704 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



vapour under the earth is a changed form of the female principle. When the 

 male principal sinks down into the earth it would pursue the female. The earth 

 is the mother of all things and produces many things, but the heaven is but the 

 air or wind where the sun, the moon, and the stars hang shining. The air is 

 divided into two kinds. One is called the heaven-air and the other is called the 

 earth-air. The motion of the heaven is contrary to the running of water. The 

 heaven turns round from the east to the west, but the water runs from west to 

 east. The running of water is different with regard to the elevation of local 

 districts. In some districts, where the northern part is low, the water under the 

 earth runs in a northern direction, but when it is obstructed by the earth-air 

 which comes from the north it is greatly agitated and commences to evaporate 

 out of the surface of the earth. This vapour goes up into the air and is changed 

 to the rain by the wind. The water has periods of increase and decrease ac- 

 cording to the male and female seations. It is increased during the summer 

 months because it is then the male season, and it is diminished during the winter 

 months because it is then the female season. 



When the earth-air goes from east to west it is changed to rain, although it 

 is not always so with regard to the temperature of the seasons. Therefore, pre- 

 vious to rain, white vapor is seen, in the morning, rising up in the east. This is 

 a clear proof of the earth's growing hot. It is for the same reason that the 

 mountains become somewhat darker than usual, previous to rain, because vapour 

 is sent up from the earth. In the district which slopes gradually toward the east, 

 the earth-air passes through the earth from east to west, and a sound or smell is 

 produced in the earth, as if coming from east to west. 



On the 17th day of the fifteenth month of the ninth year of Bunkwa (1812 

 A. D.) it was very dark weather and hailed greatly but without thunder. This 

 is an unusual occurrence. The thunder is produced by the intercourse of the 

 male and female principles of nature. In the neighborhood of Asamayama in 

 Shinshiu and other volcanoes, on the day of thunder, sounds are heard under- 

 ground. This is due to the irritation of the earth-air, by which flames are some- 

 times sent out. It is said that a kind of beast accompanies the thunder and it 

 runs about in the air. It is nothing strange, because it is said that in the island 

 called Ampon which belongs to the country called Darunada, distant 3,900 ri 

 from Japan, there are birds called Kasubara which are covered with fur-skin, 

 instead of feathers ; these eat fire ; others feed on wind. As this world is unlim- 

 itedly great and extensive there may have lived strange beasts or birds, hke the 

 thunder-beast which we talk about. 



The sound of thunder is just like that of a gun. The sound is heard after 

 the lightning. When the quantity of water-clouds are very small in the heaven 

 sound of the thunder is also very small and is heard as if it were very far off, but 

 when the water-clouds are heaped up very much the sound and the lightning 

 occur together. People should be afraid of the lightning but not of the sound 

 because it comes after the lightning. The thunder is the sound of the fire which 

 is produced at the time when it passes through the water- clouds in the heaven. 



