I sometimes go to the mountains and stay there for several days or more, spending nights in a tent or only in a sleeping bag. And one of the reasons I go and stay in the mountains is that I can see various forms of life there. Itfs my great pleasure. This time Ifm going to tell you two little stories about living things I met in the mountains.
One morning, on the ridge of a mountain, when I was lying asleep in a sleeping bag, a strange thing happened to me. As I felt little something settled on my forehead, I opened my eyes. Then, to my surprise, a Japanese great tit (little bird) was actually on my forehead. I thought, g What are you doing? h and kept lying without movement. The little bird began to pull my hair with the bill and flew away. Soon it came back to my forehead to pull my hair and flew away again. It repeated the same thing over and over. I thought if it came around my mouth to pull my beard Ifd try to snap at it. But it never came around my mouth. Probably the little bird was making its nest using my hair. And I wonder why it never thought of using my beard.
This is another story when I went to a mountain and camp out for a week. I took a live bantam to the mountain as my food and I tied it to the tree near my tent. But it was attacked and eaten by something. As I had pitched my tent near a stream, I thought a weasel or a marten did it. Next day, when I stood by the tent, a pair of raccoon dogs came down the slope of the mountain. gThey must have done it!h I really was mad, then I thought Ifd catch them to make raccoon dog soup. So I scattered the leavings of my meal near the tent to lure them on. They came in the next evening as I expected. Since then they came almost at the same time every day. They gradually became attached to me and at last ate food in the pan I held out. I could catch them easily if I wanted. But as I was watching the couple every day for a week, I began to feel it cruel to make soup from them. So I left them and came down the mountain.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Matsubara Hidetoshi