The old woman was fast asleep, and as she had grown very deaf it was difficult to awaken her. When at length she was thoroughly roused, and sat up with head and hands trembling with palsy,[21] Yin repeated to her in a loud voice all that Wu had told him.
Said the woman: “The horse, spotted with five colours, and with scaly armour instead of hair, is a dragon-horse. When spirits appear before human beings they wear magic garments. That is why the clothing of your visitors had no seams. Spirits tread on air. As these spirits went westward, they rose higher and higher in the air, going towards the rain-clouds. The youth was the Yellow Dragon. He is to raise a storm, and as he had four followers, the storm will be a great one. May no evil befall us.”
Then Yin told the old woman that one of the strangers had turned the umbrella upside down before passing through the garden gate. “That is a good omen,” she said. Then she lay down and closed her eyes. “I have need of sleep,” she murmured; “I am very old.”[22] [[91]]
Heavy masses of clouds were by this time gathering in the sky, and Yin decided to sit up all night. Wu asked to be permitted to do the same, and his father consented. Then the boy lit a yellow lantern, put on a yellow robe that his grandmother had made for him, burned incense, and sat down reading charms from an old yellow book.[23]
The storm burst forth in fury just when dawn was breaking dimly. Wu then closed his yellow book and went to a window. The thunder bellowed, the lightning flamed, and the rain fell in torrents, and swollen streams poured down from the mountains. Soon the river rose in flood and swept across the fields. Cattle gathered in groups on shrinking mounds that had become islands surrounded by raging water.
Yin feared greatly that the house would be swept away, and wished he had fled to the mountains.
At night the cottage was entirely surrounded by the flood. Trees were cast down and swept away. “We cannot escape now,” groaned Yin.
Wu sat in silence, displaying no signs of emotion. “What do you think of it all?” his father asked.
Wu reminded him that one of the strangers had turned the umbrella upside down, and added: “Before the dragon youth went away he spoke and said: ‘I shall come again to-morrow’.”
“He has come indeed,” Yin groaned, and covered his face with his hands.