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dragons, and even old tree-spirits in snake-form were called 

 dragons and said to cause thunderstorms. 



The Dragon-lantern, treated of in the sixth chapter, was not 

 mentioned in works dating before the fourteenth century. It 

 always rose from the sea, and was mostly a sign of a dragon- 

 shaped sea-god's protection of, and reverence towards, a Buddhist 

 temple or, in a few cases, of a Shinto sanctuary. The Chinese 

 "azure dragon" was often mentioned in these tales, and sometimes 

 was said to have been seen carrying the lantern, which neai-ly 

 always descended upon some old pine-tree standing near the shrine, 

 and hung between its branches. These "dragon-lantern pine-trees" 

 remind us of the Chinese ideas of old trees producing ignes fatui. 



The "Dragon's eggs^', beautiful stones picked up in the moun- 

 tains, out of which constantly water dripped and which for this 

 reason were often used as ink-stones, were dangerous ti'easures 

 indeed. For sooner or later they split, and a little snake crept 

 out of them, which in a few minutes increased in size and 

 finally ascended to the sky as a dragon, breaking through the 

 roof and causing a terrible thunderstorm. Book I, Ch. Ill, § 16, 

 in connection with Book II, Chapter VII, have shown that this 

 is a Chinese conception, introduced into Japan, where it was 

 prevalent from the sixteenth century down to the nineteenth. 



Very popular was also the idea of whirlwinds and waterspouts 

 being caused by ascending dragons, winding their way to heaven. 

 We find this both in China and Japan, in the latter country 

 especially from the seventeenth century until the present day. 

 The Japanese name "tatsu-maki''' perhaps indicates that it was not 

 borrowed from China; but on the other hand the fact that we did 

 not find it mentioned in works before the seventeenth century 

 causes me to think that the general inclination of these later ages 

 towards Chinese conceptions, which we observed also in the methods 

 of making rain, may have caused the spreading of this idea too. 



Finally, in the ninth chapter, the geographical names were 

 evidence of the original Japanese dragon having been worshipped 

 mostly in Central Japan, and of the popularity of the Chinese 

 and Indian dragons throughout the Empire. The large number 

 of names of Buddhist temples and priests, connected with 

 the Indian dragon, showed the important part played by the 

 Naga in Japanese Buddhism. 



Herewith 1 conclude this treatise on the dragon in the Far East, 

 in the hope that it may throw light upon his complicate nature of 

 Indian, Chinese and Japanese god of water, thunder, rain and wind. 



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