195 



No less severe was the curse of another snake-shaped dragon. 

 The house of the head, of a village called " Ryd no ike''' or 

 "Dragon's pond", iu TJma district, lyo province, was said to be 

 built on a pool, inhabited by a dragon in remote ages. A pond 

 in the garden, three or four shaku square, which was the 

 remainder of this pool, was never dry, not even in times of drought. 

 On the 15th day of the 7th month (UUambana, the Bon-festival 

 for the dead) of the year 1638 the villagers were dancing (the 

 "bon-odori", or "bon-dance") in this garden and making such a 

 noise, that it lasted a . while before thej^ heard the master of 

 the house crying for help. When they ran into the room, they 

 found him standing in the dark, holding an animal by the throat 

 which had swallowed one of the arms of his child, about eight 

 years old. They cut the beast to pieces, but it became larger and 

 larger and at last filled the whole room. It appeared to be an 

 enormous serpent, yet it had evidently entered the house through 

 a very small opening, only sufiBcient for an earthworm. Upon 

 the sand of the pond a trace was visible, only a thin line, 

 which showed that the dragon had crept out of the pond in the 

 shape of an earthworm. The curse of the monster soon followed 

 in a terrible way, for the whole family, more than seventy 

 persons, died one after the other, except one blind minstrel who 

 escaped this fate and told the story afterwards \ 



A man whose ship knocked against a huge snake, thirteen 

 ken long, killed the monster with his sword, and, in order to 

 escape its curse, cut its trunk into three pieces, buried these 

 together with the head, and had masses said for the animal's 

 soul. But this was all in vain, for thirteen years later, on the 

 same day of the same month, nay even at the same hour, he 

 exclaimed: "1 drink water", was choked and died. The people 

 were convinced that his death was caused by the snake. This 

 water-serpent was, of course, a dragon '^ 



§ 13. Relics of dragons preserved in Buddhist temples. 



At Noda, in Mikawa province, there is a Buddhist shrine called 

 SenryU-in, or "Spring-dragon-temple" (;^f|^), where three 

 dragon's scales are preserved. Before the temple was built, its 

 founder, Morin Shonin, preached there- every night, and each 



1 Ch. IX, p. 128. The same legend is to be found in the Yamato kwai-i-ki (-^ 

 5Kp 'I'S S.fE' written by an unknown author in 1708), Ch. HI, p. 136. 



2 Ch. IV,- p. 48. 



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