175 



iron which they disliked very much was borrowed from China, 

 as we have seen above ^; it was practised also at the "Pond of 

 the Ugly Woman", mentioned in the Sanshu Udan kohen (above, 

 § 8), where within a day after one had thrown metal shavings 

 into the pond certainly a heavy storm arose and the rain came 

 down in torrents. 



We may compare with this a passage of the Matsunoya hikhi^, 

 where we read that the inhabitants of Tsukui-agata ' (district), 

 Sagami province, used to throw horse dung, old sandals and 

 other filth into a pond in the neighbouring Toyama, when 

 drought prevailed. After having done this they rapidly fled for 

 fear of the angry dragon, which certainly arose, causing a terrible 

 hurricane and heavy rains. As we have stated above *, the idea 

 of causing rain by arousing the dragons' anger is quite Chinese. 



It was certainly also a pond, inhabited by a dragon or a 

 snake, which we 'find mentioned on p. 653 of the Sanshu kidan 

 (Ch. I). In summer, when the people wanted rain, they went 

 thither, cut a mackerel to pieces and threw these into the 

 mountain pond, at the same time praying for rain. If they did 

 so, their prayer was always heard, and the rain came down at 

 once. This seems to be an offering to the dragon, but it might 

 be another way of stirring him up by ill-treating one of his 

 subjects, the fishes, before his eyes. 



§ 10. A dragon engraved on an incense pot believed to cause rain. 

 Fine trees cause clouds to rise and rain to fall. 



The dragon was so much connected with rain, that even an 

 incense pot, decorated with a "cloud-dragon", unryu C^fl), 

 was supposed to be the reason why it always rained on the 

 day of an Inari festival. This pot was preserved among the 

 precious objects of a temple, dedicated to the Rice-goddess, but 

 was hidden when the suspicion rose that it caused the annoying 

 rain on Inari's day ^ This appeared, however, not to be the case, 

 for the rain poured down as well after this measure as before. 



1 Book I, Oh. V, § 3, pp. H9 sq., cf. pp. 67 sqq. ^^ 



2 ^ M tf IE' written by Takada Tomokiyo, ^ 09 |S '^, who lived 

 1782—1847; Ch. 109, p. 23 (new printed edition, Vol. Ill, p. 411). 



i Pp. 119 sq. 



5 Comp. above, p. 117, where we have read about an old mirror with a dragon- 

 shaped handle, used in China as a magical instrument for causing the dragons to give 



rain. 



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