96 



and guarded the castle of the prince. That very day a terrible 

 thuuderstorm broke forth and the dragon flew away; the castle, 

 no longer guarded by its tutelary god, soon fell a prey to the 

 enemy who stormed and destroyed it like in former days '. 

 Another time we read about a dragon which by the mighty 

 charm of a Taoist doctor was forced to descend into a jar of 

 water. After having cut out the liver of the living animal he 

 gave it a patient, the wife of a prefect, to eat, and she recovered ^. 

 Placentas..jtX[drfoetus of'dTagoHg,JiQundin Pa and ShjilL(Sz'-ch'wen 

 province), were said to cure diseasesoTthe^b^od^^andJ-hose of 

 women after delivery. ' " "" 



§ 18. Dragon's blood, fat and saliva. 



The Tiu-yang isah tsu^ says: "When dragon's blood enters the 

 earth it becomes hu-poh, amber. 



- As to dragon's fat, we learn from the Shih i hi ^ that a tower, 

 lighted by means of it, spread such a brilliant light that it was 

 seen at a distance of a hundred miles. This, light was said by 

 some people to be a lucky omen and was worshipped by them 

 from far. The wick was made of "fite- washed cloth" (asbestos 

 cloth which can be cleaned by fire), twined into a rope. 



With regard to the dragon's saliva we read the following in 

 the . Pen-ts^ao kdng-muh " : * Wang Ki ' says : 'From't he^s aliva spit 

 out by dras^ons perFnme is made '. Li Shi-chen (the author him- 

 self) says: 'Dragon's saliva is seldom used as a medicine; it is 

 only mixed into perfumes. It is said that it can bind camphor 



1 Mih k'^oh hwui si, ^^ ^^ :^ S , written in the eleventh century by P'eng 

 Shing, ^ ^ (cf. De Groot, Rel. Syst., Vol. IV, p. 864, note 2). Quoted T.S., Sect. 



^^,Ch. 130, ^^^,p. 36. 



2 Chao ye tsHen tsai, SB S*.^- W^, "Record of all matters relating to the Court 



and abroad", ascribed to Chang Shoh, BB-*^, who probably lived in the first Half 



of the 8th century. T. S., Sect, jp^ S, Ch. 306, quoted by De Ghoot, Rel. Si/st,, 

 Vol. VI, p. 1034, note 1. 



3 Pen-ts'^ao kang-muh, 1. 1., p. 5a. 



* M ^ 11 ^ (°^"*^ century), Ch. XI ( ^ ^), p. 66: f| j^ 7\^ i^fc 



5 :f^ ^ IE (fourth century), Ch. X, Sect. ;^ 5?^ |ll , P- 36. 



6 L. 1., p. 5a. 



7 vT ^^ , a celebrated physician of the 16th century, author of the Pen-Woo hui- 



I - ^f*. .jd^ y.cl 



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