120 



of a rope through a river inhabited by a dragon '. As we shall 

 see below ^, the Japanese, following the same methods, threw 

 horse dnng, old sandals and other dirty things into dragon-ponds, 

 or stirred the dragons np by means of iron utensils or metal- 

 shaving, for, as we saw above ^ these animals were believed to 

 detest and fear iron. 



The Wu tsah tsu * desc ribes the remarkable way in whjc h the 

 people of Ling-nan c aused ra in^ ^As_dragon s are very le wd and 

 fond of wo men, a naked woman was p lace4_flJi--a-je1p^'^i^it^(T~ poin t 

 in order t Q_aii t.ract a dragon. As so mi_as_t herB game one _aDiLflgw 

 jj:Dxind-Jiac»_he_ was__jnag;ica lly prevented from approaching her, 

 SO— th at his anger w as: aroused -^ad— hp.avy ra ins .p,amQjlow]i. The 

 sam e work '^ says that in the beginning of summer the dragon g 

 are^^i vidgdj^ so_tliat _eacli of them has his speci al territory, _sdiich 

 he doe s^ not exceed. This is the reason why in summer time i t 

 "rains very much at_one_place and not at all a jittle further on ^ 

 ~~Apafr from these mpa,ns!--a.£-s.t irring i^p jfcbft- cl i/ i.uri ri ^ ^/ y ft-j3f^,p.rii 

 read ^about pray evs recite d to the m^^at they might give fertilizing 

 rains. This was~Hone m shrines or at ponds inhabited by dragons, 

 or at the entrances of their dens. The Mao fing ¥oh hwa, e. g., 

 mentions a Dragon-woman's shrine, dedicated to a female dragon 

 which in A. D. 740 appeared in a dream and promised to give 



1 Shang shu ku shift, 'w ^S ^t ^ , written in the ninth century by Li Ch"^oh, 

 ^p «S. : "In the South, when there is a long drought, a tiger's head bone is tied 

 at a long rope and thrown into the water on a spot where a dragon is living. Then 

 seveial men pnll in an irregular way. Suddenly clouds arise from the middle of the 

 pond, and thereupon also rain comes down. The dragon being the tiger's enemy, even 

 the latter's dried bones still stir up the dragon like this". '^3 pb -^ ^^ 0n IM 



itmm^n^^ m^^m^. m^m^o m^^^mn 



fli^ S& ^B itfc o ^^- ^^'^"■^ ' "''* ^^^^^ cent.), quoted T. S., same section, Oh. 130, 

 p. 7a: In the Shun-hi era (ld74— 1190) a tiger bone, attached to a long rope, was let 

 down in a "White dragon's pond", near a "White dragon's den" before a Buddhist 

 temple. Soon it rained, and as they were slow in pulling the bone out of the pond, a 

 severe thunderstoim menaced the government office, but stopped when the bone was 

 removed. 



The date shows that we have here a- passage from the Hien ch'wang kwah i chi, 



pl^ W -!§ ^ /^ ' 'W""en by Lu Ying-ldng, ^ ]§ f | , who lived about the 

 middle of the thirteenth century (cf. De Groot, Rel. Syst., Vol. IV, p. 347, note 1), 

 and not with the Kwah i chi, written in the second half of the eleventh century by 

 Chang Shi-ching, ^^ ^jg JE , alias. Pch-i, ^^ (De Groot, 1.1., IV, p. 210, note 1). 



2 Book II, Ch. III. 3 Book I, Ch. Ill, § 3, pp. 67 sqq. 

 ^ ^MM (Ming-dynasty), Ch. IX. 5 Ch. I.X, 



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