's surprised, but she seems pretty reliable and doesn't ask for a lot of pay, so he agrees. All she asks in return is that he get her a weaving loom and some cotton. At the end of each day, she's woven all this amazing cloth, and it's so high-quality that soon he's got wealthy people clamorin' just to buy it. Things are going great, but he's just sooo curious about how she does it that one day, he looks in on her when she's not expecting it.
"What he seems is that she's actually a spider -- the same one that he rescued before. She spins the cotton into thread inside her own body, and that's how it comes out so fine. The farmer's real grateful, so he decides not to say anything and just buy her the day's cotton like usual, right? But then the snake from before sneaks into the bundle of cotton. When the farmer gives the cotton to the weaving girl, the snake slithers out and starts chasing her. She runs and runs, but she can't get away.
"The sun takes pity on her and grabs the thread hanging from the spider's mouth. He pulls her up into the sky, away from the snake, and she's so grateful to be saved that from then on, she spins fluffy white clouds for the sky. That's why the word for 'spider' and 'cloud' are the same in Japanese -- 'kumo'."