Once upon a time, in a hut at a place called Namekata, in Hitachi, there lived an old priest famous neither for learning nor wisdom, but bent only on passing his days in prayer and meditation.  He had not even a child to wait upon him, but prepared his food with his own hands.  Night and morning he recited the prayer “Namu Amida Butsu,"[3] intent upon that alone.  Although the fame of his virtue did not reach far, yet his neighbours respected and revered him, and often brought him food and raiment; and when his roof or his walls fell out of repair, they would mend them for him; so for the things of this world he took no thought.

One very cold night, when he little thought any one was outside, he heard a voice calling, “Your reverence! your reverence!” So he rose and went out to see who it was, and there he beheld an old badger standing.  Any ordinary man would have been greatly alarmed at the apparition; but the priest, being such as he has been described above, showed no sign of fear, but asked the creature its business.  Upon this the badger respectfully bent its knees and said: 

“Hitherto, sir, my lair has been in the mountains, and of snow or frost I have taken no heed; but now I am growing old, and this severe cold is more than I can bear.  I pray you to let me enter and warm myself at the fire of your cottage, that I may live through this bitter night.”

When the priest heard what a helpless state the beast was reduced to, he was filled with pity and said: 

“That’s a very slight matter:  make haste and come in and warm yourself.”

The badger, delighted with so good a reception, went into the hut, and squatting down by the fire began to warm itself; and the priest, with renewed fervour, recited his prayers and struck his bell before the image of Buddha, looking straight before him.

After two hours the badger took its leave, with profuse expressions of thanks, and went out; and from that time forth it came every night to the hut.  As the badger would collect and bring with it dried branches and dead leaves from the hills for firewood, the priest at last became very friendly with it, and got used to its company; so that if ever, as the night wore on, the badger did not arrive, he used to miss it, and wonder why it did not come.  When the winter was over, and the springtime came at the end of the second month, the badger gave up its visits, and was no more seen; but, on the return of the winter, the beast resumed its old habit of coming to the hut.  When this practice had gone on for ten years, one day the badger said to the priest, “Through your reverence’s kindness for all these years, I have been able to pass the winter nights in comfort.  Your favours are such that during all my life, and even after my death, I must remember them.  What can I do to requite them?  If there is anything that you wish for, pray tell me.”