97 



and musk for several tens of years without evaporating. 

 Further, it is said that, when it is burned, a blue smoke floats 



through the air Last spring the saliva spit out by 



a herd of dragons appeared floating (on the sea). The abori- 

 gines gathered, obtained and sold it, each time for two thousand 

 copper coins." 



The Tiu hwan hi wen ' instructs us that the most precious of 

 all perfumes is dragon's spittle, and that the inhabitants of Ta- 

 shih land used to watch the vapours arising for half a year or 

 even two or three years from the same spot of the sea. When they 

 vanished, this was a token that the dragons which had been 

 sleeping there all the time had gone away. Then the people went 

 to the spot' in order to gather the saliva of those dragons. Accor- 

 ding to another explanation, found in the same passage, the 

 dragons lived in whirlpools in the open sea. The spittle which 

 they emitted was hardened by the sun, and these hard pieces 

 were blown ashore by the wind. When fresh it was white, gradually 

 it became purple, and finally black (amber, generally 'considered 

 to be the excrements of cachalots, i. e. sperm whales, is yellowish). 



This perfume reminds us of the "Dragon-fight perfume", 

 mentioned in the Tsu fing shi yuen 2, which is said to be pro- 

 duced by fighting dragons. One pill of it makes a large cloud of 

 perfume arise. 



According to the Lang hiien hi ^ the Emperor Shun used the 

 saliva of a purple dragon as ink in writing the names of holy 

 ministers on tablets of jade, those of sages, on tablets of gold 

 and those of talentful ministers on tablets of quartz- crystal; those 

 of ordinary ministers were written with ordinary ink on tablets 

 of wood. In order to obtain the saliva he ordered Yu Hu to rear 

 a purple dragon. The latter daily made the animal drop saliva 

 by holding a swallow, which he had cooked (the favourite food 

 of the dragons, cf. above, p. 68) before it without immediately 

 giving it to eat. This made the dragon's mouth water, and 

 a large quantity of saliva dripped down. Then Yu Hu filled 

 a vessel with it, whereupon he gave the swallow to the 



^ i& ^ ^E ^ ' '*^'''''^''" H Chang Shi-nan, ^ j^^ ^, in the Sung dynasty; 

 Ch. VII; quoted T. S., 1. 1., Ch. 130, ^ ^, p- 5a. 



2 JJlH. J^ ^ /%' quoted in the Japanese Buddhist dictionary entitled Bukkyo 



iroha jilen, Vol. IF, p. 63, s. v. Ryu-to, ^g ^ . 



3 ^ ^ IE, written by I Shi-chen, '^ jH: 3^ , in the Yuen dynasty; T. S.^ 



1. 1., Ch. 131, p. 16. 



Veih. Kon. Akad. v. Wetensch. (Afd. Lelterk.) N. R. Dl XIII, N°, 2. 7 



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