113 



spots from where dragons which had been lying in the earth 

 had dashed forth and flown to heaven. ' 



Two boys, born from the marriage of a man with a dragon 

 who first assumed the shape of a snake and then of a woman, 

 suddenly caused a heavy thunderstorm to arise, changed into 

 dragons and flew away. ^ 



When in the year 1156 a thunderstorm raged and darkness 

 prevailed, suddenly a cry was heard over a,n extent of several 

 miles, which repeated itself for more than a month. The people 

 ascribed it to the dragon of a neighbouring pond. ' 



Another time a little snake, which crept out of a small crack 

 of the unplastered wall of a house, became bigger and bigger, 

 changed into a dragon and flew away amidst storm and rain.* 



How a kiao brought heavy rains and inundations was seen 

 above ^ as well as the fact that tempests often were ascribed 

 to dragons fighting in the air. "^ 



§ 3. Bain magic and prayers. 



The dragon being the god of ra in, from rem ote ag es his images 

 were used in tim es of drought in order tocanj^eJiiiL_ta_ascend_. 

 by sympathetic magic. TJie *b'/ian hai kmg'^sajs: "In the north- 

 eastern corneFTif the GieaL Desert (Ta hwang) there is a moun- 

 tain called Hiung-li earth mound; a ying lung (according to the 

 commentator a winged dragon ^) inhabited its southern extremity. 



1 Cf. the / kien chi, ^ ^ ^, written in the twelfth century by Hung Mai, 

 'Hfc ^£; T. S., same section, Ch. 130, p. 96; Lung ch^ing luh, -^ ^ ^^ (Wilib, 

 p. 197: "A record of incidents during the earlier part of the T'^ang, professing to be 

 written by Liu Tsung-yuen, MH ^! y^ , of that dynasty. It is generally understood, 

 however, that it is a spurious production of Wang Chih, ^ «^, of the 12th cen- 

 tury"); Ch. II. 



2 Hoh lin yuh lu, j^ ^yj; ^ ^, written by Lo Ta-king,\ ^ -^ J^', alias 

 KiNG-LUN, •©■ 4m, who probably lived in the 12th century (cf. De Groot, Rel. Syst., 

 Vol. IV, p. 251, note 1). T. S., same section, Ch. 131, p. 16a. 



3 Kiang-si f-ung-chi, quoted T. S., same section, Ch. 130, p. 66. 



4 Fei siieh luh, It ^ ^, quoted T. S , same section, Ch. 130, p. 12a. 



5 Book I, Ch. Ill, § 7, p. 81. 



6 Book I, Ch. II, § 2, A, p. 48. 



' Sect. :^ ^ ^ ^, Cfi. XIV, 'v-^b: i^%M^\:>^f^^\h. 



8 Cf. above, this Book, Ch. IV, § 6, p. 72 sqq. 

 Verh. Kon. Atad. v. Wetensch. (Afd. Letterk.) N. R. Dl. XIII, N" 2. 8 



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