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The Funny Little
Woman
Grades 1, Portage, Indiana
The Funny Little Woman
Retold by Mrs. Ackerman's
1St Grade Class
Based on the tale by Lafcadio Hearn
Version by Arlene Mosel
Project Coordinator: Ms. Creutz
Assistant: Mrs. Krga
In Japan there was a funny little woman that liked to make rice dumplings. The funny little woman laughed all the time. "Tee-he-he-he!"One day a dumpling fell on the earthen floor. When the woman chased the dumpling, she fell into a hole in the ground.
She found herself in an unusual place. She was on an underground road that had statues of gods along side of it. The statues were called JiZo Sama. A JiZo Sama said, "I saw your dumpling roll by a few minutes ago, but you better not go after it, for the wicked oni lives down the road." The wicked oni was very mean.
The woman laughed and said, "I'm not afraid of the wicked oni."
Another statue warned the funny little woman. "You will meet the wicked oni at the end of this road."
Finally the little woman came upon the wicked oni. "I smell humankind," said the oni.
The wicked oni grabbed the funny little woman and took her into his boat. He took her across the river and into a house.
In the kitchen she had to cook rice for all the oni. She was given a magic paddle to use. She stirred one grain of rice with the magic paddle and made two hundred fifty six grains. Once the magic paddle was stirred, there was a lot of rice!
One day the funny little woman decided to go home. She took the magic paddle with her. Then she got into the boat quietly so she could escape from the wicked oni. But the wicked oni got on their knees to suck up all the water from the river to catch the funny little woman. But she did get away.
The funny little woman returned home. She made dumplings out of rice. She stirred the rice in a pot with the magic paddle. She laughed a lot. "Tee-he-he-he."
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