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however, not the ordinary way of representing the dragon with 

 the ball or spiral. Tioo dragons flying with open mouths towards 

 a ball or spiral between them — this is the most frequent and 

 apparently the most ancient representation. The artists, especially 

 those of later times, often varied this subject, so that we some- 

 times see more than two dragons rushing upon one ball, or one 

 dragon trying to swallow it or having caught it with his claw; 

 sometimes there are even two balls and only one dragon. 

 But nowhere they make the impression of belching out the ball ; 

 their whole attitude, on the contrary, indicates their eagerness 

 in trying to catch and swallow it. Moreover, how can two dragons 

 belch out one ball? And the dragon of the festival constantly 

 follows the ball with his mouth, apparently in order to swallow 

 it. Tet I was inclined to accept De G root's theory, although it 

 was very diflBcult to make it agree with the eager attitude of 

 the dragons, when Mr Kramp had the kindness of pointing out 

 to me his own opinion on this subject. After having drawn my 

 attention to Hirth's paper, mentioned above, he showed me a 

 little Chinese picture, represented in Blacker's Chats on Oriental 

 China (London, 1908), on p. 54, where we see two dragons, 

 rushing upon a fiery, spiral-shaped ball, under which the following 

 characters are to be read : p^ ^ ^ ^ , "A couple of dragons ' 

 facing the moon". The moon! These were the first written 

 characters I ever saw with regard to this interesting subject, 

 for the sea of texts concerning the dragon, ancient and modern, 

 did not give a single word. Leaving aside the character ^ , 

 which is apparently not well chosen to denote the aggressive 

 attitude of the dragons, we have only to consider the'character ^ . 

 Would it be absurd to represent dragons trying to swallow 

 the moon? Not in the least, for the dragons are, as we have 

 seen above, the clouds, and the ancient Chinese may easily have 

 fancied that these dragons, quickly approaching and covering the 

 moon, actually devoured it. When they did so, the fertilizing 

 rain soon trickled down upon the thirsty earth, a great blessing 

 to mankind. For this reason they might be represented so often 

 trying to swallow the moon, namely as a symbol of fertilizing 

 rains. Owing to the close connection between the moon and the 

 water, the moon, having been swallowed by the dragon, might 

 have been believed to strengthen the rain-giving power of the 

 latter. The dragon of the festival, persecuting the moon, might 

 be carried along the streets in order to cause rain by sympa- 

 thetic masic. 



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