112 



a golden colour; its legs were about three ch'ih long, and its 

 breath smell ed very bad. In the morning, when people looked 

 for it, there were on the upper part of the wall thirty six smoky 

 stains, the traces of- claws". 



Such traces were also seen, much to the astonishment of the 

 people, after a heavy storm accompanied by thunder, which lifted 

 u.p the tablet of a gate and threw it down at some distance, 

 destroying one of the characters of the inscription. ' 



Another time a white dragon brought heavy wind and rain. 

 The sky was black and it was pitchdark. More than five hundred 

 houses were destroyed; big trees were uprooted and lifted up 

 into the air, from where they fell down quite broken.^ 



According to the Yiu-yang tsah tsu ', wind, rain and thunder 

 were caused by a dragon, which in the shape of a white reptile 

 had wound itself around one of the leg^ of a horse, when this 

 was bathed in a river. The creature had coiled itself so tightly, 

 that the horse lost much blood when the monster was loosened. 

 The general who possessed the horse took the reptile and pre- 

 served it iii a box. One day some guests advised him to examine 

 its nature by means of water. It was laid in a hollow, dug in 

 the earth, and some water was sprinkled over it. After a little 

 while the animal began to wriggle and seemed to grow. In the 

 hollow a well bubbled up, and all of a sudden a black vapour 

 like incense smoke rose and went straight out of the eaves. The 

 crowd beyond was afraid and ran home, convinced that it was 

 a dragon. But before they were some miles away suddenly the 

 wind arose, the rain come down, and several heavy thunderclaps 

 were heard. 



Especially the whirlwinds, called in Japan "^ taisu-makV or 

 "dragon-rolls"*, which form waterspouts and carry heavy objects 

 into the air, were looked upon as dragons winding their way to 

 the sky amidst thunder and rain. Holes in the ground, due to 

 volcanic eruptions and emitting smoke, were thought to be the 



1 Lao hioh ngaA pih ki, -^k- ^^ t^ ^p gfl , according to De Groot (Rel. Syst., 

 Vol. IV, p. 220, note 1) "a collection of notices on miscellaneous subjects, in ten chap- 

 ters, by LuH Yiu, 1^ ^-^ also named Wu-kwan, ^ ||i , a high officer who lived 

 from 1125—1209"- T. S., same section, Ch. 130, p. 7b. 



2 Choh keng hth, ^^^, by T^ao Tsung-i, |^ ^ ^ . alias Kiu-oh'ing, 

 jh ^1 published in 1366 (of. De Groot, 1.1., Vol. IV, p. 346). T.S., same section, 

 Ch. 130, p. 10a. 



3 Yiu-yang tsah tsu, Ch. XV ( ^^ ^ =^ "^ ), p. 2a. 



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