Several ancient books tell tales of the goblin-spiders that used to live in Japan. This is one of those stories. It is a little creepy, so if you really don’t like spiders, or scary stories, perhaps this tale is not for you!
There was once, in some lonely part of the country, a haunted temple. No one could live in the building because of the goblins that had taken it over. Many brave samurai soldiers went to the temple after taking an oath to fight and kill the goblins. But they were never heard of again.
At last one particular samurai, who was especially famous for his courage went to the temple to watch what happened during the night. Before he went inside, he said to his companions, "If in the morning I am still alive, you shall hear me beat upon the drum of the temple."
Then they left him alone, to watch by the light of a lamp.
As the night came down, he crouched under the altar, which supported a dusty image of Buddha. He saw nothing strange and heard no sound till after midnight. Then there came a goblin, with half a body and one eye. It called out: “There is the smell of a man”.
But the samurai did not move. The goblin went away.
Then there came a priest who played upon a samisen, He played so wonderfully that the samurai felt sure this music was not made by a human being.
And he leapt up with his sword drawn. The priest, seeing him, burst out laughing, and said: "So you thought I was a goblin? Oh no! I am only the priest of this temple; but I must play to keep off the goblins. Does not this samisen sound well? Please play a little."
And he offered the instrument to the samurai who grasped it very cautiously with his left hand. A moment later, the samisen changed into a monstrous spider web, the priest became a goblin, and the warrior found himself caught fast in the web by the left hand. He struggled bravely, and struck at the spider with his sword, and eventually wounded it; but he soon became entangled still more in the net and could not move.
The wounded spider crawled away, the sun rose, but the goblin-spider was never seen or heard of again.
Puzzle