The 10 Cow Wife by katdemon1895

A Classic Tale

Another fairy tale, this one taken from one of my favorites, can you guess what it is? And I do not own Inuyasha, or the original tale or any part of the movies that came from the tale

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            Once I was an adventurer of sorts. I traveled and learned, helping where I could and finding bits and pieces to write about for the journal I worked for. As I traveled, I took up a new hobby, to seek out the folk tales and songs of the people whose lands I visited. A little Brothers Grimm I suppose, but I had a spare notebook, I liked stories and I had a new niece at home who I thought would someday love a story book that she could bring out and say to her friends “my aunt traveled around the world to get me these stories”, something to make her feel a little special.

            On my journey, I happened to come across a chain of islands in the south pacific. They were beautiful islands, each one like a jeweled link of a necklace fit for an Empress. I often go through the pictures I have from those wonderful months exploring those beautiful islands, fading pictures of birds and insects, of flowers and people. I still dream of those islands at times. I dream of the cool, balmy nights, the sweet breeze and the way the sand felt between my toes and the ocean around me, and of one very special night…

            On one of those islands, called Nishi by the natives, a man made a comment that I happened to write down, a comment that I am reminded of every time I see a man speak down to a woman, especially to their significant other. It is a phrase that I used and caused the end of my little best friend’s relationship with a very unsuitable young man.

            The phrase was simple. Sesshomaru gave ten cows to Kagome’s father. Of course the story behind this seemingly plain phrase makes everything much clearer.  

            Sesshomaru was a name that I had heard throughout the islands on my travels. If I wanted to find the best places for fishing, Sesshomaru could point them out. If I wanted to find pearls, I should go to Sesshomaru who had the finest of the lot. If I wanted to find a particular animal then Sesshomaru could show me where it could be found. If I wanted to meet someone in particular, Sesshomaru could introduce me. As people told me this, they smiled, but it was not precisely a normal smile. It was more of a mocking smile.

            I was confused but didn’t think to question it until one day, I was asking a young man, Miroku, where I could find and bargain for a particular instrument native to one of the islands, the one called Nishi by the natives.

            “You should ask Sesshomaru,” Miroku advised.

            “Sesshomaru?” a silver haired man scoffed and he began to laugh scornfully.

            “What? Why is it everyone reacts like that when Sesshomaru is mentioned?” I demanded, “Everyone keeps telling me that Sesshomaru can do anything and then they laugh! What’s the joke?”

            “It’s nothing!” Miroku tried to assure me, “Sesshomaru is the most skilled trader and the smartest young man in the islands. He’s also the richest.”

            “Smartest, right,” the silver haired man snorted.

            “Oh for goodness sakes!” I snapped and the silver haired man smirked at me.

            “Six months ago Sesshomaru went to Edo and found himself a wife. He paid the girl’s father ten cows!” the silver haired man explained and he laughed.

            I knew enough about the customs of the area to be seriously impressed. Two or three cows was usually offered to the father of a girl who would be a decent wife, four or five cows would be offered for an even better girl, one who perhaps had better connections or was prettier or just had that extra something to offer. Marriage was very mercenary in these islands. Ten cows, I had never heard of so many even being offered. I felt a little jealous and quite shocked.

            “She must be absolutely beautiful,” I commented. The man snorted and Miroku shot a glare at him.

            “Sesshomaru gave ten cows just to get one,” the silver haired man scoffed and Miroku smacked him on the head.

            “Inuyasha!”  Miroku scolded, “You shouldn’t say such things! Just because Kagome isn’t the prettiest woman in the islands,”

            “Wait, so what does she look like Miroku?” I interjected.

            “She’s not ugly,” Miroku shrugged, “But the kindest could probably only call her plain.”

            “She’s nothing compared to her sister Kikyo, that’s for sure!” Inuyasha interrupted proudly, “Kikyo is my wife. I paid five cows for her!”

            He gestured towards the crowd of women at a stand not too far away. Immediately my eye was caught by one woman with long black hair and a proud lift of her head. She was very pretty but to me there was something cold about her.

            “Five cows less than Sesshomaru paid for Kagome,” Miroku retorted sharply, bringing my attention back to the two of them.

            “And isn’t that a rather unique price?” I asked, hoping to get them back to the topic at hand, “I haven’t heard of anywhere near that many cows being offered for a girl.”

            “Never been paid before,” Miroku agreed, giving Inuyasha a pointed look.

            “And you call the woman worth ten cows plain?” I pressed.

            “Kagome is plain. Her sister Kikyo was the beautiful one between the two girls,” Miroku informed me, “Kagome on the other hand, she was skinny and walked with her shoulders hunched and she kept her head down. She was always sneaking away into the forests and she was always a bit dirty and always had twigs in her hair.”

            “Well, there’s no accounting for love,” I pointed out. The two men exchanged looks, as if they couldn’t imagine such a case.

            “I suppose,” Miroku conceded but he seemed doubtful.

            “Whatever,” Inuyasha snorted, “the villagers all laugh because the man who was supposed to be the sharpest trader in the islands was out thought by dull old Kamaji.”

            “But how?” I asked. Even I had heard of how poor of a trader Kamaji was.

            “No one’s sure,” Miroku admitted, “Kamaji’s advisor told him to start at three, hold at two until he was sure he’s get at least one and everyone was sure that’s what Kamaji would get. Then Sesshomaru comes up, dressed in his best clothes with a servant trailing behind him and he says, ‘Kamaji, this Sesshomaru will give you ten cows for your daughter.’ Kamaji first said ‘Kikyo is already married.’”

            Here Inuyasha preened again and tried to direct my attention back to his pretty wife. I ignored him.

            “But no,” Miroku went on, “Sesshomaru said very clearly, ‘No, this Sesshomaru offers ten cows for Kagome. This Sesshomaru would not pay a single cow for her sister.’ Of course Kamaji agreed immediatley, just in case Sesshomaru decided to take the price back.”

            “Ten cows,” I whispered, impressed and still a bit jealous, “I think I’d like to meet this Sesshomaru.”

            Of course I also wanted pearls for myself and the other women of my family. So the next day I made my way to Nishi and once there I got directions to Sesshomaru’s home. I noticed when I asked for the directions, not a single person in Nishi wore that same mocking smile that those of Edo possessed. If anything, they seemed quite proud of their island's famous trader.

            When I saw Sesshomaru for the first time I was stunned for a bit. He was perhaps the handsomest man I had ever seen, and the most serious.  He offered me tea while we talked and I accepted. We talked for a bit and he agreed to help me get the pearls I wanted. As our business drew to a close he asked,

            “You came from Edo?”

            “Yes,” I confirmed and felt rather uncomfortable at how sharp his eyes suddenly became.

            “They speak of me on the island?”

            “Yes,” I confirmed, “Everyone always tells me that Sesshomaru can do anything.”

            He smirked slightly.

            “My wife is from Edo,” he said almost casually.

            “Yes, I know,” I said before I could think and I blushed.

            “They speak of her?” he pressed and I blushed more deeply.

            “A little,” I admitted. I didn’t want to be accused of gossiping but that’s exactly what I had done.

            “What do they say of her?” He asked me. Now he was definitely smiling and I could see humor in his eyes. I almost got angry. He was taking pleasure in my discomfort.

            “They say that you were married at the last big festival,” I told him, trying to dodge the question. I could see in his eyes that the venture wouldn’t work.

            “Nothing else?” he asked.

            “Well,” I hesitated a bit, “They do say that the marriage settlement was ten cows and they wonder why.”

            “They ask?” he raised a brow and I could see true pleasure in his gaze, “Everyone in Edo knows of the ten cows?”

            I nodded in confirmation.

            “Everyone knows on the island of Kyoto too,” I admitted and I felt another stab of jealousy towards Kagome as Sesshomaru openly smiled.

            “And everyone in Nishi knows as well,” he said, almost to himself and he looked like the cat who had not only caught the canary but had drunken all the cream and caught the fish in the fishbowl besides.

            “And always and forever, everyone shall know the that Sesshomaru paid ten cows for Kagome,” Sesshomaru announced, still almost speaking to himself.

            At that pronouncement I almost thought that Sesshomaru’s reason for paying such an outrageous price for Kagome was pride, but then I caught sight of her.

            I watched as she walked up the path towards the house and she came to stand besides Sesshomaru. She was the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen. Her hair was short but thick and shining and her eyes were bright. The lift of her shoulders, the sparkle in her eyes, all possessed a confidence and a joy that made her practically glow. I felt positively scrubby beside her.

            “Hello love, hello miss,” she said to him and to me, “I won’t interrupt your business. I hope you’re alright with salmon for dinner Sesshomaru.”

            “That’s fine,” Sesshomaru assured her and she went inside the house. He looked back at me after a moment.

            “You admire her?” he asked. I smiled self consciously.

            “She’s magnificent,” I admitted, “But she couldn’t have been Kagome from Edo!”

            “Oh?” Sesshomaru replied almost passively, “But there was only one Kagome in Edo. Perhaps she doesn’t look the way she was described?”

            “No,” I confirmed, “She doesn’t. Everyone who would speak of her told me that Kagome was at best plain. Everyone makes fun of you because they say you were cheated by Kamaji.”

            “Do you think ten cows was too much?” he asked. I shook my head.

            “No, she’s lovely, my brother probably would have paid twenty for her,” I replied and tried not to smile when I heard the possessive growl coming from the handsome trader, “but how can she be so different?”

            "For most of her life, my Kagome was compared to her sister, and then her sister was bought for five cows. When you heard of our islands’ customs, did you ever think," he asked, "what it must mean to a woman to know that her husband has settled on the lowest price for which she can be bought? And then later, when the women talk, they boast of what their husbands paid for them. One says four cows, another maybe five. How does she feel, the woman who was sold for one or two?" This could not happen to my Kagome."

            I tried not to melt into a pile of goo.

            “So you did it to make Kagome happy?” I asked, to make sure I got it right. He shook his head slightly.

            "I wanted Kagome to be happy, yes. But I wanted more than that. You say she is different This is true. Many things can change a woman. Things that happen inside, things that happen outside. But the thing that matters most is what she thinks about herself. In Edo, Kagome believed she was worth nothing. Now she knows she is worth more than any other woman in the islands."

            "Then you wanted -"

            "I wanted to marry Kagome. I loved her and no other woman."

            "But —" I was suddenly a little suspicious.

            "But," he finished softly, "I wanted an ten-cow wife."

            I have never forgotten my conversation with Sesshomaru or how the faces of Miroku and Inuyasha and the others of Edo looked when awhile later Sesshomaru and Kagome came to visit her sister. Inuyasha’s jaw dropped so much that I think I could have fit a whole coconut into his mouth. When I left the islands I took with me many things, strings of pearls, a notebook of stories, many pictures, beautiful memories, but most of all, I took with me a determination to find someone who would value me the way Sesshomaru values Kagome.

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So, have any of you ever heard this tale before? Johnny Lingo is a wonderful story and if you haven’t seen it then you should go out and find the movie- go for the original 1969 version instead of the newer 2003 version. The newer one is truer to the story and the message of this tale is better communicated in the 1969 version than it is in the 2003 version.