Old Japanese Songs 185; 



Then the Yamabushi, fleeing, reached the temple Dojoji, 

 and cried to the priests of the temple Dojoji : " O good 

 priests, behind me a damsel comes pursuing ! hide me, I 

 beseech you, good sir priests ! 



"Good sir priests!" 



Then the priests, after holding consultation, took down 

 from its place the big bell of the temple ; and under it they 

 hid him, 



Under it tbey bid him. 



Then the dragon-maid, pursuing, followed him to the 

 temple Dojoji. For a moment she stood in the gate of the 

 temple: she saw that bell, and viewed it with suspicion. 

 She thought : "I must wrap myself about it once." She 

 thought: "I must wrap myself about it twice!" At 

 the third wrapping, the bell was melted, and began to flow 

 like boiling water, 



Like boiling water. 



So is told the story of the Wrapping of the Bell. Many 

 damsels dwell by the seashore of Japan ; but who among 

 them, like the daughter of the Choja, will become a 

 dragon ? 



Become a dragon ? 



This is all the Song of the Wrapping of the Bell ! this 

 is all the Song, 



4 II the song! 1 



1 This legend forms the subject of several Japanese dramas, both 

 ancient and modern. The original story is that a Buddhist priest, called 

 Anchin, having rashly excited the affection of a maiden named Kiyohime, 

 and being, by reason of his vows, unable to wed her, sought safety 

 from her advances in flight. Kiyohime, by the violence of her frus 

 trated passion, therewith became transformed into a fiery dragon ; and 

 In that shape she pursued the priest to the temple called Dojoji, in 



