What a Friend We Have in Jizōs 42

‘A farmer caught a troublesome tanuki in his vegetable field, and tied it to a tree to kill and cook it later. But first he had to take care of some errands in town, leaving his wife to guard the animal. But the tanuki cried and begged to be released, so the woman decided to set it free. The unfettered animal turned on the wife, and killed her in gratitude. The tanuki then contrived a foul trick. Using its shapeshifting abilities, it disguised itself as the wife and cooked her body into a stew, serving it to the husband when he returned. As the farmer  complimented the stew, the tanuki transformed back, and revealed the treachery, by telling him he had just eaten his dead wife's flesh, leaving the poor man in shock and grief. But the couple had been good friends with a rabbit that lived nearby. The rabbit told the farmer that he would avenge his wife’s death. Pretending to befriend the raccoon dog, instead he tortured him, dropping a bee’s nest on him, treating the stings with a peppery poultice, and setting fire to kindling (piled to make a campfire for the night) near the tanuki’s back. The flamed burned him badly, but without killing it. The legend ends with the tanuki challenging the rabbit to a life or death contest to prove who was the better creature. They were each to build a boat for a race across the lake. The rabbit carved its boat out of a fallen tree trunk, but the tanuki fashioned his out of mud. The sludge boat began dissolving in the middle of the water, and the tanuki failed to stay afloat, apt punishment for its horrible deeds.’