194 



scanty garments, visited the cottage of a Buddhist hermit, to 

 beseech him to hold incantations on her behalf (i. e. to exorcise 

 the evil spirit which was possessing her). The hermit agreed and 

 the Princess returned home. In the middle of the night she 

 (i. e_ the evil spirit within her) suddenly exclaimed : "Help, help ! 

 a dragon is about to cut my throat with a sword, and a boy is 

 tying me with a rope!" The ladies in waiting were very mqch 

 frightened, but the next morning the patient was cured. A dragon 

 and an angel, invoked by the priest's incantations, had driven 

 out the evil demon '. 



§ 11. Eight dragons ridden through the sky by a Buddhist deity. 



The Taiheiki'^ describes the vision of a man who passed the 

 night praying before the Outer Shrine (Gegu) at Ise. He saw a 

 gigantic god with twelve faces and forty two arms, brandishing 

 swords and lances and riding eight dragons through the air 

 amidst rain and wind, at the head of many others who drove 

 in carriages above the clouds. They came from all sides, two or 

 three thousand in all, in carriages or on horseback, while a 

 brilliant palace, made of precious stones and silver, glittered in 

 the sky. 



§ 12. Curses wrought by dragons. 



The Shinchomonshu ^ mentions curses of dragons in the fol- 

 lowing passages. "An old tradition said that the guardian-god of 

 the Ryumon temple *, a Buddhist sanctuary especially devoted 

 to the religious services for the deceased relatives of Mr Mogami 

 Gengoro, in Dewa province, was a dragon. One day the stone 

 wall of this shrine had fallen to ruins, and a large number of 

 men were working there together and had piled up stones, when 

 a snake, about six or seven inches long, appeared from under 

 the stones, was pursued and killed. Those who had killed her, 

 became at once giddy and died on the spot; the others, who 

 had only pursued her, were ill for about fifty or sixty days. 

 The body of this snake, tradition says, is now in the Keiyo 

 temple opposite Asakiisa in Yedo", 



1 Ch. XI, p. 822. 2 Ch. XII, p. 96. 



3 ^Jt ^^ ^ 4M, written by an unknown author about 1700; Zoku Teikoku 

 bunko. Vol. XLVII, Ch. IX, p. 126. • 



4 §|| P^ ^k ^ "Dragon-gate temple". 



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