（解説文要約）
タヌキが人をだまそうとする話が描かれています。
山間部にある小ヤマの坑内にはタヌキがいて、午前0時を過ぎたころになると、

尻尾で石壁をたたいて石炭を掘る音を出したそうです。

しかし、ツルハシと比べるとどことなく鈍い音がするので、

タヌキの悪戯だとわかるという人もいたそうです。

また、追い詰められて逃げ場がなくなると、坑内の支柱に化けたとも言われています。

しかしタヌキの化けた柱は人が立てるものと逆さまだったとの話です。
作兵衛翁も、1899年の夏、タヌキが掘る音を聞いたと記しています。

 

This is a picture depicting a scene where Tanuki, a raccoon, is trying to trick a miner.
Japanese folk legend claims that foxes and raccoons sometime take the shape of humans and trick people.

Sakubei also recorded that he had actually heard the sound of Tanuki digging in coal mines, the summer of 1899.
In the small mines near mountainous areas inhabited by raccoons, miners believed they heard the sounds of the animal’s digging coal. 
After midnight the raccoons hit their tails on stone walls trying to fool them.
But the noise sounded duller than a real pick digging coal, so miners could tell they were being tricked. 
When the raccoons tried to flee a chasing miner and were left with no escape route, they were known to imitate a wooden pillar.
However, they were unsuccessful as they looked like an upside down pillar.