■ あらすじ　
　化け物が出ると言われる廃寺があり、武勇に優れた一人の侍が退治に行くことになった。侍が仏像の台座の下に座り込んでいると、体半身の化け物が現れ、それが去ると次に三味線を弾く僧が現れた。僧は警戒する侍にも三味線を弾くよう勧めて差し出し、侍がそれを取ろうとした瞬間、三味線は蜘蛛の糸に変わり、僧は化け蜘蛛の姿に戻った。侍は糸に絡まれつつも刀を振り、手負いの化け物は逃げた。糸に絡まれ動けなくなっていた侍は翌朝村人に助けられ、彼らは寺から続く血痕
<けっこん>を辿<たど>り、化け蜘蛛を見つけて退治した。

■ Outline of this story
　A valorous samurai set out to slay a goblin that was said to live in a haunted temple. When the samurai crouched down under the altar which supported a dusty image of Buddha, there appeared a goblin half of a body. After the goblin left, came a priest playing the samisen amazingly. The priest held the samisen out to the samurai, who was on his guard, and encouraged him to pluck the strings. But as soon as the samurai reached out to take it, the samisen turned into a monstrous spider web, and the priest changed back into a goblin spider. While entangled in the web, the samurai managed to draw his sword and wound the goblin, which then fled. Trapped in the web and unable to move, the samurai was rescued by villagers the next morning. Together they followed the trail of bloodstains leading away from the temple, found the goblin spider, and slew it.

Note
　The story per se is prefaced by the comment that there is a kind of spider which is believed to turn into a giant goblin when night falls, and that many of these spiders have the magical power to assume human form. In introducing this story, Lafcadio Hearn calls it a "famous Japanese tale," but it is probably the one he created by rearranging and combining various legends concerning spiders.