184 



three or four days, and then went home. At last the man, 

 warned by a neighbour, watched her from the upper story of 

 the latter's house, and saw her coming out of his house. After 

 having walked some distance in human shape, she was trans- 

 formed into a line of white vapour ( Q ^ ), flew to the pond, 

 and disappeared under the water. The man, very much frightened 

 by this sight, went to a neighbouring Buddhist temple and 

 requested the priest to recite prayers on his behalf. Moreover, 

 he pasted holy Buddhist texts and charms on the walls of his. 

 house, in order to avert the evil. This was sufficient, for the 

 nun never returned. Within a couple of years, however, the man 

 died, and now, after more than thirty years, again such strange 

 things happen in the same house. Probably the old woman is 

 possessed by the Master (^, nushi) of the pond". So spoke the 

 physician, no doubt jealous of the woman on account of her 

 medical fame, but at the same time clearly expressing the 

 superstitious ideas of the people. The term "dragon-snake" seems 

 to indicate the Naga, a serpent identified with a dragon; more- 

 over. Buddhism plays a predominant part in this story. 



Before the Restoration a so-called *Dragon-god festival" {Rytijin- 

 ^^h hI Jli$ ^ ) ^sed to be yearly celebrated by the priest of 

 the Gongen shrine at Hakone, the well-known mountain village 

 in Sagami province. Three hundred thirty three go (-^) of "red 

 rice" {sekihan), in a new wooden rice bowl, were offered to the 

 Dragon-god of Hakone lake in the following way. The Buddhist 

 priest (now leyasu's shrine belongs to Shinto) went in a boat to 

 the middle of the lake and there placed the bowl on the water, 

 whereupon the boat went on, neither the priest nor the boatmen 

 looking back. Then they heard a sound as of a whirlpool on the 

 spot where the offering had been made, and the bowl disappeared 

 under the water '. 



§ 4. Reborn as dragons. 



In the Taiheiki"^ (about 1382) we read the following legend. 

 The second son of the Emperor Godaigo, Prince Takanaga, also 

 called Ichi no Miya, who had been banished to Hata in Tosa 

 province, longed so much for his consort, who had remained in 

 Kyoto, that he despatched his faithful vassal, Hada no Takebumi, 



1 Nihon shukyo fuzoku shi, Q 2k ^ ^ M, 'f^ ^ (written in 1902), p. 213. 



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