"I will ask the august father if we may visit the cave of the dragon," he said.
"Japan must have been full of dragons once," said Umé. "Who killed them all?"
"They turned into the honorable dragon-flies, to drive away the mosquitoes," answered Tara.
"There have been no dragons seen alive in Japan since the holy Buddha walked on the mountain," said his father.
"Tell us about it, please," begged Umé.
"Long ago," began the father, "as Shaka Sama, our most holy Buddha, walked on the mountain-top at eventime, he looked into the depths below and saw there the great dragon who knew the meaning of all things. Shaka Sama asked him many questions and to them all he received wise answers.
"Finally he asked the sacred question which he most wished to understand; but the dragon replied that, before revealing this last great mystery, he must first be fed for his endless hunger.
"Shaka Sama promised to give himself to the dragon after he should have been told this great truth. Then the dragon uttered the sacred mystery and the god threw himself into the abyss as he had promised.
"But just as the fearful jaws were about to close over the holy man, the dragon was changed into a great eight-petaled lotus flower which held the Buddha up in its cup and bore him back to his place on the mountain."
"I thought there was a dragon in the cave at Enoshima to guard Benten Sama's temple," said Umé.