233 



who devour them. They are fond of b'eautiful gems, hollow stones 

 with water inside (or the vital spirit of copper) and swallow- 

 flesh. Male and female dragons are different in shape. As the 

 dragon is very lewd, he copulates with all kinds of animals 

 and in this way produces nine different classes of young, which 

 according to their nature are represented as ornaments. 



Causing rain is the Chinese dragon's most important function, 

 and he is compelled to do so by mankind by several magical 

 means, especially by making clay images of dragons (and laying 

 them in water), or by throwing poisonous plants or bones of the 

 tiger (his deadly enemy) into his pools, or by annoying him by 

 a terrible noise, or by using utensils adorned with dragons when 

 praying for rain. The dragons are called the "Rain-Masters", 

 and rain is prayed for in front of their holes. 



They transform themselves into old men, beautiful women, 

 and fishes, or sometimes assume the shapes of trees and objects, 

 as e. g. swords. They have a pearl under their throats or in 

 their mouths. As to their e^gs, these are beautiful stones to 

 be found in the mountains, or at the riverside ; water is con- 

 stantly dripping from these stones till they split and a small 

 snake appears, which in a very short time grows larger and 

 larger and in the form of a dragon ascends to the sky amid 

 thunder, rain and darkness. Hurricanes and whirlwinds are all 

 ascribed to ascending dragons. Their bones are considered to be 

 a very efficient medicine and their spittle is the most precious 

 of perfumes ; their cast-off skins spread a brilliant light. Dragon- 

 boats were pleasure-vessels of the Emperors, which had the shape 

 of a dragon and the head of a yih bird ; quite different, however, 

 are the dragon-boats of the water festival of the fifth day of the 

 fifth month, which are probably intended as sympathetic magic to 

 obtain rain. As to Buddhism, this introduced into China legends 

 concerning tranformation into dragons after death. Dragon-kings 

 and palaces, a. s. o. 



The first chapter of Book II, in which I treated of the original 

 Japanese dragon, mentioned no later dates than the tenth cen- 

 tury (Unffishiki). Even the eighth century adorned her legends 

 with Chinese and Indian features, as we saw in the tale of 

 Toyotama-bime and Hiko-hohodemi. This was very easily done 

 because the Japanese sea and river-gods, having the shape of a 

 dragon or a serpent, resembled the Chinese lung or the Indian 

 Nagas. It is no wonder that the simple, rain-bestowing Japanese 

 gods of rivers and seas, mountains and valleys, owing to their 

 shapes were identified with and superseded by the similar but 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



v^ 



