119 



similar magic, mentioned by Frazer in his Golden Bough '. We 

 read there of plagues, caused by vermin, scorpions or serpents, 

 which were stopped by burying or removing the images of these 

 noxious creatures. 



A curious prescription for making rain is given in the Tiu- 

 yang tsah tsu ^, where we read the following : * Take four water- 

 lizards, and after having filled two earthen jugs with water, put 

 two of the lizards in each. Then cover the jugs with wooden 

 covers, place them on two different quiet spots, prepare seats 

 before and behind them, and burn incense. If you then have 

 more than ten boys, ten years old or younger, day and night 

 incessantl}'- strike the jars with small green bamboo sticks, it 

 certainly will -rain". This advice was followed, and after one day 

 and two nights the rain came down. "Tradition says", adds the 

 author, " that dragons and water-lizards belong to the same species". 

 The idea of annoying the dragons by noise and thus stirring 

 them up is also to be found in Japan, where, as we shall see 

 below ', the Court- oflBcials made music and danced on a dragon 

 boat on the pond of the Sacred-Spring-Park, in order to force 

 the dragon to arise and give rain. 



Another way of making rain is to arouse the dragons' anger 

 by throwing poisonous plants *, or ashes ^, or pieces of wood, or 

 stones ", or tiger bones ' — the tiger being the dragon's deadly 

 enemy — into their pools, or by pulling a tiger's head by nieans 



1 Vol. II (sec. eil.), pp. 426 sq. Cf. Vol. I, pp. 9 sqq. ; making rain by magical means, 

 I, pp. 82—114. 



2 Ch. XI (ninth century). 



3 Ch. V. It reminds us of the enormous bronze drums, decorated with frogs, the 

 demons of rain, which probably were beaten by the Man tribes in the South of China, 

 when di'oughl prevailed. Cf De Groot, Die -antiken Bronzepauken im Ostindischen 

 Archipel und auf dent Fesllande von Sudostasien, Mitth. des Seminars f. Orient. Spr. 

 zu Berlin, Jahrg. IV, Abth. I, pp. 76-113. 



4 T'^ai-p'^ing yu Ian, Ch. 930. 



5 Weng yuen hien chi, -^ yM I^ ^^ , quoted in the Japanese work Shobutsu 



ruizan, fff #1 ^ ^ ' Section S|,. 



6 Mao fing k^oh hwa, ^ ^ ^ f^i quoted T. S,, same section, Ch. 130, p. 8a: 

 "If one throws a piece of wood or a stone into the dragon pond, this at once causes 

 black vapours to arise, followed by thunder and lightning, rain and hail". On clear days 

 the surface of the water of this pond was five-coloured, a sign of a dragon's dwelling. 

 In time of drought offerings were made and prayers said to him. 



7 Chen chu chvfen, 3^ ^ j|^ . written by Ch'en Kiai-kdng, ^ ^ ^ . i" the 

 Ming dynasty; Ch. I. 



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