102 



Further, the same author enumerates nine other kinds of 

 dragons — there are so many, says he, because the dragon's nature 

 is very lewd, so that he copulates with all animals ' — , which 

 are represented as ornaments of different objects or buildings 

 according to their liking prisons, water, the rank smell of newly 

 caught fish or newly killed meat, wind and rain, ornaments, 

 smoke, shutting the mouth (used for adorning key-holes), standing 

 on steep places (placed on roofs), and fire. 



§ 3. Ornaments used by Wu-ist priests and mediums. 



De Groot's description of the religious dress of the Wu-ist 

 priests (the sai kong ^ of Amoy) contains the following passage. 

 "On the left and right (of the pile of mountains, representing 

 the continent of the world, embroidered on the back of the 

 principal vestment ofthe sai hong), a large dragon riseshigh_ 



aboye the billows, in an attitu de__d'^'^"<'i"g_.aL__g£!g^2!lS"^^'^"^ 

 towards the continen t: these animals symboliz e ihe^ J^^Ezmg' 

 rains, and are therefore~^ urfDunded by ^■olcr-thread figureswEicP 

 represejit— eiQmfe^_a nd so me which resemble .?p?ra/g and~"3e note, 

 rolling thunder . . . . . . . There is also a broad b order^of Ijlu a-silk 



grnnnr] flip TippTT^^giTr^itJil m\\\\~ finn nvne'nriTr^rlynqnna wMcll dve 



hpJrM nrf out, n hall, iwohably representing thunder" •*. 



A similar, secondary vestment of a sai kong is adorned with 

 " an obl ong piece of_ _bl^6 silk, embroidered wi _t h two drag ons, 

 wW.hnT3jitl-Q]n""arba.11j as ajsr)_wjtlTa. continent and wave s over 

 whi ch they ana.ii llA — 



"It is then obvious, that the sacerdotal dress of the sai kong 

 is a magical dress. The pries t, who wears_ it^_ja. invpsted hy it with, 

 the pow er of the Urde rot the World itself, a,nd _thus enabled 

 toj:£sto¥e-ihat-Q¥der_svh enever, by me ans^ofjaicriflees^^aja cl magi- 

 cal ceremQnifis»_h e is averting unseasonable and c a lamitous events^^ 

 such-^as-cfcoua A.^, untimel y and supe ra.buiidanJL rainfall, or .P^lip«ps._ 

 Jesides, since the Tao is the mightiest power against the demon 



^ ^ ~K ^ ) p. 60; written in the T^sirig dynasty by Yao Wen-ying, j^ a^ ^ ). 

 In many respects the Japanese Lave followed these Chinese rules of ornamentation. 



1 Accoi'ding to the same work (Ch. IX), a cross-breed of a dragon ad a cow is a lin 

 (J^fe, a female unicorn); that of a dragon ad a pig is an elephant; and if a dragon 

 copulates with a horse, a dragon-horse (cf. above, pp. ^Q sqq.) is born. 



2 0f|j ^- ^ ^^^'- ^y^'^- '^^^ P' ^265, Plate XVIII. 



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