On reaching his house he found, to his surprise, that it was inhabited by strangers. He spoke to them, asking why they were there, and inquiring regarding his wife and children. The strangers only scoffed at him. Then he wandered through the village, searching for old friends, but could not find one. He, however, interested a wise old man in his case. An examination was made of the family annals, and it was discovered that the name given by the man had been recorded three centuries earlier as that of a member of the family who had mysteriously disappeared.
The Chinese Rip Van Winkle then told the story of his life in the mountain cavity, and how he had been [[178]]sustained by the huchu herb. In this manner, according to Chinese tradition, the discovery was made that the herb “prolongs life, cures baldness, turns grey hair black again, and tends to renew one’s youth”. Great quantities of huchu tea must be drunk for a considerable time, and no other food taken, if the desired results are to be fully achieved.
Other Rip Van Winkle stories tell of men who have lived for centuries while conversing with immortals met by chance, or while taking part in their amusements like the men in Western European stories, who enter fairy knolls and dance with fairy women, and think they have danced for a single hour, but find, when they come out, that a whole year has gone past.
One day a Taoist priest, named Wang Chih, entered a mountain forest to gather firewood. He came to a cave in which sat two aged men playing chess, while others looked on. The game fascinated Wang Chih, so he entered the cave, laid aside his chopper, and looked on. When he began to feel hungry and thirsty he moved as if to rise up and go away, although the game had not come to an end. One of the spectators, however, divining his intention, handed him a kernel, which looked like a date stone, saying, “Suck that”.
Wang Chih put the kernel in his mouth and found that it refreshed him so that he experienced no further desire for food or drink.
The chess-playing continued in silence, and several hours, as it seemed, flew past. Then one of the old men spoke to Wang Chih, saying: “It is now a long time since you came to join our company. I think you should return home.”
Wang Chih rose to his feet. When he grasped his chopper he was astonished to find that the handle crumbled [[179]]to dust. On reaching home, he discovered, like the man who fed on the huchu herb, that he had been missing for one or two centuries. The old men with whom he had mingled in the cave were the immortals, known to the Chinese as Sten Nung, to the Japanese as Sennin, and to the Indians as Rishis—a class of demi-gods who once lived on earth and achieved great merit, in the spiritual sense, by practising austerities in solitude and for long periods.
The reference to the date stone is of special interest. In Babylonia and Assyria the date palm was one of the holy trees. It was cultivated in southern Persia, and may have been introduced into China from that quarter. Another possibility is that the seeds were got from dates carried by Arab traders to China, or obtained from Arabs by Chinese traders. One of the Chinese names for the date resembles the Ancient Egyptian designation, bunnu. Laufer, who discusses this problem,[24] refers to early Chinese texts that make mention of Mo-lin, a distant country in which dark-complexioned natives subsist on dates. Mo-lin, earlier Mwa-lin, is, Laufer thinks, “intended for the Malindi of Edrīsī or Mulanda of Yãqūt, now Malindi, south of the Equator, in Seyidieh Province of British East Africa”. The lore connected with other Trees of Life in China appears to have been transferred to the imported date palm. One of its names is “jujube of a thousand years”, or “jujube of ten thousand years”. Laufer quotes a Chinese description of the date palm which emphasizes the fact that it “remains ever green”, and tells that “when the kernel ripens, the seeds are black. In their appearance they resemble dried jujubes. They are good to eat, and as sweet as candy.”[25]
Another Chinese Rip Van Winkle story relates that [[180]]two men who wandered among the mountains met two pretty girls. They were entertained by them, and fed on a concoction prepared from hemp. Seven generations went past while they enjoyed the company of the girls.
The hemp (old Persian and Sanskrit bangha) was cultivated at a remote period in China and Iran. A drug prepared from the seed is supposed to prolong life and to inspire those who partake of it to prophesy, after seeing visions and dreaming dreams. The “bang” habit is as bad as the opium habit.