224 



that a dragOD was about to lift up the ship and c^rry it to the 

 sky. In order to scare the dragon away they all Qut off their 

 hair and burned it. And behold, the terrible smell was apparently 

 too much for the dragon, for the. cloud at once dispersed. 



Dragons are fond of money '. Qne day, when a tatsumaM was 

 raging,; an empty string of cash fell down ; the coin^ had evidently 

 been taken off by the dragon which had then thrown the string 

 away. Another time a ship with much money on board was 

 attacked by dragons in the form of a fearful storm. It foundered, 

 and all . efforts to raise the box of money from the bottom of 

 the sea were frustrated by the greedy dragons which caused a 

 storm to arise each time when human hands tried to deprive 

 them of their prey ^. ■: 



§ 4. Snakes rise as dragons up to the clouds. 



A strange tale is found in the Fude no susabi ^ concerning a 

 woman who had a severe headache on a day when a violent 

 thunderstorm broke forth. During the tempest a little snake 

 came out of her head, fled away through the door and ascended 

 to the sky in a black cloud which suddenly came down. 



The Mimi-bukuro ^ relates a legend of a big snake, which lived 

 under the verandah of a house and was daily fed^by-the inmates. 

 If a girl who was waiting in vain for a husband gave food to this 

 snake and prayed to itj her prayer was heard and she soon was 

 married. One day, in the thircb month of the second yesir of the 

 Temmei era (1782), the animal crept upon the verandah and 

 lay there as if it were ill. While the man and his wife were 

 carefully nursing it, clouds arose and it rained continuously. 

 The snake raised its head and looked up to the sky, when a 

 cloud descended upon the garden. Then the animal stretched its 

 body and in a heavy rain ascended to the sky. 



1 Of. above Book I, Ch. Ill, § 3, p. 69, with regard to the dragOii's liking for the 

 vital spirit of copper. 



' 2 SaiyUki, r§ i^ M^, written in 1797 by the same author as i\\B ToyUki (cf. 

 above, p. 223, note 5), Ch. II, p. 259. 



3 ^^ 7 5^, "Pencil sports", written by Kwan Chasan, *g* ^ [Jj , who lived 

 1747— 1827; Hyakka setsurin, Vol, jE_t,,p. 177. 



4 ~Si ^, written in 1815 by Fojiwara Morinobu, |^ j^ ^ ^ Shidaikisho, 

 _Pg -^.^ § , nr 4, p. .11,. Ch, I, 



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