There is evidence in Far-Eastern folk-tales that at a very remote period the beliefs of the cult of the sky-goddess, which placed the tree of immortality in the “moon island”, and the beliefs of the peach cult of “the Westerners” were fused, as were those of the Osirian and solar cults in Egypt.
A curious story tells that once upon a time a man went to fish on the Yellow River. A storm arose, and his boat was driven into a tributary, the banks of which were fringed with innumerable peach trees in full blossom. He reached an island, on which he landed. There he was kindly treated by the inhabitants, who told that they had fled from China because of the oppression of the emperor. This surprised the fisherman greatly. He asked for particulars, and was given the name of an [[149]]emperor who had died about 500 years before he himself was born.
“What is the name of this island?” he asked. The inhabitants were unable to tell him. “We came hither,” they said, “just as you have come. We are strangers in a strange land.”
Next day the wanderer launched his boat and set out to return by the way he had come. He sailed on all day and all night, and when morning came he found himself amidst familiar landmarks. He was able to return home.
When the fisherman told the story to a priest, he was informed that he had reached the land of the Celestials, and that the river fringed by peach trees in blossom was the Milky Way.
In this story the Chinese Island of the Blest is, like the Nilotic “green bed of Horus”, a river island.
Another memory of the Celestial River and the Barque of the Sun is enshrined in the story of Lo Tze Fang, a holy woman of China who ascended to heaven by climbing a high tree—apparently the “world-tree”. After reaching the celestial regions she was carried along the Celestial River in a boat. According to the story, she still sails each day across the heavens.
Other saintly people have been carried to the celestial regions by dragons. According to Chinese belief the “Yellow Dragon” is connected with the moon. The reflection of the moon on rippling water is usually referred to as the “Golden Dragon”, or “Yellow Dragon”, the chief of Chinese dragons, and usually associated with the sun.
One of the classes of Chinese holy men of the Spirit-world, the Sien Nung, who bear a close resemblance to Indian Rishis, is connected with the moon cult. They are believed to prolong their lives by eating the leaves of the lunar plants. [[150]]
In an Egyptian legend it is told that Osiris was the son of the Mother Cow, who had conceived him when a fertilizing ray of light fell from the moon. In like manner a moon-girl came into being in Japan. She was discovered by a wood-cutter. One day, when collecting bamboo, he found inside a cane a little baby, whose body shone as does a gem in darkness. He took her home to his wife, and she grew up to be a very beautiful girl. She was called “Moon Ray”, and after living for a time on the earth returned to the moon. She had maintained her youthful appearance by drinking, from a small vessel she possessed, the fluid of immortality.