With the shell [we conquer] disease and poverty; with the shell, too, the Sadanvas. The shell is our universal remedy; the pearl shall protect us from straits!
Born in the heavens, born in the sea, brought on from the river [Sindhu], this shell, born of gold, is our life-prolonging amulet.
The amulet, born from the sea, a sun, born from Vritra [the cloud], shall on all sides protect us from the missiles of the gods and the Asuras!
Thou art one of the golden substances, thou art born from Soma [the moon]. Thou art sightly on the chariot, thou art brilliant on the quiver.
(May it prolong our lives!) The bone of the gods turned into pearl; that, animated, dwells in the waters. That do I fasten upon thee unto life, luster, strength, longevity, unto a life lasting a hundred autumns. May the amulet of pearl protect thee![[342]]
The mystical Taoists, in their pursuit of immortality, made much of pearls as an important ingredient in formulæ for perpetuating youth. According to an old Taoist authority, in preparing one of these elixirs, an extra long pearl which has been worn for many years is steeped in some infusion of malt, or a preparation of serpents’ gall, honeycomb, and pumice-stone. When the pearl becomes plastic, it is drawn out to the length of two or three feet, cut into suitable lengths, and formed into pills, the taking of which renders food thenceforth unnecessary.[[343]]
The myth of the dragon and the pearl has been a far-reaching theme of the artists in Japan and China, whether in color, metal, or stone. There has been much written as to how the myth became so fixed in the minds of the Orientals, and Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, who has made an exhaustive study of the myth of the dragon in all its phases, has very courteously communicated to us the following facts. Personally he had never been able to learn of a true or clear description of the origin of the myth other than the well-recorded legend given by Legge in the “Sacred Books of the East” (Vol. XL, p. 211), in which there is a quotation from Shuangtze, a writer of the fourth century before Christ, who says: “Near the Ho river there was a poor man, who supported his family by weaving rushes. His son, when diving in a deep pool, found a pearl worth a thousand ounces of silver. The father said: ‘Bring a stone and beat it in pieces. A pearl of this value must have been in a pool nine khung deep and under the chin of the black dragon. That you were able to get it must have been owing to your having found him asleep. Let him awake, and the consequences will not be small.’” Prince Rupprecht says:
This legend has nothing to do with the illustration to which you refer; it belongs to a cycle of myths concerning a stone in the head of a serpent, or the crown of the king of the serpents or dragons; myths which also exist in Germany since the days of old. I should rather be inclined to think that the commonly accepted pearl between the two dragons is not a pearl at all. At least this pearl is always surrounded by ornaments in the shape of flames or claws, and Professor Hirth discovered on such a representation in woodcut, an explanation of the flames by the sign for Yangsui, a very ancient kind of metallic mirrors, of concave form, that were used to produce the heavenly fire.
JAPANESE LEGEND OF THE DRAGON AND THE PEARL, IDEALIZED IN JADE
Heber R. Bishop Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art