TALES OF TERROR

Cosmetic Sesame

The story goes that there was once a girl who was extremely conscious of her looks. She was determined to always look beautiful, and would try any beauty secret at hand. One day, she heard about a new beauty treatment from someone who professed that it was very good for the skin, leaving it smooth and silky. The treatment involved mixing sesame seeds in the bath water and immersing in it for a couple of hours.

The girl was excited to try it out, and rushed home to give it a go. When several hours had passed, and still the girl did not come out from the bathroom, her mother began to worry. But every time her mother asked the girl to come out already, the reply would always be "just a moment."

In the end, the mother could no longer contain herself and forced open the bathroom door, and was shocked at what she saw. The sesame seed had dotted her daughter's body; it had grown roots and latched on to her skin between every wrinkle and every pore. The girl, mad with grief for her lost beauty, was sitting in a corner and frantically trying to remove the seeds with a toothpick.