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MYTHS OF CHINA AND JAPAN

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MYTH AND LEGEND IN LITERATURE AND ART

CLASSIC MYTH AND LEGEND By A. R. Hope Moncrieff

CELTIC MYTH AND LEGEND POETRY AND ROMANCE By Charles Squire

TEUTONIC MYTH AND LEGEND By Donald A. Mackenzie

ROMANCE AND LEGEND OF CHIVALRY By A. R. Hope Moncrieff

EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND By Donald A. Mackenzie

[INDIAN MYTH AND LEGEND] By Donald A. Mackenzie

[MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA] By Donald A. Mackenzie

MYTHS OF CRETE AND PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE By Donald A. Mackenzie

THE GRESHAM PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD.

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THE GOD OF THUNDER

From a Chinese picture in the John Rylands Library, Manchester

MYTHS OF
CHINA AND JAPAN

By
DONALD A. MACKENZIE
With Illustrations in Colour & Monochrome after Paintings and Photographs

THE GRESHAM PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD.
66 CHANDOS ST. COVENT GARDEN LONDON

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Printed in Great Britain [[v]]

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PREFACE

This volume deals with the myths of China and Japan, and it is shown that these throw light on the origin and growth of civilization and the widespread dissemination of complex ideas associated with certain modes of life. The Far East does not appear to have remained immune to outside cultural influences in ancient times. Modern research has established that the old school of opinions which insisted on the complete isolation of China can no longer obtain. As Laufer says: “It cannot be strongly enough emphasized on every occasion that Chinese civilization, as it appears now, is not a unit and not the exclusive production of the Chinese, but the final result of the cultural efforts of a vast conglomeration of the most varied tribes, an amalgamation of ideas accumulated from manifold quarters and widely differentiated in space and time.… No graver error can hence be committed than to attribute any culture idea at the outset to the Chinese, for no other reason than because it appears within the precincts of their empire.”

Even the Chinese records have to be regarded with caution. It is impossible nowadays to accept as serious contributions to history the inflated chronology and the obvious fables compiled and invented by Chinese scholars [[vi]]for political and other purposes during the Han and later dynasties. These scholars had really little knowledge of the early history of their country and people. They were puzzled even by certain existing customs and religious practices, and provided ingenious “secondary explanations” which, like their accounts of the early dynasties, do not accord with the data accumulated by archæologists and other workers in the scientific field. The complex religious ideas of the Chinese were obviously not of spontaneous generation. Many of these resemble too closely the complexes found elsewhere, and their history cannot be traced within the limits of the Chinese empire. Indeed, as is shown, some of them are undoubtedly products of human experiences obtained elsewhere, and they reveal traces of the influences to which they were subjected during the process of gradual transmission from areas of origin. Nor, would it appear, was Chinese civilization nearly as ancient as the native scholars would have us believe.

When the early Chinese entered China, they found non-Chinese peoples in different parts of that vast area which they ultimately welded into an empire. They were an inland people and did not invent boats; they did not originate the agricultural mode of life but adopted it, using the seeds and implements they had acquired; nor did they invent the potter’s wheel with which they were familiar from the earliest times in China, having evidently become possessed of it, along with the complex culture associated with it, before they migrated into the province of Shensi. Nor could an agrarian people like the Chinese have been the originators of the belief in the existence of [[vii]]“Isles of the Blest” in the Eastern Ocean; they were not alone in Asia in believing in a Western Paradise situated among the mountains.

The Chinese, as Laufer demonstrates in his Jade, did not pass through in China that culture stage called the “Neolithic”. When they first settled in Shensi, they searched for and found jade, as did the carriers of bronze who first entered Europe. There was obviously an acquired psychological motive for the search for jade, and the evidence of Chinese jade symbolism demonstrates to the full that it had been acquired from those who had transferred to jade the earlier symbolism of shells, pearls, and precious metals. In the chapter devoted to jade it is shown that this view is confirmed by the evidence afforded by Chinese customs connected with jade, shells, pearls, &c.

In no country in the world are the processes of culture drifting and culture mixing made more manifest than in China. The Chinese dragon is, as Professor Elliot Smith puts it, a “composite wonder beast”. Throughout this volume it is shown to yield, when dissected, remarkable evidence regarding the varied influences under which it acquired its highly complex character. The fact that a Chinese dragon charm closely resembles a Scottish serpent charm is of special interest in this connection. When, however, it is found that China obtained certain myths and practices from the area called by its writers “Fu-lin” (the Byzantine Empire), and that not only Byzantine but Ægean influences are traceable in the Celtic field, the charm-link between Gaelic Scotland and China may not, after all, be regarded as “far-fetched”. The same may be said [[viii]]regarding the curious similarity between the myths and practices connected with shells, and especially cockle-shells, in Japan and the Scottish Hebrides. Although the West Highlanders and the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun were never brought into contact, it may be that similar cultural influences drifted east and west from their area of origin, and that the carriers were the ancient mariners who introduced the same type of vessel into far-separated oceans.

As in China, we do not in Japan find a culture of purely native origin, but rather one which has grown up from a mass of imported elements as varied as the racial types that compose the present-day population. Both in China and Japan these imported elements have been subjected to the influences of time and locality and infused with national ideas and ideals. The processes of growth and change have not, however, concealed the sources from which certain of the early ideas emanated in varying degrees of development.

The early native history of Japan is, like that of China, no more worthy of acceptance than are the long-discarded English and Scottish fables regarding Brute and Scota.

The data accumulated in this volume tend to show, although we have no direct evidence of systematic missionary enterprise earlier than that of the Buddhists, that the influential religious cults of ancient times that flourished in Mesopotamia and in the Egyptian Empire (which included part of Western Asia) appear to have left their impress on the intellectual life of even far-distant peoples. Apparently modes of thought were transmitted along [[ix]]direct and indirect avenues of intercourse by groups of traders. Even before trade routes were opened, religious beliefs and practices appear to have been introduced into distant lands by prospectors and by settlers who founded colonies from which later colonies “budded”. When the same set of complexes are found in widely separated areas, it is difficult to accept the view that they originated from the same particular experiences and the same set of circumstances, especially when it is made manifest that the complexes in the older centre of culture reflect strictly local physical conditions, and even the local political conditions that resulted in a fusion of peoples and of their myths, symbols, and religious beliefs and practices.

DONALD A. MACKENZIE. [[xi]]

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CONTENTS

[[xiii]]

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LIST OF PLATES

Facing Page

[THE GOD OF THUNDER] (in colour) Frontispiece

From a Chinese picture in the John Rylands Library, Manchester

[POTTER’S WHEEL, SIMLA, INDIA] 16

From a sketch by J. Lockwood Kipling in the Victoria and Albert Museum

[A MODERN CHINESE JUNK ON THE CANTON RIVER] 24

[CHINESE DRAGON-BOAT FESTIVAL] 40

From a picture woven in coloured silks and gold thread in the Victoria and Albert Museum

[CHINESE DRAGONS AMONG THE CLOUDS] 48

From a painting in the British Museum

[CHINESE DRAGON VASE WITH CARVED WOOD STAND] 56

(Victoria and Albert Museum)

[CARP LEAPING FROM WAVES] 81

From a Japanese painting in the British Museum

[CHINESE PORCELAIN VASE DECORATED WITH FIVE-CLAWED DRAGONS RISING FROM WAVES] 88

(Victoria and Albert Museum) [[xiv]]

[RESONANT STONE OF JADE SHOWING DRAGON WITH CLOUD ORNAMENTS, SUSPENDED FROM CARVED BLACKWOOD FRAME] 96

By courtesy of B. Laufer, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago

[TORTOISE AND SNAKE] 104

From a rubbing in the British Museum of a Chinese original

[GATHERING FRUITS OF LONGEVITY] 112

From a Chinese painting in the British Museum

[SHOU SHAN (i.e. “HILLS OF LONGEVITY”), THE TAOIST PARADISE] 124

From a woven silk picture in the Victoria and Albert Museum

[THE CHINESE SI WANG MU (JAPANESE SEIOBO) AND MAO NU] 136

From a Japanese painting (by Hidenobu) in the British Museum

[MOUNTAIN VIEW WITH SCHOLAR’S RETREAT] 140

From a Chinese painting in the British Museum

[GENII AT THE COURT OF SI WANG MU] 152

From a Chinese painting in the British Museum

[SQUARE BRICK OF THE HAN DYNASTY, WITH MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES AND INSCRIPTIONS] 160

[CHINESE BOWL WITH SYMBOL OF LONGEVITY] 168

(Victoria and Albert Museum)

[GOATS CROPPING PLANT OF LIFE] 172

From the jade sculpture in the Scottish National Museum, Edinburgh [[xv]]

[THE GODDESS OF THE DEW] 184

From a Chinese painting in the British Museum

[AN OFFERING TO THE GODS, PEKING] 200

From a photograph by H. G. Ponting, F.R.G.S.

[ANCIENT BRONZE ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS ON THE CITY WALL, PEKING] 208

[MORTUARY FISH IN JADE, OF HAN PERIOD] 212

[FIGURE OF BUTTERFLY IN WHITE AND BROWNISH-YELLOW JADE, TSʼIN OR HAN PERIOD] 212

[AMULETS FOR THE DEAD, AND OTHER OBJECTS IN JADE] 220

The subjects on pages 212 and 220 are reproduced by courtesy of B. Laufer, author of “Jade”, Field Museum, Chicago

[THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, PEKING] 228

From a photograph by H. G. Ponting, F.R.G.S.

[THREE SAGES STUDYING SYMBOL OF YIN AND YANG] 230

From a Chinese painting in the British Museum

[KWAN-YIN, THE CHINESE “GODDESS OF MERCY”] 271

From a porcelain figure decorated in soft enamels in the Victoria and Albert Museum

[LAO TZE AND DISCIPLES] 300

From a Chinese painting in the British Museum

[THE MOST FAMOUS PAI-LO (GODDESS SYMBOL) IN CHINA: AT THE MENG TOMBS, NEAR PEKING] 328

From a photograph by H. G. Ponting, F.R.G.S. [[xvi]]

[THE FAMOUS OLD TORI-WI (GODDESS SYMBOL), MIYAJIMA, JAPAN] 338

From a photograph by H. G. Ponting, F.R.G.S.

[THE JAPANESE TREASURE SHIP] 352

From a woodcut in the British Museum

[SUSA-NO-WO MAKING A COMPACT WITH DISEASE SPIRITS] 360

From a Japanese painting (by Hoga) in the British Museum

[AMATERÂSU, THE SUN GODDESS, EMERGING FROM HER CAVE] 368

From a Japanese painting in the British Museum

[SEIOBO (= THE CHINESE SI WANG MU) WITH ATTENDANT AND THREE RISHI] 380

From a Japanese painting (by Sanraku) in the British Museum [[1]]

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MYTHS OF
CHINA AND JAPAN

CHAPTER I

The Dawn of Civilization

Chinese Culture—Had it Independent Origin?—Evolution in Human Affairs—Stratification Theory—The Mystery of Mind—Man’s First Philosophy of Life—Influences exercised by Ancient Civilizations—Culture Mixing—The Idea of Progress—Art in the Pleistocene Age—Introduction of Agriculture—Birth of Osirian Civilization—The “Water of Greenness” as “Water of Life”—How Commerce Began—Introduction of Copper-working—The Oldest Calendar in the World—The “Kings of Mankind”—Ancient Man and Modern Man.

The destinies of a people are shaped by their modes of thought, and their real history is therefore the history of their culture. The Chinese frame of mind has made the Chinese the people they are and China the country it is. Every section of society has been swayed by this far-reaching and enduring influence, the sources of which lie in remote antiquity. It is the force that has even been shaping public opinion and directing political movements. Emperors and leaders of thought have been uplifted by it or cast down by it.

To understand China, it is necessary that we should inquire into its inner history—the history of its culture—[[2]]so as to get at the Chinese point of view and look at things through Chinese eyes. That inner history is in part a record of its early experiences among the nations of the earth. There was a time when China was “in the making”, when the little leaven that leavened the whole lump began to move, when that culture which spread over a vast area was confined to a small centre and to a comparatively small group of people. Who were this people, where were they situated, what influences were at work to stir them and shape their ambitions, and what secret did they learn which gave them power over the minds and bodies of about a third of the inhabitants of the globe? In short, how and where did Chinese culture originate, and how did it spread and become firmly established? Was it a thing of purely local growth? Did it begin to be quite independently of all other cultures? Does it owe its virility and distinctiveness among the cultures of ancient and modern times to the influence of the locality in which it had “independent origin”? Had it an independent origin?

These queries open up the larger problem as to the origin of civilization in the world. At this point, therefore, we must decide whether or not we are to accept the idea of evolution in human affairs. Can the principles of biological evolution be applied to the problems of ethnology (using the term in its widest sense to include the physical and cultural history of mankind)? Can we accept the theory that in isolated quarters of the globe separated communities were stirred by natural laws to make progress in adapting themselves to their environments, and that, once a beginning was made, separated communities developed on similar lines? Did each ancient civilization have its natural periods of growth and decay? Were separated communities uninfluenced during these [[3]]periods by human minds and wills? Were their destinies shaped by natural laws, or by the cumulative force of public opinion? Was it a natural law that made men abandon the hunting and adopt the agricultural mode of life? Did certain communities of men, influenced by natural laws in ancient times, begin to shape their religious systems by first worshipping groups of spirits and ultimately, having passed through a sequence of well-defined stages, find themselves elevated by these natural laws to the stage of monotheism? Is it because certain races have, for some mysterious reason, been prompted to pass through these stages more quickly than others, that they are deserving of the term “progressive” while others must be characterized as “backward”?

If these questions are answered in the affirmative, we must assume that we have solved the riddle of Mind. Those who apply the principles of biological evolution to human affairs are in the habit of referring to laws that control the workings of the human mind. But what do we really know about the workings of the human mind? This question has only to be asked so that the hazardous character of the fashion of thinking adopted by extreme exponents of the Evolution School may be emphasized. It cannot but be admitted that we know little or nothing regarding the human mind. What happens when we think? How are memories stored in the brain? How are emotions caused? What is Consciousness? How does the Will operate? Grave psychological problems have to be solved before we can undertake the responsibility of discussing with any degree of confidence the laws that are supposed to govern human thought and action.

The researches into the early history of man, of about a generation ago, were believed by some to “have revealed the essential similarity with which, under many superficial [[4]]differences, the human mind has elaborated its first crude philosophy of life”. It was found that similar beliefs and practices obtained among widely separated communities, and it was not suspected that the influence exercised by direct and indirect cultural contact between “progressive” and “backward” communities extended to such great distances as has since been found to be the case. Prospecting routes by land and sea were the avenues along which cultural influences “drifted”. Early man was much more enterprising as a trader and explorer than was believed in Tylor’s day. The evidence accumulated of late years tends to show that almost no part of the globe remained immune to the influences exercised by the great ancient civilizations, and that these civilizations were never in a state of “splendid isolation” at any period in their histories. In the light of this knowledge it is becoming more and more clear that Victorian ethnologists were inclined to make too much of resemblances, and failed to take into account the differences that a more intensive study of local cultures have revealed. There were, of course, resemblances, which suggest the influence of cultural contact and the settlement among backward peoples of colonists from progressive communities, but there were also differences of beliefs and customs which were of local origin and can hardly be characterized as “superficial”. One of the results of contact was the process of “culture mixing”. Customs and fashions of thinking were introduced into a country and blended with local customs and local modes of thought. In early China, as will be shown, there was “culture mixing”. The Chinese frame of mind is the result of compromises effected in remote times.

How, then, did the idea of progress originate? Is there in the human mind an instinct which stirs mankind [[5]]to achieve progress? If so, how does it come about that some peoples have failed to move until brought into contact with progressive races? Why did the Melanesians, for instance, remain in the Stone Age until reached by the missionary and the sandal-wood trader? The missionaries and the traders caused them to advance in a brief period from the Stone Age to the Age of Steel and Machinery. Can it be maintained that in ancient days no sudden changes took place? Did the people, for instance, who introduced bronze-working into a country introduce nothing else? Did they leave behind their beliefs, their myths, their customs, and their stories?

When it is asked how progress originated, we can only turn to such evidence as is available regarding the early history of “Modern Man”. At a remote period, dating back in Europe to the Pleistocene Age, men lived in organized communities and pursued the hunting mode of life. Their culture is revealed by their pictorial art in the prehistoric cave-dwellings of France and Spain, and their decorative art by their finely engraved implements and weapons.[1] This art reached a high state of perfection. In some aspects it compares favourably with modern art.[2] Evidently it had a long history, and was practised by those who were endowed with the artistic faculty and had received a training. These early men, who belonged to the Cro-Magnon races, were traders as well as hunters. In some of their “inland stations” have been found shells that had been imported from the Mediterranean coast.

The hunting mode of life prevailed also among the proto-Egyptians in the Nile valley, an area which was less capable in remote times of maintaining a large population [[6]]than were the wide and fertile plains of Europe. Egypt was thinly peopled until the agricultural mode of life was introduced. Someone discovered how to make use of the barley that grew wild in the Nile valley and western Asia. In time the seeds were cultivated, and some little community thus provided itself with an abundant food-supply. Men’s minds were afterwards engaged in solving the problem how to extend the area available for cultivation in the narrow Nile valley. Nature was at hand to make suggestions to them. Each year the River Nile came down in flood and fertilized the parched and sun-burnt wastes. The waters caused the desert to “blossom like the rose”. Intelligent observers perceived that if the process of water-fertilization were maintained, as in the Delta region, they could extend their little farms and form new ones. The art of irrigation was discovered and gradually adopted, with the result that the narrow river valley, which had been thinly peopled during the Hunting Period, became capable of maintaining a large population.

In what particular area the agricultural mode of life was first introduced, it is impossible to say. Some favour southern Palestine and some southern Mesopotamia. Those who favour Egypt[3] can refer to interesting and important evidence in support of their view. It is the only ancient country, for instance, in which there are traditions regarding the man[4] who introduced the agricultural mode of life. This was Osiris, a priest-king[5] who was deified, or a god to whom was credited the discovery, made by a [[7]]man or group of men, of how to grow corn. Plutarch’s version of the Egyptian legend states: “Osiris, being now become King of Egypt, applied himself towards civilizing his countrymen, by turning them from their former indigent and barbarous course of life; he moreover taught them how to cultivate and improve the fruits of the earth”. Evidence has been forthcoming that the pre-Dynastic Egyptians were agriculturists. The bodies of many of them have been found preserved in their graves in the hot dry sands of Upper Egypt. “From the stomachs and intestines of these prehistoric people”, writes Professor G. Elliot Smith, “I was able to recover large quantities of food materials, in fact, the last meals eaten before death.” Careful examination was made of the contents of the stomachs. “Almost every sample contained husks of barley, and in about 10 per cent of the specimens husks of millet could be identified with certainty.” The millet found in these bodies is nearly related to the variety “which is now cultivated in the East Indies”.[6]

Here we have proof that the agricultural mode of life obtained in the Nile valley over sixty centuries ago, and that the seeds of the cultivated variety of millet, which grows wild in North Africa and southern Asia, were carried to far-distant areas by ancient traders and colonists. These facts have, as will be found, an important bearing on the early history of Chinese civilization.

Our immediate concern, however, is with the history of early civilization. In the Nile valley man made progress when he was able to provide something which he required, by the intelligent utilization of means at his disposal. No natural law prompted him to cultivate corn and irrigate the sun-parched soil. He did not [[8]]become an agriculturist by instinct. He conducted observations, exercised his reasoning faculty, made experiments, and a great discovery was forthcoming. The man whose memory is enshrined in that of Osiris was one of the great benefactors of the human race. When he solved the problem of how to provide an abundant supply of food, he made it possible for a large population to live in a small area. It is told of Osiris that “he gave them (the Egyptians) a body of laws to regulate their conduct by”. No doubt the early hunters observed laws which regulated conduct in the cave-home as well as on the hunting-field. The fact that a great pictorial art was cultivated by Aurignacian man in western Europe, about 20,000 years ago, indicates that the social organization had been sufficiently well developed to permit of certain individuals of a class—possibly the priestly class—devoting themselves to the study of art, while others attended to the food-supply. Aurignacian art could never have reached the degree of excellence it did had there not been a school of art—apparently religious art—and a system of laws that promoted its welfare.

When, in Egypt, the agricultural mode of life was introduced, and an abundant supply of food was assured, new laws became a necessity, so that the growing communities might be kept under control. These laws were given a religious significance. Osiris “instructed them (the Egyptians) in that reverence and worship which they were to pay to the gods”. Society was united by the bonds of a religious organization, and, as is found, Nilotic religion had a close association with the agricultural mode of life. It reflected the experiences of the early farmers; it reflected, too, the natural phenomena of the Nile valley. Water—the Nile water—was the fertilizing agency. It was the “water of life”. The god Osiris was closely [[9]]associated with the Nile; he was the “fresh” or the “new” water that flowed in due season after the trying period of “the low Nile”, during which the land was parched by the burning sun and every green thing was coated by the sand-storms. “Ho, Osiris! the inundation comes,” cried the priest when the Nile began to rise. “Horus comes; he recognizes his father in thee, youthful in thy name of Fresh Water.”[7] The literal rendering is: “Horus comes; he beholds his father in thee, greenness in thy name of Water of Greenness”. The reference is to the “new water” which flows quite green for the first few days of the annual inundation. The “new water” entered the soil and vegetation sprang up. Osiris was the principle of life; he was also the ghost-god who controlled the river. As the Nile, Osiris was regarded as the source of all life—the creator and sustainer and ruler in one.

When the discovery of how to grow corn was passed from people to people and from land to land, not only the seeds and agricultural implements were passed along, but the ceremonies and religious beliefs connected with the agricultural mode of life in the area of origin. The ceremonies were regarded as of as much importance as the implements.

It need not surprise us, therefore, to find, as we do find, not only North African millet in the East Indies, but North African religious beliefs connected with agriculture in widely separated countries. Osirian religious ideas and myths were, it would appear, distributed over wide areas and among various races. There is therefore a germ of historical truth in the account given by Plutarch of the missionary efforts of Osiris. “With the same disposition”, we read, “he (Osiris) afterwards [[10]]travelled over the rest of the world, inducing the people everywhere to submit to his discipline.… The Greeks conclude him to have been the same person with their Dionysos or Bacchus.”[8]

In the process of time the Egyptians found that they were able to produce a larger food-supply than they required for their own needs. They were consequently able to devote their surplus to stimulating trade, so as to obtain from other countries things which were not to be had in Egypt. They were thus brought into touch with other communities, and these communities, such as the wood-cutters of Lebanon, were influenced by Egyptian civilization and stimulated to adopt new modes of life. Their food-supply was assured by the Egyptian demand for timber. They received corn from the Nile valley in payment for their labour. There are references in the Egyptian texts to the exports of wheat to North Syria and Asia Minor.

When the great discovery was made of how to work copper, the early agriculturists achieved rapid progress. Boats were built more easily and in larger numbers, new weapons were produced, and the Upper Egyptians conquered the Lower Egyptians, with the result that Egypt was united under a single king. With this union, which was followed by a period of remarkable activity, begins the history of Ancient Egypt.

The man, remembered as Osiris, who first sowed his little corn patch, sowed also the seeds from which grew a mighty empire and a great civilization. His discovery spread from people to people, and from land to land, and a new era was inaugurated in the history of the world. Progress was made possible when mankind were led from the wide hunting-fields to the little fields of the Stone [[11]]Age[9] farmer, and shown how they could live pleasant and well-ordered lives in large communities.

The early Egyptian farmers found it necessary to measure time and take account of the seasons. A Calendar was introduced and adopted during the prehistoric (Palæolithic) period,[10] and was used by the Egyptians for thousands of years. Julius Cæsar adapted this Calendar for use in Rome. It was subsequently adjusted by Pope Gregory and others, and is now in use all over the civilized world. Each time we hang up a new calendar, therefore, we are reminded of the man who stimulated progress over vast areas by sowing corn, so as to provide food for his family in a distant land at a far-distant period of time.

When we consider the problem of the origin of progress, let us not forget him and others like him—those early thinkers and discoverers to whom all humanity owe a debt of gratitude. The few invent, the many adopt; the few think and lead, and the many follow.

“No abstract doctrine”, writes Sir James F. Frazer in this connection, “is more false and mischievous than that of the natural equality of men.… The experience of common life sufficiently contradicts such a vain imagination.… The men of keenest intelligence and strongest characters lead the rest and shape the moulds into which, outwardly at least, society is cast.… The true rulers of men are the thinkers who advance knowledge.… It is knowledge which, in the long run, directs and controls the forces of society. Thus the discoverers of new truths are the real though uncrowned and unsceptred kings of mankind.”[11] [[12]]

Progress has its origin in Mind. It has been manifested in the past in those districts in which the mind of man was applied to overcome natural obstacles and to develop natural resources. The histories of the great ancient civilizations do not support the idea of an evolutionary process which had its origin in human instinct. “There has”, Professor G. Elliot Smith writes, “been no general or widespread tendency on the part of human societies to strive after what by Europeans is regarded as intellectual or material progress. Progressive societies are rare because it requires a very complex series of factors to compel men to embark upon the hazardous process of striving after such artificial advancement.”

Professor Elliot Smith will have none of what Dr. W. H. R. Rivers refers to as “crude evolutionary ideas”. “The history of man”, he writes, “will be truly interpreted, not by means of hazardous and mistaken analogies with biological evolution, but by the application of the true historical method. The causes of the modern actions of mankind are deeply rooted in the past. But the spirit of man has ever been the same: and the course of ancient history can only be properly appreciated when it is realized that the same human motives whose nature can be studied in our fellow-men to-day actuated the men of old also.”[12]

In the chapters that immediately follow it will be shown that separated communities were brought into close touch by traders. The term “trading”, however, refers, especially in early times, chiefly to prospecting and the exploiting of locally unappreciated forms of wealth. It was not until after civilization had spread far and wide that permanent trade routes were established. Some overland routes became less important when sea routes were ultimately opened. [[13]]

[1] Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe, pp. 26 et seq. [↑]

[2] Ibid. See illustrations opposite p. 20. [↑]

[3] Professor Cherry The Origin of Agriculture (Mem. and Proc. Manchester Lit. and Phil. Soc., 1920). [↑]

[4] In Babylonian legends civilization is introduced by the “goat-fish” god Ea, who came from the Persian Gulf. [↑]

[5] Those who give Osiris a Libyan origin believe his name signifies “The Old One”, or “The Old Man”. [↑]

[6] The Ancient Egyptians, pp. 41–42. [↑]

[7] Breasted’s Religion and Thought in Egypt, p. 18. [↑]

[8] S. Squire, Plutarch’s Treatise of Isis and Osiris (Cambridge, 1744). [↑]

[9] In Egypt this was the Solutrean stage of the so-called “Palæolithic Age”. [↑]

[10] There was no “Neolithic Age” in Egypt. [↑]

[11] The Scope of Social Anthropology (London, 1908), pp. 12–13. [↑]

[12] Primitive Man (Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. VII), p. 50. [↑]

[[Contents]]

CHAPTER II

A Far-travelled Invention

The Potter’s Wheel—An Egyptian Invention—The Wheel in Theology—Clay Pots and Stone Vessels—Skilled Artisans produce Poor Pottery—The Yakut Evidence—Female Potters—Pot Symbol of Mother-goddess—Potter’s Wheel worked by Men—Egyptian “Wheel” adopted in Crete, Babylonia, Iran, India, and China—No “Wheel” in America—Secular and Religious Pottery in China, Japan, India, and Rome—Coarse Grave-Pottery—Potter’s Wheel as Symbol of Creator—Chinese Emperors as Potters—Culture Heroes—Association of Agriculture with Pottery—Egyptian Ideas in Far East.

What bearing, it may be asked, have the discoveries made in Egypt on the early history of China? Is there evidence to show that these widely-separated countries were brought into contact in remote times? Did the primitive Chinese receive and adopt Egyptian inventions, and if so, how were such inventions conveyed across the wide and difficult country lying between the Mediterranean coast and the Yellow Sea? Is there any proof that trade routes extended in ancient times right across Asia? Did prospecting and trading ancient mariners cross the Indian Ocean and coast round to Chinese waters?

Interesting evidence regarding cultural contact is afforded by the potter’s wheel. This wonderful machine was invented in Egypt some time before the Fourth Dynasty (about 3000 B.C.), and in its area of origin it exercised an influence not only on ceramic craftsmanship but on religious ideas. It was regarded as a gift of the gods, as in ancient Scotland bronze weapons, implements, [[14]]musical instruments, &c., were regarded as gifts from the fairies. Apparently the invention was first introduced in Memphis, the ancient capital, the chief god of which was Ptah, the supreme deity “of all handicraftsmen and of all workers in metal and stone”. Ptah was already regarded as the creator of the primeval egg from which the universe was hatched, and of the “sun egg” and the “moon egg”. He was evidently a deity whose life-history goes back to primitive times when the mother-goddess was symbolized as the goose that laid the primeval egg. The problem of whether the egg or the bird came first was solved by the priests of the Ptah cult of Memphis, who regarded their deity as the creator of the “egg”. After the potter’s wheel came into use, they depicted Ptah turning the “egg” upon it. The manufacture of wheel-made pottery thus came to have religious associations. It was closely connected with the culture of Egypt which had its basis in the agricultural mode of life. The arts and crafts were all stimulated by religious ideas; they were cultivated by the priestly class in temple workshops, and were essentially an expression of Egyptian beliefs and conceptions.

Before the potter’s wheel came into use, the potter’s art had degenerated. Vases, bowls, jars, platters, and other vessels were made of such costly stones as diorite, alabaster, and porphyry; these were drilled out with copper implements. Copper vessels were also made. The discovery of how to work copper had caused the craftsmen to neglect the potter’s art, and to work with enthusiasm in the hardest stone until they achieved a high degree of skill. The coarse pottery of the pre-wheel period is therefore no indication that the civilization had reached a stage of decadence. This fact should be a warning to those archæologists who are prone to conclude that if the pottery taken from a stratum in some particular [[15]]area is “coarse”, the people who produced it at the period it represents were necessarily in a backward condition. The evidence afforded by Yakut products is of special interest in this connection. The Yakuts are usually referred to as “the most intelligent and progressive people in Siberia”. They are, however, poor potters. They never glaze their vessels or use the potter’s wheel. At the great Russian market of Yakutsk they refuse to purchase wheel-made crockery, and purchase instead the raw clay with which to make their own hand-made vessels, which are almost as coarse as those of the Stone Age. But although the technique displayed in their pottery is crude, they are famous for their excellent wood-carving and iron forged-work.[1] A people cannot, therefore, be judged by their pottery alone. It may be that those ancient peoples who are found to have been poor potters were skilled and progressive in other spheres of activity. The Hebrews were poor artisans and never invented anything, but they have given the world a great religious literature.

After the potter’s wheel was introduced in Memphis, a new era in the history of pottery was inaugurated. The enclosed baking-furnace came into use at the same time, and the potter’s art and technique speedily attained a wonderfully high degree of excellence. But the old crude, hand-made pottery was still being produced. It was consistently produced until Egypt ceased to be a great and independent kingdom. Indeed, it is being manufactured even in our own day.

The reason why good and bad pottery are produced in a single country—and Egypt is no exception to this rule—is that the manufacture of hand-made vessels was in ancient times essentially a woman’s avocation. The [[16]]potter’s wheel was invented by man, and credited to a god, and has from the beginning been worked by men only. There was apparently a religious significance in the connection of the sexes with the different processes. The clay pot was, in ancient Egypt, a symbol of the mother-goddess.[2] Pots used in connection with the worship of the Great Mother were apparently produced by her priestesses. As women played their part in agricultural ceremonies, so did they play their part—evidently a prominent one—in producing the goddess’s pot symbols. The coarse jars in which were stored wines and oils and food-stuffs were gifts of the Great Mother, the giver of all; she was the inexhaustible sacred Pot—the womb of Nature. Domestic pottery used by women was, very properly, the ancient folks appear to have argued, produced by women.

POTTER’S WHEEL, SIMLA, INDIA

From a sketch by J. Lockwood Kipling in the Victoria and Albert Museum

“It will be noted”, writes O. T. Mason in this connection, “that the feminine gender is used throughout in speaking of aboriginal potters. This is because every piece of such ware is the work of woman’s hands. She quarried the clay, and, like the patient beast of burden, bore it home on her back. She washed it and kneaded it and rolled it into fillets. These she wound carefully and symmetrically until the vessel was built up. She further decorated and burned it, and wore it out in household drudgery. The art at first was woman’s.”[3]

In many countries the connection of women with hand-made and of men with wheel-made pottery obtains even in our day. The following statement by two American scholars, who have produced a short but authoritative paper on the potter’s art, is the result of a close investigation [[17]]of evidence collected over a wide area, and carefully digested and summarized:[4]

“The potter’s wheel is the creation of man, and therefore is an independent act of invention which was not evolved from any contrivance utilized during the period of hand-made ceramic ware. The two processes have grown out of two radically distinct spheres of human activity. The wheel, so speak, came from another world. It had no point of contact with any tool that existed in the old industry, but was brought in from an outside quarter as a novel affair when man appropriated to himself the work hitherto cultivated by woman. The development was one from outside, not from within. All efforts, accordingly, which view the subject solely from the technological angle, and try to derive the wheel from previous devices of the female potter, are futile and misleading. It is as erroneous as tracing the plough back to the hoe or digging-stick, whereas, in fact, the two are in no historical interrelation and belong to fundamentally different culture strata and periods—the hoe to the gardening activity of woman, the plough to the agricultural activity of man. Both in India and China the division of ceramic labour sets apart the thrower or wheel-potter, and distinctly separates him from the moulder. The potters in India, who work on the wheel, do not intermarry with those who use a mould or make images. They form a caste by themselves.”[5]

The oldest wheel-made pottery is found in Egypt. There can be no doubt that the potter’s wheel was invented in that country. It was imported into Crete, [[18]]which had trading relations with the merchants of the ancient Pharaohs, as far back as about 3000 B.C. Before the wheel was adopted the Cretans made stone vessels, following Egyptian patterns, but using soft stone instead of hard. Their hand-made pottery degenerated, as did the Egyptian. “Pottery came again to its own in both countries”, writes Mr. H. R. Hall, “with the invention of the potter’s wheel and the baking-furnace.”[6]

The potter’s wheel must have found a ready market in the old days. It was adopted, in time, in western Europe; it was quickly “taken up” in Babylonia and in Iran, and was ultimately introduced into India and China. But only the high Asiatic civilizations were capable of constructing it, and consequently wheel-made pottery is not found everywhere. Among the “aboriginal Americans” the wheel was never employed. It is an interesting fact that the mind of man, which is alleged to “work” on the same lines everywhere, never “evolved” a potter’s wheel in Mexico or Peru.[7] Major Gordon tells that in Assam[8] “the women fashion the pots by hand; they do not use the potter’s wheel”. Similar evidence is obtainable in various other countries. In China there are wheel-potters and moulders, and a distinction is drawn between them by ancient writers. “This clear distinction is accentuated by Chu Yen in his treatise on pottery.[9] He justly observes also that the articles made by the wheel-potters were all intended for cooking, with the exception of the vessel yu, which was designed for measuring; while the output of the moulders, who made the ceremonial vessels kuei and tou by availing themselves of the plumb-line, was [[19]]intended for sacrificial use. Also here, in like manner as in ancient Rome, India, and Japan, the idea may have prevailed that a wheel-made jar is of a less sacred character than one made by hand.”[10] Here then we touch on another point which must be borne in mind by those who draw conclusions regarding ancient cultures by means of pottery. In Britain, for instance, a rather coarse pottery is found in graves. It is possible that a better pottery was made for everyday use. The conservatism of burial customs may have caused coarser pottery to be put into graves than the early folks were capable of producing during the period at which the burial took place.

The wheel-pottery was as sacred to some cults as the hand-made was to others. Even the potter’s wheel was sacred. In Egypt the Ptah cult adopted it, as has been stated; in India it was a symbol of the Creator; in China (as in ancient Egypt) the idea originally prevailed that the Creator was a potter who turned on his wheel the sun and the moon, man and woman, although in time this myth became a philosophical abstraction. The symbolism of Jeremiah has similarly a history:

“O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”—[Chapter XVIII, 6].

St. Paul, too, refers to the potter:

“Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” ([Romans, ix, 20–21.])

Chinese emperors were compared to potters. They [[20]]were credited with the power to control a nation as the potter controlled his wheel. The ancient peoples who adopted the Egyptian potter’s wheel evidently learned that it was of divine origin. They adopted the Egyptian beliefs and myths associated with it. Withal, the wheel was associated with the agricultural mode of life, having originated in a country of agriculturists. Ptah, the divine potter, was, like all the other prominent gods of Egypt, fused with Osiris—the god who was, among other things, the “culture hero”. The Chinese “culture hero”, Shun, who became emperor, is said to have “practised husbandry, fishing, and making pottery jars”. He manufactured clay vessels without flaw on the river bank.[11]

The Chinese culture hero, Shen-ming (“Divine Husbandman”) “was regarded as the father of agriculture and the discoverer of the healing property of plants”. In ancient Chinese lore “we meet a close association of agriculture with pottery, and an illustration of the fact that husbandman and potter were one and the same person during the primeval period”.[12]

Memories of Ptah-Osiris clung to the potter’s wheel. The trade routes must have hummed with stories about the god who had gifted this wonderful contrivance to mankind. These stories were localized in various countries, and they took on the colour of the period during which the wheel was imported. In Japan, the Ptah legend has been given a Buddhistic significance. The potter’s wheel is reputed there to be the invention of the famous Korean monk, Gyõgi (A.D. 670–749). No doubt the first potter’s wheel reached Japan from Korea, whence came the conquerors of the Ainus. But there is evidence [[21]]that it was in use long before Buddhism “drifted” along the sea route from the mainland in the sixth century, to become curiously mixed up with Shintoism two centuries later. The priests of Buddhism, who transformed the Shinto gods into “avatars” of Buddha, no doubt also identified the far-carried Ptah-Osiris with their monk—the Japanese “culture hero”.

The earliest pottery in Japan was manufactured by the Ainus and was “hand-shaped” by the women. A similar pottery was produced in Korea. The wheel-made variety made its appearance when Chinese culture spread through Korea during the Silla kingdom period, which began about the time (A.D. 59) when the earliest Japanese, according to their own traditions, migrated to the islands that bear their name. No doubt the traders were active on sea and land long before the Japanese conquered the islands of the Ainus and the Chinese overran Korea. Great migrations and conquests in ancient times were indirectly stimulated by trade. A new culture was introduced into backward communities by the early prospectors and trading colonists, and these communities in time acquired weapons, reared the domesticated horse, and took to the sea after having learned how to build and navigate ships similar to those introduced by the traders.

When the potter’s wheel was introduced into Korea, the clay vessels were shaped in imitation of Chinese pottery. There can remain no doubt, therefore, as to whence the wheel came. China was the chief centre of early civilization in the Far East, and its influence spread far and wide. There are some who think that Burma was during its early period in closer touch with China than with India; but more evidence than is yet available is required to establish this theory. The earliest civilization in southern China of which we have knowledge [[22]]was of Indian origin. The sea traders who had crossed the Indian Ocean reached the Burmese coast several centuries before the Christian era, as the archaic character of Burmese river boats suggests. It may be, however, that the potter’s wheel was carried along the mid-Asian trade routes long before the shippers coasted round to Chinese waters. There can be no doubt that the potter’s wheel was introduced into China at a very remote period. Investigators are unable to discover any native legends regarding its origin. Nor are there any traditions regarding female potters. The culture heroes of China who made the first pots appear to have used the wheel, and the Chinese potter’s wheel is identical with the Egyptian.

When the wheel was introduced into Japan, hand-made pottery was in use for religious purposes, and for long afterwards the vessels used at Shinto shrines were not turned on the wheel. In India, hand-made pottery was similarly reserved for religious worship after the wheel-made variety came into use.[13] The wheel did not reach southern India until its Iron Age.[14] When the southern India Iron Age began is uncertain. It was not, of course, an “Age” in the real sense, but a cultural “stage”. Iron was known and apparently in use during the Aryo-Indian Vedic period in the north.[15]

The potter’s wheel was introduced into Babylonia at a very remote period. From Babylonia it was carried into Persia. The Avestan word for kiln is tanura, which is believed, according to Laufer, to be a loan word from Semitic tanur.

There are, of course, no records regarding the introduction [[23]]of the potter’s wheel into Babylonia, India, or China. All that we know definitely is that it first came into use in Egypt, and that it was afterwards adopted in the various ancient centres of civilization from which cultural influences “flowed” to various areas. With the wheel went certain religious ideas and customs. These are not found in the areas unreached by the potter’s wheel.

China appears to have been influenced at the dawn of its history by the culture represented by the Egyptian wheel. [[24]]

[1] The Yakut (in Russian), Vol. I, p. 378. [↑]

[2] The Evolution of the Dragon, G. Elliot Smith (London, 1919), pp. 178 et seq. [↑]

[3] O. T. Mason, Origins of Invention, p. 166; and Woman’s Share in Primitive Culture, p. 91. [↑]

[4] The Beginnings of Porcelain in China, by Berthold Laufer and H. W. Nichols (Field Museum of Natural History Publication, 192, Anthropological Series, Vol. XII, No. 2. Chicago, 1917). [↑]

[5] Ibid., pp. 153–154. [↑]

[6] The Journal of Egyptian Archæology, April, 1914, p. 14. [↑]

[7] Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern United States, p. 50 (Twentieth Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1903). [↑]

[8] The Khasis, p. 61. [↑]

[9] Tao Shuo, chap. ii, p. 2 (new edition, 1912). [↑]

[10] The Beginnings of Porcelain in China, pp. 154–5. In “culture mixing” old local religious beliefs were not obliterated. [↑]

[11] Chavannes, Mémoires historiques de Se-ma Tsʼien, Vol. I, pp. 72–4. [↑]

[12] The Beginnings of Porcelain in China, p. 160. [↑]

[13] Antiquities of India, L. D. Barnett, p. 176. [↑]

[14] Madras Government Museum Catalogue of Prehistoric Antiquities, p. 111. [↑]

[15] Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, Macdonell and Keith, Vol. I, pp. 31, 32. [↑]

[[Contents]]

CHAPTER III

Ancient Mariners and Explorers

The Chinese Junk—Kufas—The Ancient “Reed Float” and Skin-buoyed Raft—“Two floats of the Sky”—Dug-out Canoes—Where Shipping was developed—Burmese and Chinese Junks resemble Ancient Egyptian Ships—Cretan and Phœnician Mariners—Africa circumnavigated—Was Sumeria colonized by Sea-farers?—Egyptian Boats on Sea of Okhotsk—Japanese and Polynesian Boats—Egyptian Types in Mediterranean and Northern Europe—Stories of Long Voyages in Small Craft—Visit of Chinese Junk to the Thames—Solomon’s Ships.

Further important evidence regarding cultural contact in early times is afforded by shipping. How came it about that an inland people like the primitive Chinese took to seafaring?

The question that first arises in this connection is: Were ships invented and developed by a single ancient people, or were they invented independently by various ancient peoples at different periods? Were the Chinese junks of independent origin? Or were these junks developed from early models of vessels—such foreign vessels as first cruised in Chinese waters?

Chinese junks are flat-bottomed ships, and the largest of them reach about 1000 tons. The poops and fore-castles are high, and the masts carry lug-sails, generally of bamboo splits. They are fitted with rudders. Often on the bows appear painted or inlaid eyes. These eyes are found on models of ancient Egyptian ships.

Photo. Underwood

A MODERN CHINESE JUNK ON THE CANTON RIVER

During the first Han dynasty (about 206 B.C.) junks [[25]]of “one thousand kin” (about 15 tons) were regarded as very large vessels. In these boats the early Chinese navigators appear to have reached Korea and Japan. But long before they took to the sea there were other mariners in the China sea.

The Chinese were, as stated, originally an inland people. They were acquainted with river kufas (coracles) before they reached the seashore. These resembled the kufas of the Babylonians referred to by Herodotus, who wrote:

“The boats which come down the river to Babylon are circular, and made of skins. The frames, which are of willow, are cut in the country of the Armenians above Assyria, and on these, which serve for hulls, a covering of skins is stretched outside, and thus the boats are made, without either stem or stern, quite round like a shield.”[1]

These kufas are still in use in Mesopotamia. They do not seem to have altered much since the days of Hammurabi, or even of Sargon of Akkad. The Assyrians crossed rivers on skin floats, and some of the primitive peoples of mid-Asia are still using the inflated skins of cows as river “ferry-boats”. But such contrivances hardly enter into the history of shipping. The modern liner did not “evolve” from either kufa or skin float. Logs of wood were, no doubt, used to cross rivers at an early period. The idea of utilizing these may have been suggested to ancient hunters who saw animals being carried down on trees during a river flood. But attempts to utilize a tree for crossing a river would have been disastrous when first made, if the hunters were unable to swim. Trees are so apt to roll round in water. Besides, they would be useless if not guided with a punting-pole, expertly manipulated. Early man must have learned [[26]]how to navigate a river by using, to begin with, at least two trees lashed together. In Egypt and Babylonia we find traces of his first attempts in this connection. The reed float, consisting of two bundles of reeds, and the raft to which the inflated skins of animals were attached to give it buoyancy, were in use at an early period on the Rivers Nile and Euphrates. A raft of this kind had evidently its origin among a people accustomed, as were the later Assyrians, to use skin floats when swimming across rivers. There are sculptured representations of the Assyrian soldiers swimming with inflated skins under their chests.

The reed float was in use at a very early period on the Nile. Professor Breasted says that the two prehistoric floats were “bound firmly together, side by side, like two huge cigars”, and adds the following interesting note: “The writer was once without a boat in Nubia, and a native from a neighbouring village at once hurried away and returned with a pair of such floats made of dried reeds from the Nile shores. On this somewhat precarious craft he ferried the writer over a wide channel to an island in the river. It was the first time that the author had ever seen this contrivance, and it was not a little interesting to find a craft which he knew only in the Pyramid texts of 5000 years ago still surviving and in daily use on the ancient river in far-off Nubia.”

In the Pyramid texts there are references to the reed floats used by the souls of kings when being ferried across the river to death. The gods “bind together the two floats for this King Pepi”, runs a Pyramid text. “The knots are tied, the ferry-boats are brought together”, says another, and there are allusions to the ferryman (the prehistoric Charon) standing in the stern and poling the float. Before the Egyptian sun-god was [[27]]placed in a boat, he had “two floats of the sky” to carry him along the celestial Nile to the horizon.[2]

The “dug-out” canoe was probably developed from the raft. Men who drifted timber down a river may have had the idea of a “dug-out” suggested to them by first shaping a seat on a log, or a “hold” to secure the food-supply for the river voyage. Pitt Rivers suggests that after the discovery was made that a hollowed log could be utilized in water, “the next stage in the development of the canoe would consist in pointing the ends”.[3]

In what locality the dug-out canoe was invented it is impossible to say with absolute certainty. All reliable writers on naval architecture agree, however, that Egypt was the “cradle” of naval architecture.[4]

“For the development of the art of shipbuilding,” says Chatterton, “few countries could be found as suitable as Egypt.… The peacefulness of the waters of the Nile, the absence of storms, and the rarity of calms, combined with the fact that, at any rate, during the winter and early spring months, the gentle north wind blew up the river with the regularity of a Trade Wind, so enabling the ships to sail against the stream without the aid of oars—these were just the conditions that many another nation might have longed for. Very different, indeed, were the circumstances which had to be wrestled with in the case of the first shipbuilders and sailormen of Northern Europe.”[5]

The early Egyptians were continually crossing the [[28]]river. When they began to convey stones from their quarries, they required substantial rafts. Egyptian needs promoted the development of the art of navigation on a river specially suited for experiments that led to great discoveries. The demand for wood was always great, and it was intensified after metal-working had been introduced, because of the increased quantities of fuel required to feed the furnaces. It became absolutely necessary for the Egyptians to go far afield in search of timber. The fact that they received supplies of timber at an early period from Lebanon is therefore of special interest. Their experiences in drifting rafts of timber across the Mediterranean from the Syrian coast apparently not only stimulated naval architecture and increased the experiences of early navigators, but inaugurated the habit of organizing seafaring expeditions on a growing scale. “Men”, says Professor Elliot Smith, “did not take to maritime trafficking either for aimless pleasure or for idle adventure. They went to sea only under the pressure of the strongest incentives.”[6]

The Mediterranean must have been crossed at a very early period. Settlements of seafarers took place in Crete before 3000 B.C.[7] On the island have been found flakes of obsidian that were imported at the dawn of its history from the Island of Melos. No doubt obsidian artifacts were used in connection with the construction of vessels before copper implements became common.

The earliest evidence of shipbuilding as an organized and important national industry is found in the Egyptian tomb pictures of the Old Kingdom period (c. 2400 B.C.). Gangs of men, under overseers, are seen constructing many kinds of boats, large and small. There are records [[29]]of organized expeditions dating back 500 years earlier. Pharaoh Snefru built vessels “nearly one hundred and seventy feet long”. He sent “a fleet of forty vessels to the Phœnician coast to procure cedar logs from the slopes of Lebanon”.[8] Expeditions were also sent across the Red Sea. Vessels with numerous oars, and even vessels with sails, are depicted on Egyptian prehistoric pottery dating back to anything like 6000 B.C. In no other country in the world was seafaring and shipbuilding practised at such a remote period.

The earliest representations of deep-sea boats are found in Egypt. One is seen in the tomb of Sahure, of the Fifth Dynasty (c. 2600 B.C.). A great expedition sailed to Punt (Somaliland) during the reign of Queen Halshepsut (c. 1500 B.C.). Five of the highly-developed vessels are depicted in her temple at Deir-el-Bahari. It is of interest to compare one of these vessels with a Chinese junk. “Between the Chinese and Burmese junks of to-day and the Egyptian ships of about six thousand years ago there are”, writes E. Kebel Chatterton, “many points of similarity.… Until quite recently, China remained in the same state of development for four thousand years. If that was so with her arts and life generally, it has been especially so in the case of her sailing craft.” Both the Chinese junk and the ancient Egyptian ship “show a common influence and a remarkable persistence in type”.[9]

“Are we to believe”, a reader asks, “that the ancient Egyptian navigators went as far as China? Is there any proof that they made long voyages? Were the ancient Egyptians not a people who lived in isolation for a prolonged period?”[10] [[30]]

It is not known definitely how far the ancient Egyptian mariners went after they had begun to venture to sea. But one thing is certain. They made much longer voyages than were credited to them a generation ago. The Phœnicians, who became the sea-traders of the Egyptians, learned the art of navigation from those Nilotic adventurers who began to visit their coast at a very early period in quest of timber; they adopted the Egyptian style of craft, as did the Cretans, their predecessors in Mediterranean sea trafficking. By the time of King Solomon the Phœnicians had established colonies in Spain, and were trading not only from Carthage in the Mediterranean, but apparently with the British Isles, while they were also active in the Indian Ocean. They were evidently accustomed to make long voyages of exploration. At the time of the Jewish captivity, Pharaoh Necho (609–593 B.C.) sent an expedition of Phœnicians from the Red Sea to circumnavigate Africa. They returned three years later by way of Gibraltar. But their voyage excited no surprise in Egypt.[11] It had long been believed by the priests that the world was surrounded by water. Besides, these priests preserved many traditions of long voyages that had been made to distant lands.

There are those who believe that the early Egyptian mariners, who were accustomed to visit British East Africa and sail round the Arabian coast, founded the earliest colony in Sumeria (ancient Babylonia) at the head of the Persian Gulf. The cradle of Sumerian culture was Eridu, “the sea port”. The god of Eridu was Ea, who had a ship with pilot and crew. According to Babylonian traditions, he instructed the people, as did Osiris in Egypt, how to irrigate the land, grow corn, build houses and temples, make laws, engage in trade, and so [[31]]on. He was remembered as a monster—a goat-fish god, or half fish, half man. Apparently he was identical with the Oannes of Berosus. It may be that Ea-Oannes symbolized the seafarers who visited the coast and founded a colony at Eridu, introducing the agricultural mode of life and the working of copper. Early inland peoples must have regarded the mariners with whom they first came into contact as semi-divine beings, just as the Cubans regarded Columbus and his followers as visitors from the sky. The Mongols of Tartary entertained quaint ideas about the British “foreign devils” after they had fought in one of the early wars against China. M. Huc, the French missionary priest of the congregation of St. Lazarus, who travelled through Tartary, Tibet, and China during 1844–6, had once an interesting conversation with a Mongol, who “had been told by the Chinese what kind of people, or monsters rather, these English were”. The story ran that the Englishmen “lived in the water like fish, and when you least expected it, they would rise to the surface and cast at you fiery gourds. Then as soon as you bend your bow to send an arrow at them, they plunge again into the water like frogs.”[12]

Those who suppose that the Sumerians coasted round from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, landed on the barren African coast, and, setting out to cross a terrible desert, penetrated to the Nile valley along a hitherto unexplored route of about 200 miles, have to explain what was the particular attraction offered to them by prehistoric Egypt if, according to their theory, it was still uncultivated and in the “Hunting Age”. How came it about that they knew of a river which ran through desert country? [[32]]

It is more probable that the Nilotic people penetrated to the Red Sea coast, and afterwards ventured to sea in their river boats, and that, in time, having obtained skill in navigation, they coasted round to the Persian Gulf. In pre-Dynastic times the Egyptians obtained shells from the Red Sea coast.

At what period India was first reached is uncertain. When Solomon imported peacocks from that country (the land of the peacock), the sea route was already well known. It is significant to find that all round the coast, from the Red Sea to India, Ceylon, and Burma, the Egyptian types of vessels have been in use from the earliest seafaring periods. The Burmese junks on the Irawadi resemble closely, as has been indicated, the Nile boats of the ancient Egyptians.[13] The Chinese junks were developed from Egyptian models. More antique Egyptian boats than are found on the Chinese coast are still being used by the Koryak tribe who dwell around the sea of Okhotsk. Mr. Chatterton says that the Koryak craft have “important similarities to the Egyptian ships of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties (c. 3000–2500 B.C.). Thus, besides copying the ancients in steering with an oar, the fore-end of the prow of their sailing boats terminates in a fork through which the harpoon-line is passed, the fork being sometimes carved with a human face which they believe will serve as a protector of the boat. Instead of rowlocks they have, like the early Egyptians, thong-loops through which the oar or paddle is inserted. Their sail, too, is a rectangular shape of dressed reindeer skins sewed together. But it is their mast that is especially like the Egyptians and Burmese.” This mast is made of three poles “set up in the manner [[33]]of a tripod”. The double mast was common in ancient Egypt, but Mr. Chatterton notes that Mr. Villiers Stuart “found on the walls of a tomb belonging to the Sixth Dynasty (c. 2400 B.C.) at Gebel Abu Faida, the painting of a boat with a treble mast made of three spars arranged like the edges of a triangular pyramid”.[14] Thus we find that vessels of Egyptian type (adopted by various peoples) not only reached China but went a considerable distance beyond it. Japanese vessels still display Egyptian characteristics. In the Moluccas and Malays the ancient three-limbed mast has not yet gone out of fashion. Polynesian craft were likewise developed from Egyptian models. William Ellis, the missionary,[15] noted “the peculiar and almost classical shape of the large Tahitian canoes”, with “elevated prow and stern”, and tells that a fleet of them reminded him of representations of “the ships in which the Argonauts sailed, or the vessels that conveyed the heroes of Homer to the siege of Troy”.

Various writers have called attention to the persistence of Egyptian types in the Mediterranean and in northern Europe. “In every age and every district of the ancient world”, wrote Mr. Cecil Torr, the great authority on classic shipping, “the method of rigging ships was substantially the same; and this method is first depicted by the Egyptians.”[16]

The Far Eastern craft went long distances in ancient days. Ellis tells of regular voyages made by Polynesian chiefs which extended to 300 and even 600 miles. A chief from Rurutu once visited the Society Islands in a native boat built “somewhat in the shape of a crescent, the stem and stern high and pointed and the sides [[34]]deep”.[17] Sometimes exceptionally long voyages were forced by the weather conditions of Oceania. “In 1696”, Ellis writes, “two canoes were driven from Ancarso to one of the Philippine Islands, a distance of 800 miles.” He gives other instances of voyages of like character. A Christian missionary, travelling in a native boat, was carried “nearly 800 miles in a south-westerly direction”.[18] Reference has already been made to the long and daring voyage made by the Phœnicians who circumnavigated Africa. Another extraordinary enterprise is referred to by Pliny the elder,[19] who quotes from the lost work of Cornelius Nepos. This was a voyage performed by Indians who had, before 60 B.C., embarked on a commercial voyage and reached the coast of Germany. It is uncertain whether they sailed round the Cape of Good Hope and up the Atlantic Ocean, or went northward past Japan and discovered the north-east passage, skirting the coast of Siberia, and sailing round Lapland and Norway to the Baltic. They were made prisoners by the Suevians and handed over to Quintus Metellus Celer, pro-consular governor of Gaul.

In 1770 Japanese navigators reached the northern coast of Siberia and landed at Kamchatka. They were taken to St. Petersburg, where they were received by the Empress of Russia, who treated them with marked kindness. In 1847–8 the Chinese junk Keying sailed from Canton to the Thames and caused no small sensation on its arrival. This vessel rounded the Horn and took 477 days to complete the voyage.

Solomon’s ships made long voyages: “Once every [[35]]three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks”.[20]

As in the case of the potter’s wheel, cultural elements were distributed far and wide by the vessels of the most ancient of mariners. Before tracing these elements in China, it would be well to deal with the motives that impelled early seafarers to undertake long and adventurous voyages of exploration and to found colonies in distant lands. [[36]]

[1] Book I, chap. 194. [↑]

[2] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Egypt, pp. 108, 158. [↑]

[3] Early Modes of Navigation, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. IV, p. 402. [↑]

[4] Holmes’s Ancient and Modern Ships, E. K. Chatterton’s Sailing Ships and their Story, Cecil Torr’s Ancient Ships, Warrington Smith’s Mast and Sail in Europe and Asia, Elliot Smith’s Ships as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture, and the works of Pâris and Assmann, and Pitt Rivers (op. cit.). [↑]

[5] Sailing Ships and their Story, pp. 25–6. [↑]

[6] Ships as Evidence, &c., pp. 5, 6. [↑]

[7] Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe, pp. 146 and 191, et seq. [↑]

[8] Breasted’s A History of Egypt, pp. 114–5. [↑]

[9] Sailing Ships and their Story, pp. 31, 32. [↑]

[10] Maspero in his The Dawn of Civilization protests against this view. [↑]

[11] Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. 372. [↑]

[12] English translation of M. Huc’s Recollections (London, 1852), p. 21. [↑]

[13] E. Kebel Chatterton’s Sailing Ships and their Story, pp. 7 and 31, and illustration opposite page 8. [↑]

[14] Sailing Ships and their Story, pp. 32–3. [↑]

[15] Polynesian Researches, First Edition, 1829, Vol. I, p. 169. [↑]

[16] Ancient Ships, p. 78. [↑]

[17] Polynesian Researches, First Edition, 1829, Vol. I, pp. 181, 2. The crescent-shaped vessel is quite Egyptian in character. [↑]

[18] Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 50, 51. [↑]

[19] Book II, 67. [↑]

[20] [1 Kings, x, 22]. [↑]

[[Contents]]

CHAPTER IV

The World-wide Search for Wealth

Religious Incentive of Quest of Wealth—Sacredness of Precious Metals and Stones—Gold and the Sky Deities—Iron as the Devil’s Metal—Chinese Dragons and Metals—Gold good and Silver bad in India—Dragons and Copper—Sulphuret of Mercury as “Dragon’s Blood” and Elixir of Life—Dragons and Pearls—The “Jewel that grants all Desires”—Story of Buddhist Abbot and the Sea-God—“Jewels of Flood and Ebb”—Japan and Korea—Sea-god as “Abundant Pearl Prince”—Pearl Fishers—Early History of Sea-trafficking—Traders and Colonists—Cow, Moon, Shells, and Pearls connected with Mother-goddess—The Sow Goddess—Shell Beliefs—Culture Drifts and Culture Complexes.

There can be no doubt as to the reasons why Solomon sought to emulate the maritime activities of the Phœnicians who had been bringing peacocks from India, silver from Spain, and gold from West Africa and elsewhere long before his day.

“And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.”[1]

When the Queen of Sheba visited Jerusalem she was accompanied by “camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones”.[2] About seven centuries before Solomon’s day, Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt, to [[37]]whom reference was made in the last chapter, had emulated the feats of her ancestors by sending a fleet to Punt (Somaliland or British East Africa) to bring back, among other things, myrrh trees for her new temple. The myrrh was required “for the incense in the temple service”.[3] Ancient mariners set out on long voyages, not only on the quest of wealth, but also of various articles required for religious purposes. Indeed, the quest of wealth had originally religious associations. Gold, silver, copper, pearls, and precious stones were all sacred, and it was because of their connection with the ancient deities that they were first sought for. The so-called “ornaments” worn by our remote ancestors were charms against evil and ill luck. Metals were similarly supposed to have protective qualities. Iron is still regarded in the Scottish Highlands as a charm against fairy attack. In China it is a protection against dragons. The souls of the Egyptian dead were “charmed” in the other world by the amulets placed in their tombs. When the Pharaoh’s soul entered the boat of the sun-god he was protected by metals. “Brought to thee”, a Pyramid text states, “are blocks of silver and masses of malachite.”[4] Gold was the metal of the sun-god and silver of the deity of the moon. Horus had associations with copper, and Ptah, the god of craftsmen, with various metals. Iron was “the bones of Set”, the Egyptian devil. In Greece and India the mythical ages were associated with metals, and iron was the metal of the dark age of evil (the Indian “Kali Yuga”).

In China the metals have similarly religious associations. The dragon-gods of water, rain, and thunder are connected with gold of various hues—the “golds” coloured by the alchemists by fusion with other metals. Thus we [[38]]have Chinese references to red, yellow, white, blue, and black gold, as in the following extract:

“When the yellow dragon, born from yellow gold a thousand years old, enters a deep place, a yellow spring dashes forth; and if from this spring some particles (fine dust) arise, these become a yellow cloud.

“In the same way blue springs and blue clouds originate from blue dragons, born from blue gold eight hundred years old; red, white, and black springs and clouds from red, white, and black dragons born from gold of same colours a thousand years old.”[5]

In Indian Vedic lore gold is a good metal and silver a bad metal. One of the Creation Myths states in this connection:

“He (Prajapati) created Asuras (demons). That was displeasing to him. That became the precious metal with the bad colour (silver). This was the origin of silver. He created gods. That was pleasing to him. That became the precious metal with the good colour (gold). That was the origin of gold.”[6]

The dragon of the Far East is associated with copper as well as gold. In the Japanese Historical Records the story is told how the Emperor Hwang brought down a dragon so that he might ride on its back through the air. He first gathered copper on a mountain. Then he cast a tripod. Immediately a dragon, dropping its whiskers, came down to him. After the monarch had used the god as an “airship”, no fewer than seventy of his subjects followed his example. Hwang was the monarch who prepared the “liquor of immortality” (the Japanese “soma”) by melting cinnabar (sulphuret of mercury, known as “dragon’s blood”). Chinese dragons, according to Wang Fu in ’Rh ya yih, dread iron and like precious [[39]]stones. In Japan the belief prevailed that if iron and filth were flung into ponds the dragons raised hurricanes that devastated the land. The Chinese roused dragons, when they wanted rain, by making a great noise and by throwing iron into dragon pools. Iron has “a pungent nature” and injures the eyes of dragons, and they rise to protect their eyes. Copper has, in China, associations with darkness and death. The “Stone of Darkness” is hollow and contains water or “the vital spirit of copper”.[7] Dragons are fond of these stones and of beautiful gems.[8]

The dragon-shaped sea-gods of India and the dragon-gods of China and Japan have close associations with pearls. In a sixth-century Chinese work,[9] it is stated that pearls are spit out by dragons. Dragons have pearls “worth a hundred pieces of gold” in their mouths, under their throats, or in their pools. When dragons fight in the sky, pearls fall to the ground. De Groot[10] makes reference to “thunder pearls” that dragons have dropped from their mouths. These illuminate a house by night. In Wang Fu’s description of the dragon it is stated that a dragon has “a bright pearl under its chin”.

A mountain in Japan is called Ryushuho, which means “Dragon-Pearl Peak”. It is situated in Fuwa district of Mino province, and is associated in a legend with the Buddhist temple called “Cloud-Dragon Shrine”. When this temple was being erected, a dragon, carrying a pearl in its mouth, appeared before one of the priests. Mountain and sanctuary were consequently given dragon names.

The “jewel that grants all desires” is known in India, China, and Japan. A Japanese story relates that once upon a time an Indian Buddhist abbot, named Bussei [[40]](Buddha’s vow), set out on a voyage with purpose to obtain this jewel (a pearl) which was possessed by “the dragon king of the ocean”. In the midst of the sea the boat hove to while Bussei performed a ceremony and repeated a charm, causing the dragon-king to appear. The abbot, making a mystic sign, then demanded the pearl; but the dragon deceived him and nullified the mystic sign. Rising in the air, “the King of the Ocean” caused a great storm to rage. The boat was destroyed and all on board it, except Bussei, were drowned. Bussei afterwards migrated from southern India to Japan, accompanied by Baramon (“Wall-gazing Brahman”).

The “Jewels of Flood and Ebb” were jewels that granted desires. In Japanese legend these were possessed by the dragon king (Sagara), whose kingdom, like that of the Indian Naga monarch and that of the Gaelic ruler of “Land Under-Waves”, is situated at the bottom of the sea. The white jewel is called “Pearl of Ebb”, and the blue jewel “Pearl of Flood”.

CHINESE DRAGON-BOAT FESTIVAL

From a picture woven in coloured silks and gold thread in the Victoria and Albert Museum

A Japanese story relates that the Empress Jingo obtained from a sea-god a “jewel that grants all desires”. During her reign a great fleet went to Korea to obtain tribute. The Korean fleet went out to meet it, but when it was drawn up for battle, a Japanese god cast into the sea the “Pearl of Ebb”, and immediately the waters withdrew, leaving both fleets stranded. The resolute King of Korea, not to be daunted, leapt on to the dried sea-bed, and, marshalling his troops there, advanced at the head of them to attack and destroy the Japanese fleet. Then the Japanese god flung the “Pearl of Flood” into the sea. No sooner was this done than the waters returned and drowned large numbers of Koreans. Then a tidal wave swept over the Korean shore, while the troops prayed for their lives in vain. Not until the “Pearl of Ebb” was [[41]]thrown once again into the sea did the waters retreat from the land.

After these miraculous and disastrous manifestations, the King of Korea was glad to make peace, and sent out three vessels laden with tribute to the empress, who had conquered the enemy without the loss of a single Japanese soldier or sailor, or even a single drop of Japanese blood.

Other names of the Japanese sea-god Sagara[11] are Oho-watatsumi (“sea lord, or sea snake”), and Toyo-tama hiko no Mikoto (“Abundant Pearl Prince”), and he has a daughter named Toyo-tama-bime (“Abundant Pearl Princess”).[12] During storms, sailors threw jewels into the sea to pacify the dragon king.

Chinese emperors, like the Egyptian Pharaohs, had dragon boats which were used in connection with religious rain-getting ceremonies. They had also the bird boats called “yih”. Mr. Wells Williams refers to the yih as “a kind of sea-bird that flies high, whose figure is gaily painted on the sterns of junks, to denote their swift sailing”. He adds that “the descriptions are contradictory, but its picture rudely resembles a heron”.[13]

It will be gathered from the evidence summarized above that the seafaring activities of the Chinese and Japanese had close associations with the search for precious metals and stones and pearls on the part of those who introduced the Egyptian type of vessels into their waters. With these ships went many customs and beliefs that became mixed with local customs and beliefs. New modes of life were introduced, and, with these, new modes of thought. Nothing persists like immemorial customs, [[42]]myths, and religious beliefs associated with a particular mode of life.

Before the culture-complexes of China and Japan are investigated, so that local elements may be sifted out from the overlying mass of imported elements, it would be well to deal with the history of the search for wealth across the oceans of the world.

It is necessary, therefore, to turn back again to the cradle of shipbuilding and maritime enterprise—to ancient Egypt with its wonderful civilization of over 3000 years that sent its influences far and wide. Whether or not the Egyptians ever reached China or Japan, we have no means of knowing. Pauthier’s view in this connection has come in for a good deal of destructive criticism. He referred to a Chinese tradition that about 1113 B.C. the Court was visited by seafarers from the kingdom of “Nili”, and suggested that they came from the Nile valley.[14] The “Nili”, “Nēlē”, or “Nērē” folk, according to others, came from the direction of Japan or from beyond Korea. References to them are somewhat obscure. It does not follow that because Egyptian ships reached China, they were manned by Egyptians. Ships were, like potter’s wheels, adopted by folks who may never have heard of Egypt. A culture flows far beyond the areas reached by those who have given it a definite character, just as the Bantu dialects have penetrated to areas in Africa far beyond Bantu control.

What motives, then, stimulated maritime enterprise at the dawn of the history of sea-trafficking? What attracted the ancient mariners? If it was wealth, what was “wealth” to them?

The answer to the last query is that wealth was something with a religious significance. Gold was searched [[43]]for, but not, to begin with, for the purpose of making coins. There was no coinage. Gold was a precious metal in the sense that it brought luck, and to the ancient people “luck” meant everything they yearned for in this world and the next.

As far back as the so-called “Palæolithic period” in western Europe, there was, as has been noted, a systematic search for wealth in the form of sea-shells. The hunters in central Europe imported shells from the Mediterranean coast and used them as amulets. These imported shells are found in their graves. In Ancient Egypt, shells were carried from the Red Sea coast, as well as from the Mediterranean coast, long before the historical period begins. The evidence of the grave-finds shows that Red Sea pearl-shell and Red Sea cowries were in use for religious purposes. “Millions of them”, as Maspero has noted, have been found in Ancient Egyptian graves. In time, pearls came into use, not only pearls from Nile mussels, but from oysters found in the southern part of the Gulf of Aden. As shipping developed, the pearl-fishers went farther and farther in search of pearls. The famous ancient pearl area in the Persian Gulf was discovered and drawn upon at some remote period. No doubt the pearls worn by Assyrian and Persian monarchs came, in part, from the Persian Gulf. At what period Ceylon pearls were first fished for it is impossible to say. Of one thing we can be certain, however. They were fished for by men who used the Egyptian type of vessel.

The migrating and trading pearl-fishers carried their beliefs with them from land to land. Almost everywhere are found the same beliefs and practices connected with shells and pearls. These beliefs and practices are of a highly complex character—so complex, indeed, that they must have had an area of origin in which they reflected [[44]]the beliefs and customs of a people with a history of their own. The pearl, for instance, was connected with the moon, with the goddess who was the Great Mother, and with the sun and the sun-god. Venus (Aphrodite) was sea-born. She was lifted from the sea, by Tritons, seated on a shell. She was the pearl—the vital essence of the magic shell, and she was the moon, the “Pearl of Heaven”. The pearl, like the moon, was supposed to exercise an influence over human beings. In Egypt, the Mother Goddess was symbolized by a cow, and cow, moon, pearl, and shell were connected in an arbitrary way.

In those areas in which the Mother Goddess was symbolized by the sow, the shell was likewise connected with her. The Greeks applied to the cowry a word that means “little pig”; this word had a special reference to the female sex. The Romans called the shell “porci”, and porcelain has a like derivation.[15] As has been shown, women were connected with hand-made pottery, and the pot was a symbol of the Great Mother. In Scotland, certain shells are still referred to as “cows” and “pigs”. They were anciently believed to promote fertility and bring luck. The custom of placing shells on window-sills, at doors, in fire-places, and round garden plots still obtains in parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Some low-reliefs of mother goddesses with baskets of fruit, corn, &c., surviving from the Romano-British period, which have been found in various parts of Britain, have shell-canopies. The Romans “took over” the goddesses of the peoples of western Europe on whom they imposed their rule, as they took over the Greek pantheon.

Following the clues afforded by the evidence of ships, it is found that the early pearl-fishers coasted round from [[45]]the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, round India to the Bay of Bengal, round the Malay Peninsula to the China Sea, northwards to the Sea of Okhotsk, and on to the western coast of North America. Oceania was peopled by the ancient mariners, who appear to have reached by this route the coast of South America. As we have seen, Africa was circumnavigated. Western and north-western Europe and the British Isles were reached at a very early period.

The ancient seafarers searched not only for pearls and pearl-shell, but also for gold, silver, copper, tin, and other metals and for precious stones. They appear to have founded trading colonies that became centres from which cultural influences radiated far and wide. From these colonies expeditions set out to discover new pearling grounds and new mineral fields. The search for wealth, having a religious incentive, caused, as has been said, the spread of religious ideas. In different countries, imported beliefs and customs became mingled with local beliefs and customs, with the result that in many countries are found “culture complexes” which have a historical significance—reflecting as they do the varied experiences of the peoples and the influences introduced into their homelands at various periods.

In the next chapter it will be shown how the dragon of China has a history that throws much light on the early movements of explorers and traders who carried the elements of complex cultures into far distant lands. [[46]]

[1] [1 Kings, ix, 26–8]. [↑]

[2] [1 Kings, x, 2]. [↑]

[3] Breasted’s A History of Egypt, p. 274. [↑]

[4] Breasted’s Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 279. [↑]

[5] Quoted from a Chinese work by Dr. W. M. W. de Visser in The Dragon in China and Japan (Amsterdam, 1913). [↑]

[6] Muir’s Sanskrit Texts, Vol. I, p. 516 (1890). [↑]

[7] Dr. W. M. W. de Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 69. [↑]

[8] Ibid., p. 223. [↑]

[9] Shi i ki, chap. ii. [↑]

[10] Religious System of China, Vol. V, p. 867. [↑]

[11] This is the name of the Indian Naga king. [↑]

[12] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 139. [↑]

[13] Chinese-English Dictionary, p. 1092. [↑]

[14] Chine Ancienne, pp. 94 et seq. [↑]

[15] Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, pp. 216 et seq. [↑]

[[Contents]]

CHAPTER V

Chinese Dragon Lore

Dragon Rain-god and Tiger-god of Mountains and Woods—Thunder-gods of East and West—Shark-gods as Guardians of Treasure—Dragon and Whale—Fish Vertebræ as Charms—Dragon and Dugong, Crocodile, Eel, &c.—Polynesian Dragon as “Pearl-mother”—Chinese Dragon and “Stag of the Sky”—Babylonian Sea-god and the Antelope, Gazelle, Stag, and Goat—Babylonian Dragon-slayers—Egyptian Gazelle- and Antelope-gods—Osiris as a Sea-god—African Antelope and Asiatic Dragon—The Serpent as “Water Confiner” in Egypt and India—Chinese Dragon has “Nature of Serpent”—Ancient Attributes of Far-Eastern Dragon—Dragon Battles—Dragons in East and West—Stones as “Dragon Eggs”—Dragon Mother and World Dragon—Dragons and Emperors.

The Chinese dragon is a strange mixture of several animals. Ancient native writers like Wang Fu inform us that it has the head of a camel, the horns of a stag, the eyes of a demon, the ears of a cow, the neck of a snake, the belly of a clam, the scales of a carp, the claws of an eagle, and the soles of a tiger. On its head is the chiʼih muh lump that (like a “gas-bag”) enables it to soar through the air. The body has three jointed parts, the first being “head to shoulders”, the second, “shoulders to breast”, and the third, “breast to tail”. The scales number 117, of which 81 are imbued with good influence (yang) and 36 with bad influence (yin), for the dragon is partly a Preserver and partly a Destroyer. Under the neck the scales are reversed. There are five “fingers” or claws on each foot. The male dragon has whiskers, and under the chin, or in the throat, is a luminous pearl. [[47]]There is no denying the importance and significance of that pearl.

A male dragon can be distinguished from a female one by its undulating horn, which is thickest in the upper part. A female dragon’s nose is straight. A horned dragon is called kʼiu-lung and a hornless one chʼi-lung. Some dragons have wings. In addition there are horse-dragons, snake-dragons, cow-dragons, toad-dragons, dog-dragons, fish-dragons, &c., in China and Japan. Indeed, all hairy, feathered, and scaled animals are more or less associated with what may be called the “Orthodox Dragon”. The tiger is an enemy of the dragon, but there are references to tiger-headed dragons. The dragon is a divinity of water and rain, and the tiger a divinity of mountains and woods.[1] The white tiger is a god of the west.

Like the deities of other countries, the Chinese dragon-god (and the Japanese dragon) may appear in different shapes—as a youth or aged man, as a lovely girl or an old hag, as a rat, a snake, a fish, a tree, a weapon, or an implement. But no matter what its shape may be, the dragon is intimately connected with water. It is a “rain lord” and therefore the thunder-god who causes rain to fall. The Chinese dragon thus links with the Aryo-Indian god Indra and other rain- and thunder-gods connected with agriculture, including Zeus of Greece, Tarku of Asia Minor, Thor of northern Europe, the Babylonian Marduk (Merodach), &c. There are sea-dragons that send storms like the wind-gods, and may be appeased with offerings. These are guardians of treasure and especially of pearling-grounds. Apparently the early pearl-fishers regarded the shark as the guardian of pearls. It seized and carried away the “robbers” who dived for [[48]]oysters. The chief sea-god of China sometimes appeared in shark form—an enormous lion-headed shark.

Procopius, a sixth-century writer, says in this connection: “Sea-dogs are wonderful admirers of the pearl-fish, and follow them out to sea.… A certain fisherman, having watched for the moment when the shell-fish was deprived of the attention of its attendant sea-dog … seized the shell-fish and made for the shore. The sea-dog, however, was soon aware of the theft, and, making straight for the fisherman, seized him. Finding himself thus caught, he made a last effort, and threw the pearl-fish on shore, immediately on which he was torn to pieces by its protector.”[2]

CHINESE DRAGONS AMONG THE CLOUDS

From a Chinese painting in the British Museum

In Polynesia the natives have superstitious ideas about the shark. “Although”, says Ellis, “they would not only kill but eat certain kinds of shark, the large blue sharks, Squalus glaucus, were deified by them, and, rather than attempt to destroy them, they would endeavour to propitiate their favour by prayers and offerings. Temples were erected, in which priests officiated, and offerings were presented to the deified sharks, while fishermen, and others who were much at sea, sought their favour.”[3] Polynesian gods, like Chinese dragons, appeared in various shapes. “One, for instance,” writes Turner, “saw his god in the eel, another in the shark, another in the turtle, another in the dog, another in the owl, another in the lizard; and so on throughout all the fish of the sea, and birds, and four-footed beasts and creeping things. In some of the shell-fish, even, gods were supposed to be present.”[4] Here we meet again [[49]]with the shell beliefs. The avatars of dragons had pearls. In an old Chinese work the story is told of a dragon that appeared in the shape of a little girl sitting at the entrance of a cave and playing with three pearls. When a man appeared, the child fled into the cave, and, reassuming dragon form, put the pearls in its left ear.[5] As the guardian of pearls, the Chinese dragon links with the shark-god of the early pearl-fishers. There were varieties of these sea-gods. In Polynesia “they had”, Ellis has recorded, “gods who were supposed to preside over the fisheries, and to direct to their coasts the various shoals by which they were periodically visited.” The Polynesians invoked their aid “either before launching their canoes, or while engaged at sea”. It is of interest to find in this connection that the dragon had associations with the whale. Ancient mariners reverenced the whale. The Ligurians and Cretans carried home portions of the backbones of whales.[6] The habit of placing spines of fish in graves is of great antiquity in Europe. The early seafarers who reached California during its prehistoric age perpetuated this very ancient custom. Beuchat gives an illustration of a kitchen-midden grave in California in which a whale’s vertebra is shown near the human skeleton.[7] The swashtika appears among the pottery designs of early American pottery.[8] The ancient Peruvians worshipped the whale, and the Maori dragon was compared to one.[9] In Scottish folk-lore witches sometimes assume the forms of whales. [[50]]

The dolphin, the bluish dugong[10] (probably the “semi-human whale” referred to by Ælian), and other denizens of the sea were regarded as deities by ancient seafarers. De Groot, in his The Religious System of China, quoting from the Shan hai King, relates that in the Eastern Sea is a “Land of Rolling Waves”. In this region dwell sea-monsters that are shaped like cows and have blue bodies. They are hornless and one-legged. Each time they leave or enter the waters, winds arise and rain comes down. Their voice is that of thunder and their glare that of sun and moon.

The reference to the single leg may have been suggested by the fact that when the dugong dives the tail comes into view. This interesting sea-animal has been “recklessly and indiscriminately slaughtered” in historic times.

Classical writers referred to some of the strange monsters seen by their mariners as “sea-cows”. In like manner the Chinese have connected denizens of the deep with different land animals.

The religious beliefs associated with various sea and land animals cling to that composite god the dragon. In dealing with it, therefore, we cannot ignore its history, not only in China but in those countries that influenced Chinese civilization, while attention must also be paid to countries that, like China, were influenced by the early sea and land traders and colonists.

In Polynesia the dragon is called mo-o and mo-ko. “Their (the Polynesian) use of this word in traditions”, says W. D. Westervelt,[11] “showed that they often had in mind animals like crocodiles and alligators, and sometimes [[51]]they referred the name to any monster of great mythical powers belonging to the man-destroying class. Mighty eels, immense sea-turtles, large fish of the ocean, fierce sharks, were all called mo-o. The most ancient dragons of the Hawaiians are spoken of as living in pools or lakes.” Mr. Westervelt notes that “one dragon lived in the Ewa lagoon, now known as ‘Pearl Harbour’. This was Kane-kua-ana, who was said to have brought the pipi (oysters) to Ewa. She[12] was worshipped by those who gather the shell-fish. When the oysters began to disappear about 1850, the natives said the dragon had become angry and was sending the oysters to Kahiki, or some far-away foreign land.” It is evident that such a belief is of great antiquity. The pearl under the chin of the Chinese dragon has, as will be seen, an interesting history.

But, it may be asked here, what connection has a mountain stag with the ancient pearl-fishers? As Wang Fu reminds us, the pearl-guarding Chinese dragon has “the horns of a stag”. It was sometimes called, De Groot states,[13] “the celestial stag”—the “stag of the sky”. This was not merely a poetic image. The sea-god Ea of ancient Babylonia was in one of his forms “the goat fish”, as some put it. Professor Sayce says, in this connection, “Ea was called ‘the antelope of the deep’, ‘the antelope the creator’, ‘the lusty antelope’. He was sometimes referred to as ‘a gazelle’. Lubin, ‘a stag’, was a reduplicated form of elim, ‘a gazelle’. Both words were equivalent to sarru, ‘king’.”[14] Whatever the Ea land animal was—whether goat, gazelle, antelope, or stag—it was associated with a sea-god who, according to Babylonian belief, brought the elements of culture to the [[52]]ancient Sumerians, who were developing their civilization at the seaport of Eridu, then situated at the head of the Persian Gulf, in which pearls were found. Ea was depicted as half a land animal and half a fish, or as a man wrapped in the skin of a gigantic fish as Egyptian deities were wrapped in the skins of wild beasts. One of Ea’s names was Dagan, which was possibly the Dagon worshipped also by the Philistines and by the inhabitants of Canaan before the Philistines arrived from Kaphtor (the land of Keftiu, i.e. Crete).

Ea was associated with the dragon Tiamat, which his son Marduk (Merodach) slew. It is stated in Babylonian script that Ea “conferred his name” on Marduk. In other words, Marduk supplanted Ea and took over certain of his attributes, and part of his history. He was the god of Babylon, which supplanted other cities, formerly capitals; he therefore supplanted the chief gods of these cities.

Ea was originally the slayer of the dragon Tiamat and the conqueror of the watery abyss over which he reigned, supplanting the dragon.[15] He became the dragon himself—the “goat fish” or “antelope of the deep”—the composite deity connected with animals deified by ancient hunters and fishers whose beliefs were ultimately fused with those of others with whom they were brought into close association in centres of culture. Ea, who had a dragon form, was connected with the serpent, or “worm”, as well as with the fish.

In Egypt Horus, Osiris, and Set were associated with the gazelle. Osiris was, in one of his forms, the River Nile. He was not only the Nile itself, but the controller of it; he was the serpent and soul of the Nile, and he was the ocean into which the Nile flowed, and the [[53]]leviathan of the deep. In the Pyramid texts Osiris is addressed: “Thou art great, thou art green, in thy name of Great-green (sea); lo, thou art round as the Great Circle (Okeanos); lo, thou art turned about, thou art round as the circle that encircles the Hauneba (Ægeans)”.[16] Osiris was thus the serpent (dragon) that, lying in the ocean, encircled the world. His son Horus is at one point in the Pyramid texts (Nos. 1505–8) narrative “represented as crossing the sea”.[17] Horus was sometimes depicted riding on the back of a gazelle or antelope. The Egyptian antelope-god was in time fused with the serpent or dragon of the sea. Referring to the evidence of Frobenius[18] in this connection, Professor Elliot Smith says that “in some parts of Africa, especially in the west, the antelope plays the part of the dragon in Asiatic stories”.[19] When we reach India, it is found that the wind-god, Vayu, rides on the back of the antelope. Vayu was fused with Indra, the slayer of the dragon that controlled the water-supply, and, indeed, retained it by enclosing it as the Osiris serpent of Egypt, or the serpent-mother of Osiris, enclosed the water in its cavern during the period of “the low Nile”, before the inundation took place.[20] After Osiris, as the water-confining serpent (dragon) was slain, the river ran red with his blood and rose in flood. Osiris, originally “a dangerous god”,[21] was the “new” or “fresh” water of the inundation. “The tradition of his unfavourable character”, Breasted comments, “survived in vague reminiscences long centuries after he had gained wide popularity.” Osiris ultimately became “the kindly [[54]]dispenser of plenty”, and his slayer, Set, originally a beneficent deity, was made the villain of the story and fused with the dragon Apep, the symbol of darkness and evil. This change appears to have been effected after the introduction of the agricultural mode of life. The Nile, formerly the destroyer, then became the preserver, sustainer, and generous giver of “soul substance” and daily bread.

When the agricultural mode of life was introduced into China the horned-dragon, or horned-serpent (for the dragon, Chinese writers remind us, has “the nature of a serpent”), became the Osiris water-serpent.

How a snake becomes a dragon is explained in the Shu i ki, which says: “A water-snake after 500 years changes into a kiao, a kiao after 1000 years changes into a lung;[22] a lung after 500 years changes into a kioh-lung,[23] and after 1000 years into a ying-lung.[24]” In Japan is found, in addition, the pʼan-lung (“coiled dragon”), which has not yet ascended to heaven.[25] The “coiled dragon” is evidently the water-retaining monster.

The Chinese dragon is as closely connected with water as was the serpent form of Osiris with the Nile in ancient Egypt, and as was Indra with the “drought dragon” in India. The dragon dwells in pools, it rises to the clouds, it thunders and brings rain, it floods rivers, it is in the ocean, and controls the tides and causes the waters to ebb and flow as do its magic pearls (the “Jewels of Flood and Ebb”), and it is a symbol of the emperor. The Egyptian Pharaoh was an “avatar” of Osiris, or Horus,[26] and the Chinese emperor was an “avatar” or incarnation [[55]]of the dragon. As water destroys, the dragon is a destroyer; as water preserves and sustains, the dragon is a preserver and sustainer.

The dragon, as has been indicated, is essentially the Chinese water-god. “The ancient texts … are short,” says de Visser, “but sufficient to give us the main conceptions of old China with regard to the dragon. He was in those early days, just like now, the god of water, thunder, clouds, and rain, the harbinger of blessings, and the symbol of holy men. As the emperors are the holy beings of earth, the idea of the dragon being the symbol of imperial power is based upon this ancient conception.”[27]

The Chinese “dragon well” is usually situated inside a deep mountain cave. It was believed that the well owed its origin to the dragon. De Visser quotes, in this connection, from an ancient sage, who wrote: “When the yellow dragon, born from yellow gold a thousand years old, enters a deep place, a yellow spring dashes forth, and if from this spring some particles (fine dust) arise, these become a yellow cloud”. A famous dragon well is situated at the top of Mount Pien, in Hu-cheu. It flows from a cave, and is called “Golden Well Spring”. The cave is known as the “Golden Well Cave”, and is supposed to be so deep that no one can reach the end of it. There was a dragon well near Jerusalem.[28] Other dragon wells are found as far west as Ireland and Scotland. A cave with wells, called the “Dropping Cave”, at Cromarty, has a demon in its inner recesses. The Corycian cave of the Anatolian Typhoon is one of similar character. According to Greek legend, this hundred-headed monster, from whose eyes lightning flashes, will one day send hail, floods, and rivers of fire [[56]]to lay waste Sicilian farms.[29] The floods of the River Rhone were supposed to be caused by the “drac”. In Egypt Set became the “roaring serpent”, who crept into a hole in the ground, “wherein he hid himself and lived”. He had previously taken the shapes of the crocodile and the hippopotamus to escape Horus, the Egyptian “dragon slayer”.

CHINESE DRAGON VASE WITH CARVED WOOD STAND

(Victoria and Albert Museum)

In China the season of drought is winter. The dragons are supposed to sleep in their pools during the dry spell, and that is why, in the old Chinese work, Yih Lin, it is stated that “a dragon hidden in water is useless”. The dragons are supposed to sleep so that they may “preserve their bodies”. They begin to stir and rise in spring. Soon they fight with one another, so that there is no need for a Horus, a Merodach, or an Indra to compel them, by waging battle, to bring benefits to mankind. The Chinese welcome what they called a “dragon battle” after the dry season. Thunder-storms break out, and rain pours down in torrents. If a number of dragons engage in battle, and the war in the air continues longer than is desired, the rivers rise in flood and cause much destruction and loss of life. As the emperor was closely connected with the chief dragon-god, social upheavals and war might result, it was anciently believed, in consequence of the failure of the priests and the emperor (the holiest of priests) to control the dragons. The dynasty might be overthrown by the indignant and ruined peasantry.

Among the curious superstitions entertained in China regarding dragon battles, is one that no mortal should watch them. It was not only unlucky but perilous for human beings to peer into the mysteries. De Visser quotes a Chinese metrical verse in this connection: [[57]]

When they fight, the dragons do not look at us;

Why should we look at them when they are fighting?

If we do not seek the dragons,

They also will not seek us.[30]

In Gaelic Scotland the serpent, which is associated with the goddess Bride, sleeps all winter and comes forth on 1st February (old style), known as “Bride’s day”. A Gaelic verse tells in this connection:

The serpent will come from the home

On the brown day of Bride,

Though there should be three feet of snow

On the flat surface of the ground.[31]

As in China, a compact was made with the Bride serpent or dragon:

To-day is the Day of Bride,

The serpent shall come from his hole,

I will not molest the serpent,

And the serpent will not molest me.

It is evident that some very ancient belief, connected with the agricultural mode of life, lies behind these curious verses in such far-separated countries as Scotland and China. Bride and her serpent come forth to inaugurate the season of fruitfulness as do the battling dragons in the Far East.

When Chinese dragons fight, fire-balls and pearls fall to the ground. Pearls give promise of abundant supplies of water in the future. It is necessary, if all is to go well with the agriculturist, that the blue and yellow dragons should prevail over the others. The blue dragon is the chief spirit of water and rain, and this is the deity that presides during the spring season. [[58]]

A glimpse is afforded of the mental habits of the early searchers for precious or sacred metals and jewels by the beliefs entertained in China regarding the origin of the dragon-gods. These were supposed to have been hatched from stones, especially beautiful stones. The colours of stones were supposed to reveal the characters of the spirits that inhabited them. In Egypt, for instance, the blue turquoise was connected with the mother-goddess Hathor, who was, among other things, a deity of the sky and therefore the controller of the waters above the firmament as well as of the Nile. She was the mother of sun and moon. She was appealed to for water by the agriculturists and for favourable winds by the seafarers. The symbol used on such occasions was a blue stone. It was a “luck stone” that exercised an influence on the elements controlled by the goddess. In the Hebrides a blue stone used to be reverenced by the descendants of ancient sea-rovers. Martin in his Western Isles tells of such a stone, said to be always wet, which was preserved in a chapel dedicated to St. Columba on the Island of Fladda. “It is an ordinary custom,” he has written, “when any of the fishermen are detained in the isle by contrary winds, to wash the blue stone with water all round, expecting thereby to procure a favourable wind, which, the credulous tenant living in the isle says, never fails, especially if a stranger wash the stone.” Why a “stranger”? Was this curious custom introduced of old by strangers who had crossed the deep? Had the washing ceremony its origin in the custom of pouring out libations practised by those who came from an area in which a complex religious culture had grown up, and where men had connected a deity, originally associated with the water-supply and therefore with the food-supply, with tempests and ocean-tides and the sky? [[59]]

The Chinese, who called certain beautiful stones “dragon’s eggs”, believed that when they split, lightning flashed and thunder bellowed and darkness came on. The new-born dragons ascended to the sky. Before the dragons came forth, much water poured from the stone. As in the Hebrides, the dragon stone had, it would appear, originally an association with the fertilizing water-deity.

The new-born Chinese dragon is no bigger than a worm, or a baby serpent or lizard, but it grows rapidly. Evidently beliefs associated with the water-snake deities were fused with those regarding coloured stones. The snake was the soul of the river. Osiris as the Nile was a snake. His mother had, therefore, a snake form.

The haunting memory of the goddess-mother of water-spirits clings to the “dragon mother” of a Chinese legend related by ancient writers, a version of which is summarized by de Visser.[32] Once, it runs, an old woman found five “dragon eggs” lying in the grass. When they split (as in Egypt “the mountain of dawn” splits to give birth to the sun), this woman carried the little serpents to a river and let them go. For this service she was given the power to foretell future events. She became a sibyl—a priestess. The people called her “The Dragon Mother.” When she washed clothes at the river-side, the fishes, who were subjects of dragons, “used to dance before her”.

In various countries certain fish were regarded as forms of the shape-changing dragon. The Gaelic dragon sometimes appeared as the salmon, and a migratory fish was in Egypt associated with Osiris and his “mother”.

When the Chinese “Dragon Mother” died, she was buried on the eastern side of the river. Why, it may [[60]]be asked, on the eastern side? Was it because, being originally a goddess, she was regarded as the “mother” of the sun-god of the east—the mother who was “the mountain of dawn” and whose influence was concentrated in the blue stone? The Chinese dragon of the east is blue, and the blue dragon is associated with spring—the first-born season of the year. But apparently the dragons objected to the burial of the “Dragon Mother” on the eastern bank. The legend tells that they raised a violent storm, and transferred her grave to the western bank. Until the present age the belief obtains that there is always wind and rain near the “Dragon Mother’s Grave”. The people explain that the dragons love to “wash the grave”.

Here we find the dragons pouring out libations, as did the worshippers of the Great Mother who came from a distant land.

The god of the western quarter is white, and presides over the autumn season of fruitfulness. Just before the “birth” of autumn the Chinese address their prayers to the mountains and hills.

In ancient Egypt the conflict between the Solar and Osirian cults was a conflict between the “cult of the east” and the “cult of the west”. Professor Breasted notes that although Osiris is “First of the Westerners” (the west being his quarter) “he goes to the east (after death) in the Pyramid texts (of the solar cult) and the pair, Isis and Nepthys (the goddess), carry the dead into the east”. The east was the place where the ascent to the sky was made. In Egyptian solar theology it combined with the south. The rivalry between the two cults is reflected in one particular Pyramid text in which “the dead is adjured to go to the west in preference to the east, in order to join the sun-god!” But to the solar cult the [[61]]east was “the most sacred of all regions”. In the Pyramid texts it is found that “the old doctrine of the ‘west’ as the permanent realm of the dead, a doctrine which is later so prominent, has been quite submerged by the pre-eminence of the east”.[33]

This east-and-west theological war, then, had its origin in Egypt. How did it reach China, there to be enshrined in the legend of the Dragon Mother? Can it be held that it was “natural” the Chinese should have invented a legend which had so significant and ancient a history in the homeland of the earliest seafarers?

The dragon-gods that presided over the seasons and the divisions of the world were five in number. At the east was the blue (or green) god associated with spring, at the west the white god associated with autumn, at the north the black god associated with winter (the Chinese season of drought), and at the south were two gods, the red and the yellow; the red god presided during the greater part of summer, the rule of the yellow god being confined to the last month.

The dragons were life-givers not only as the gods who presided over the seasons and ensured the food-supply, but as those who gave cures for diseases. The “Red Cloud herb” and other curative herbs were found after a thunderstorm beside the dragon-haunted pools. De Groot[34] tells that fossil bones were called “dragon bones”, and were used for medicinal purposes. The dragons were supposed to cast off their bones as well as their skins. Bones of five colours (the colours of the five dragons) were regarded as the most effective. White and yellow bones came next in favour. Black bones were “of inferior quality”. The Shu King, a famous Chinese [[62]]historical classic,[35] tells that the dragons’ bones come from Tsin land. It is noted that the five-coloured ones are the best. The blue, yellow, red, white, and black ones, according to their colours, correspond with the viscera, as do the five chih (felicitous plants), the five crystals (shih ying), and the five kinds of mineral bole (shih chi). De Groot[36] gives the colours connected with the internal organs as follows:

• 1. Blue—liver and gall.
• 2. White—lungs and small intestines.
• 3. Red—heart and large intestines.
• 4. Black—kidneys and bladder.
• 5. Yellow—spleen and stomach.

Apparently the special curative quality of a dragon’s bone was revealed by its colour. The gods of the various “mansions” influenced different organs of the human body.

In ancient Egypt the internal organs were placed in jars and protected by the Horuses of the cardinal points. The god of the north had charge of the small viscera, the god of the south of the stomach and large intestines, the god of the west of liver and gall, and the god of the east of heart and lungs. The Egyptian north was red and symbolized by the Red Crown, and the south was white and symbolized by the White Crown.

In Mexico the colours white, red, and yellow were connected with different internal organs, and black with a disembowelled condition.

It is evident that the sea and land traders carried their strange stocks of medical knowledge over vast areas. It is not without significance to find in this connection that, [[63]]according to Chinese belief, there was an island on which dragons’ bones were found.

The dragons are not only rain-gods and gods of the four quarters and the seasons, but also “light-gods”, connected with sun and moon, day and night. In the Yih lin there is a reference to a black dragon which vomits light and causes darkness to turn into light. The mountain dragon of Mount Chung is called the “Enlightener of Darkness”. “When it opens its eyes it is day, when it shuts its eyes it is night. Blowing he makes winter, exhaling he makes summer. The wind is its breath.”[37]

In like manner the Egyptian Ra and Ptah are universal gods, the sun and moon being their “eyes”. Even Osiris, as far back as the Pyramid period, was the source of all life and a world-god. He was addressed: “The soil is on thy arm, its corners are upon thee as far as the four pillars of the sky. When thou movest the earth trembles.… As for thee, the Nile comes forth from the sweat of thy hands. Thou spewest out the wind.…”[38] Osiris sent water to bring fertility as do the dragons, air for the life-breath of man and beast, and also light, which was, of course, fire (the heat which is life).

The idea of the life-principle being in fire and water lies behind Wang Fu’s statement: “Dragon fire and human fire are opposite. If dragon fire comes into contact with wetness, it flames; and if it meets water, it burns. If one drives it (the dragon) away by means of fire, it stops burning and its flames are extinguished.”[39] Celestial fire is something different from ordinary fire. [[64]]The “vital spark” is of celestial origin—purer and holier than ordinary fire. Dragon skins, even when cast off, shine by night. So do pearls, coral, and precious stones “shine in darkness” in the Chinese myths.

One traces the influence of the solar cult in the idea that the dragon’s vital spirit is in its eyes. It is because iron blinds a dragon that it fears that metal. In Egypt the eye of Horus is blinded by Set, whose metal is iron.

There is a quaint mixture of religious ideas in the Chinese custom of carrying in procession through the streets, on the 15th of the first month, a dragon made of bamboo, linen, and paper. In front of it is borne a red ball. De Groot says that this is the azure dragon, the head of which rose as a star to usher in spring at the beginning.[40] In like manner the Egyptian “spring” is ushered in by the star Sirius, the mother of the sun, from which falls a tear that causes the inundation. But although the red ball may have been a solar symbol, it is also connected with the moon. The Chinese themselves call the ball “The Pearl of Heaven”—that is, “the moon”. An inscription on porcelain brings this out clearly. Mr. Blacker has translated the text below two dragons rushing towards a ball as “A couple of dragons facing the moon”.[41] The dragons were not only moon- and sun-“devourers” who caused eclipses, but guardians of these orbs in their capacities as gods of the four quarters.

The all-absorbing dragon appears even as a vampire. A tiger-headed dragon with the body of a snake seizes human beings, covers them with saliva, and sucks blood from under their armpits. “No blood is left when they stop sucking.”[42] In Japanese legends dragons as white [[65]]eels draw blood from the legs of horses that enter a river.[43] Evil or sick dragons send bad rain.

The gods ride on dragons, and therefore emperors and holy men can also use them as vehicles. Yu, the founder of the Hea Dynasty, had a carriage drawn by two dragons. Ghosts sometimes appear riding on dragons and wearing blue hats. The souls of the dead are conveyed to the Celestial regions by the winged gods. Dragons appear when great men are born.[44] Emperors had dragon ancestors. The Emperor Yaou was the son of a red dragon; one Japanese emperor had a dragon’s tail, being a descendant of the sea-god.[45]

In the next chapter it will be shown that in Chinese dragon-lore it is possible to detect with certainty the sources of certain “layers” that were superimposed on primitive conceptions regarding these deities. [[66]]

[1] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 109. [↑]

[2] Quoted by Prof. G. Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, p. 160. [↑]

[3] Ellis, Polynesian Researches, First Edition, Vol. I, p. 178. [↑]

[4] Rev. George Turner’s Nineteen Years in Polynesia (1861), pp. 238–9. The god emerging from the shell-fish is found in Mexico. Jackson’s Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture, p. 52. [↑]

[5] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 88. [↑]

[6] Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe, pp. 306–7. Pierced fish vertebræ have been found in Malta, Italy, the south-east of Spain, and Troy. See Malta and the Mediterranean Race, R. N. Bradley (London, 1912), p. 136. [↑]

[7] Manuel d’Archéologie Américaine, Fig. 21, p. 114. [↑]

[8] Ibid., p. 169. [↑]

[9] Ibid., p. 169. [↑]

[10] This mammal belongs to the order Sirenia, which includes manatees. It is native to Indian seas. A variety has been found in the Red Sea. [↑]

[11] Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology), 1915, pp. 255–6. [↑]

[12] A form of the mother-goddess. [↑]

[13] The Religious System of China, Vol. III, p. 1143. [↑]

[14] Hibbert Lectures, pp. 280–84. [↑]

[15] Legends of Babylonia and Egypt, Leonard W. King, pp. 116–7 (1918). [↑]

[16] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 20. [↑]

[17] Ibid., p. 26. [↑]

[18] The Voice of Africa, Vol. II, p. 467. [↑]

[19] The Evolution of the Dragon, p. 130. [↑]

[20] See illustration of the serpent enclosing the waters in the shrine of the Nile, from a bas-relief in the small temple of Philæ. Maspero’s The Dawn of Civilization, p. 39. [↑]

[21] Breasted, op. cit., p. 38. [↑]

[22] A kiao-lung is a dragon with fish scales. [↑]

[23] A horned dragon. [↑]

[24] A dragon with wings. [↑]

[25] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, pp. 72 et seq. [↑]

[26] Horus while alive, and Osiris after he died, as Dr. Gardiner insists. [↑]

[27] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 42. [↑]

[28] [Nehemiah, ii, 13]. [↑]

[29] Æschylus, Prometheus Vinctus, 351–72. [↑]

[30] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 46. [↑]

[31] Dr. A. Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, Vol. I, p. 169. [↑]

[32] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 89. [↑]

[33] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, pp. 99 et seq. [↑]

[34] The Religious System of China, Vol. VI, p. 1087. [↑]

[35] See English translation by Walter Gorn Old (London, 1904). [↑]

[36] The Religious System of China, Vol. IV, p. 26. [↑]

[37] De Visser, The Dragon in Japan and China, p. 62. [↑]

[38] Breasted’s Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 21. [↑]

[39] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 67. [↑]

[40] De Groot’s The Religious System of China, Vol. I, p. 369. [↑]

[41] Chats on Oriental China (London, 1908). [↑]

[42] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 79. [↑]

[43] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 112. [↑]

[44] A dragon appeared at the birth of Confucius. [↑]

[45] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 145. [↑]

[[Contents]]

CHAPTER VI

Bird and Serpent Myths

Culture Complexes in Dragon-lore—Polynesian Dragon Beliefs—Oceanic and African Fish-gods—Reptile Deities where no Reptiles are found—Chinese Dragons and Indian Nagas—Dragon-links between India, Tibet, China, and Japan—Birds and Snakes—Distribution of Egyptian “Winged Disk”—Horus and the “Secretary Bird”—Indian Mungoose supplants “Secretary Bird”—Mungoose form of God of Riches and Death—Bird and Serpent combined in Dragon—Babylonian Dragon was a combination of Eagle, Serpent, and Lion—Tree Forms of the Chinese Dragon, the Polynesian Mo-o, and the Indian Nagas—The Dragon, the Salmon, the Tree, and the “Thunder-bird”.

The intensive study of a country’s beliefs and ideas, as revealed in its myths and legends, is greatly facilitated by the adoption of the comparative method. It may not always be found possible to identify areas in which certain beliefs had origin, but when we detect, as we do in China, myths similar to those found in other lands, and especially highly complex myths, that had origin in one particular country and received additions in another, the imported elements may be sifted out from a local religious system without much difficulty.

The Chinese dragon has distinct and outstanding Chinese characteristics, but it is obviously not entirely a Chinese creation. Attached to the “composite wonder beast” are complex ideas that have a history outside China, as well as those ideas that reflect Chinese natural phenomena and Chinese experiences and habits of life and thought. The fused beliefs, as symbolized by the dragon, [[67]]have passed through a prolonged process of local development, but those that were imported have not, it is found, been entirely divested of their distinctive characteristics, and remain preserved as flies are in amber.

Interesting and important evidence that throws light on the history of the Chinese dragon is found in Polynesia, India, and Babylonia, and even in Egypt and Europe. The cultural influence of Babylonia, which radiated over a wide area for a score of centuries or longer, is traceable in India, and, as is well known, Buddhist India exercised a strong cultural influence on China. But, as will be shown, Babylonian influence reached the Shensi province of China long before the Aryans entered India. Buddhist ideas regarding the pearl-protecting dragon-god of water and fire were evidently superimposed in China upon earlier Babylonian ideas regarding the water-dragon, which had no particular connection with pearls. At any rate, there is no mention of pearls in the Babylonian myth.

When it is found that many of the ideas connected with the Chinese dragon were prevalent in Polynesia, what conclusion is to be drawn? There is no evidence that Chinese culture was an active force in New Zealand or Hawaii, for instance. It cannot have been from China that the Polynesians derived their dragon, or their beliefs connected with the serpent, a reptile unknown to the islanders at first hand. The only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn is that the Chinese and the Polynesians were influenced at an early period by intruders from other lands. The Polynesian intruders must necessarily have been sea-traders. Of course, the Polynesians may themselves have imported their dragon beliefs from their homeland. That homeland, however, was certainly not China. [[68]]

The Polynesian Mo-o or Mo-ko (dragon) had, as was shown in the last chapter, a connection with pearls. “On Maui”, writes W. D. Westervelt,[1] “the greatest dragon of the island was Kiha-wahine. The natives had the saying, ‘Kiha has mana, or miraculous power, like Mo-o-inanea’. She lived in a large, deep pool on the edge of the village Lahaina, and was worshipped by the royal family of Maui as their special guardian.” Royal families were invariably the descendants of intruding conquerors. It is of special interest, therefore, to find the Polynesian dragon-god connected with a military aristocracy.

The Rev. George Brown, missionary and explorer, refers to similar dragon beliefs among the people of New Britain. He tells of a spring connected with the woman (goddess) who caused the deluge. The natives “say that an immense fish lives in it, which will come out when they call it”. The belief obtains among the Melanesians “that the creator of all things was a woman”. She “made all lands” and “the natives prayed” to her “when an eclipse of the sun or the moon took place”.[2] The king of Samoan gods was a dragon. “This god”, Brown tells, “had the body of a man to the breast only, and the body of an eel (muræna) below. This eel’s body lies down in the ocean, and from the chest to the head lies down in the house. This is the god to whom all things are reported. The inferior gods are his attendants.”[3]

Gods half human and half reptile, or half human and half fish, are found in various countries. In the British Museum are bronze reliefs of the King of Benin (as the representative of his chief deity) half shark and half man. The kings of Dahomey were depicted as sharks with bodies [[69]]covered with scales; their statues are in the Trocadero, Paris.[4]

That the Polynesian reptile deities were imported there can be no doubt. As early as 1825 Mr. Bloxam, the English naval chaplain, drew this necessary conclusion. In his The Voyage of the Blonde he says: “At the bottom of the Parre (pali) there are two large stones, on which even now offerings of fruit and flowers are laid to propitiate the Aku-wahines, or goddesses, who are supposed to have the power of granting a safe passage”. Referring to the female mo-o, or reptile deities, Mr. Bloxam says it was difficult for him to get an explanation of their name, the Hawaiians having “nothing of the shape of serpents or large reptiles in their islands”.[5]

But the closest analogy to the Chinese dragon is found in India. The Nagas (serpent-gods), which were taken over by the Buddhists, and the Chinese dragons have much in common. “Cobras in their ordinary shape,” writes Dr. Rhys Davids of the Nagas, “they lived beneath the waters like mermen and mermaids, in great luxury and wealth, more especially of gems.” Sometimes the tree-spirits (dryads) are called Nagas. “They could at will, and often did, adopt the human form; and though terrible if angered, were kindly and mild by nature.”[6] Kerns says “that the Nagas are water-spirits represented, as a rule, in human shapes, with a crown of serpents on their heads”, and also as “snake-like beings resembling clouds”.[7] They are “demi-gods”. Like the Chinese dragons, the Nagas are guardians of the four quarters of the universe. There are withal Nagas in the sea who control winds and tides, and one of the Naga kings is Sagara, who is a Neptune in [[70]]Japan. The Nagas are also “Lords of the Earth”, and send drought and disease when offended or neglected. Ea, the sea-god of the early Babylonians, was known also as Enki, “The Lord of the Earth”.

In Buddhist art the Naga is shown in three forms: (1) as a human being with a snake on or poised over the head, reminding one of the Egyptian kings or queens who wear the uræus symbol on their foreheads; (2) as half human and half snake (the “mermaid form”); and (3) as ordinary snakes. The first form is found not only in India, but in Tibet, China, and Japan. Human-shaped Nagas are depicted worshipping Buddha, as they stand in water.

In Tibet, the Naga is shown with the upper part of the body in human shape and the lower in snake shape; there are horns on the head and wings spreading out from the shoulders. The same form is found in Japan.

This Tibetan link between the Indian Naga and the Chinese Dragon is important. The bird-god has been blended with the snake-god. In India the bird-gods (Garudas) are enemies of the Nagas (snakes), and Garudas in “eagle shape” are found depicted in low relief, carrying off Nagas in snake shape. This eternal conflict between eagle-like birds and serpents is one of the features of Babylonian mythology.

The story of Zu, the Babylonian Eagle-god, is found on tablets that were stored in the library of the great Assyrian King, Ashur-bani-pal. Zu, it is related, stole from the gods the “tablets of destiny”, and was pursued and caught by Shamash, the sun-god. In one version of the myth Zu, the eagle, is punished by the serpent, which conceals itself in the body of an ox. When the eagle comes to feast on the flesh it is seized by the serpent and slain. [[71]]

In Polynesia the eternal conflict between bird-god and serpent-god is illustrated in wood-carvings. The Egyptian winged disk, as adopted by the islanders, shows the bird in the centre with a struggling snake in its beak. The Central American peoples had likewise this bird-and-serpent myth. Indeed, it figures prominently in their mythologies. In Mexico the winged disk was placed, as in Egypt, above the entrances to the temples.

The bird-and-serpent myth is to be found even in the Iliad. When Hector set forth with his heroes to break through the wall of the Achæan camp, an eagle appeared in the air, bearing in its talons “a blood-red monstrous snake, alive and struggling still”. The writhing snake manages to sting the eagle, which immediately drops it.[8]

In ancient Egyptian myths the bird was the Horus hawk and the serpent was Set. Horus assumed, in his great battle against the snake, crocodile, and other enemies of Ra, the winged disk form—the winged sun, protected by the two snake-goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt.

This strange combination of deities in the “winged disk” symbol was as distinctively an Egyptian cultural and political complex as the Union Jack is distinctively a British complex. As the Union Jack has been carried to many a distant land, so was the Egyptian winged disk, “the flag” of Egyptian culture. In those areas in which the winged disk is found, are found also traces of Egyptian ideas which, of course, were not necessarily introduced by the Egyptians themselves.

How did this myth of the struggle between bird and serpent have origin? The only country in the world in which a great bird hunts serpents is Africa. The bird in question is the famous secretary bird (Serpentarius secretarius), which is nowadays domesticated by South African [[72]]farmers so as to keep down snakes. It is found in East and West Africa. “In general appearance it looks like a modified eagle mounted on stilts.”[9] The bird attacks a snake with wings outspread, and flaps them in front of its body to prevent itself from being bitten during the conflict. Early Egyptian seafarers were no doubt greatly impressed when, “in the land of Punt”, they saw these strange birds, with heads like eagles or hawks, standing over snakes they had clutched in their talons, and then flying away with them dangling from their beaks. The mariners’ stories about the snake-devouring bird appear to have crept into the mythology of Egypt, with the result that the Horus hawk became the hunter of Set in his “hissing serpent” form. Above the hole in the ground into which the Set serpent fled for concealment and safety was set a pole surmounted by the head of the Horus hawk. As Dr. Budge puts it: “Horus, the son of Isis, stood upon him (Set) in the form of a pole or staff, on the top of which was the head of a hawk”.[10] But, one may urge, it could not have been until after Egyptian vessels visited the coasts haunted by the secretary bird that the bird and serpent variation of the Horus-Set myth was formulated in the land of Egypt, whence, apparently, it was distributed far and wide. Horus was not necessarily an enemy of serpents, seeing that there are two in his disk.

In Tibet, as has been stated, the bird and serpent were combined, and the “composite beast” was given a human head with horns. The horned and winged dragon of China is thus, in part, a combination of the original secretary bird and the snake. [[73]]

The later blending process was, no doubt, due to Buddhistic influence. Both Nagas (snakes) and Garudas (eagles or secretary birds) were included in northern India among the gods and demons who worshipped Buddha. The Nagas understood the language of birds. They gave charms to human beings so that they might share this knowledge. In European and Arabian stories folk-heroes acquire the language of birds, or of all animals, after eating the hearts of dragons. A Naga king causes an Indian king to understand what animals say.[11]

“The jewel that grants all desires” is possessed by the Indian Nagas, as it is by Chinese and Japanese dragons. In the Mahábhárata, the Pandava hero Arjuna is, after being slain in combat, restored to life by his Naga wife, who had obtained this magic jewel from the Naga king.[12]

The Nagas are guardians of pearls, and the females have many pearl necklaces.

Note may here be taken of interesting Indian evidence that throws light on the process of transferring to a local animal complex ideas associated with another animal figuring in an imported myth. The great enemy of African snakes is, as has been said, the secretary bird; the Indian enemy is the mungoose. In early Buddhist art the mungoose, spitting jewels, is placed in the right hand of Kubera, god of wealth, who stands on the back of a Yaksha (a bird demon). By devouring snakes (Nagas) the mungoose (according to the myth) “appropriates their jewels, and has hence developed into the attribute of Kubera”.[13] Here the pearl-guarding shark, having become a jewel-guarding dragon-snake, is substituted [[74]]by the jewel-spitting mungoose which has “devoured” its attributes.

The god Kubera has a heaven of its own, and is a form of Yama, god of death. In his form as Dharma, god of justice, Yama figures in the Mahábhárata[14] as a “blue-eyed mungoose with one side of his body changed into gold”, his voice being “loud and deep as thunder”. Here Yama links with Indra, god of thunder, who, having a heaven of his own, is also a god of death. Egypt had its “blue-eyed Horus”.[15] The god Horus was the living form of Osiris. The living Pharaoh was a Horus, and the dead Pharaoh an Osiris, as Dr. Gardiner reminds us.

The combination of bird and serpent is found in Persia as well as in Tibet. On an archaic cylinder seal from the ancient Elamite capital of Susa, the dragon is a lion with an eagle’s head and wings; the forelegs are those of the eagle, and the hind legs those of a lion.

A form of the god Tammuz, namely the god Nin-Girsu (“Lord of Girsu”) of the Sumerian city of Lagash (Girsu appears to have been a suburb), was a lion-headed eagle.[16] The god Ea had a dragon form.[17] The dragon of the Ishtar gate of Babylon is a combination of eagle, serpent, and lion, and is horned.

There can remain little doubt that the Chinese dragon has an interesting history, not only in China but outside that country. It cannot be held to have independent origin. At a remote period dragon beliefs reached China, India, and Polynesia, and even America.[18]

In each separated area the dragon took on a local [[75]]colouring, but the fundamental beliefs connected with it remained the same. It was closely connected with water (the “water of life”), and also with trees (the “trees of life”). Thus we find that in China a dragon might assume “the shape of a tree growing under water”;[19] a boat once collided with drift-wood which was found to be a dragon. Crocodiles are sometimes mistaken for logs of wood.

In Hawaii two noted dragons (mo-o) lived in a river. “They were called ‘the moving boards’ which made a bridge across the river.”[20]

The Indian Nagas were not only water deities but tree spirits, as Dr. Rhys Davids has emphasized.[21]

Behind dragon worship is a complex of beliefs connected with what is usually called “tree and well worship”. In Gaelic stories, the sacred tree is guarded by the “beast” in the sacred well, and a form of the “beast” (dragon) is the salmon; in the tree is the “thunder bird”. Dragon, tree, and bird are connected with the god of thunder who sends rain.

When Buddhism reached China, imported Naga beliefs were superimposed on earlier Chinese beliefs connected with the dragon-god who controlled the rain-supply, as Osiris in Egypt controlled the Nile, and the Babylonian Ea the Euphrates.

In the next chapter various beliefs connected with the dragon are brought out in representative legends. [[76]]

[1] Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology, 1915), p. 258. [↑]

[2] Melanesians and Polynesians (London, 1910), pp. 334–5. [↑]

[3] Ibid., p. 364. [↑]

[4] Indo-China and its Primitive People, London (trans.), p. 192. [↑]

[5] Hawaiian Mythology, p. 257. [↑]

[6] Buddhist India, pp. 222–3. [↑]

[7] Manual of Indian Buddhism, pp. 593 et seq. [↑]

[8] Iliad, Book XII (Lang’s, Leaf’s, and Dyer’s Trans.), p. 236. [↑]

[9] The Natural History of Animals (Gresham, London), Vol. III, p. 176 and pp. 46 et seq. [↑]

[10] Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. I, p. 481. [↑]

[11] Chavannes’ Contes et Apologues. [↑]

[12] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 314–5. [↑]

[13] Laufer, The Diamond: a study in Chinese and Hellenistic Folk-lore, p. 7 (Chicago, 1915). [↑]

[14] Açwamedha Parva, Section XC, Sloka 5. [↑]

[15] Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. II, p. 107. [↑]

[16] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 120. [↑]

[17] Ibid., p. 62. [↑]

[18] The Evolution of the Dragon, G. Elliot Smith, pp. 83 et seq. [↑]

[19] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 130. [↑]

[20] Westervelt’s Legends of Gods and Ghosts, p. 258. [↑]

[21] Buddhist India, pp. 224–5. [↑]

[[Contents]]

CHAPTER VII

Dragon Folk-stories

How Fish became Chinese Dragons—Fish forms of Teutonic and Celtic Gods—Dragon-slayers eat Dragons’ Hearts—The “Language of Birds”—Heart as Seat of Intelligence—Babylonian Dragon-Kupu—Polynesian Dragon-Kupua—Dragons and Medicinal Herbs—Story of Chinese Herbalist and “Red Cloud Herb”—“Boy Blue” and Red Carp as Forms of Black Dragon—Ignis Fatuus as “Dragon Lanterns”—“Heart Fire”—Story of Priest and Dragon-woman—The “Fire Nail” in Japan and Polynesia—The “Faith Cure” in Japan—The Magic Rush-mat—Grave Reed-mats, Skins, and Linen Wrappings—The Ephod—Melusina in Far East—Story of Wu and the Thunder Dragon.

In Chinese and Japanese folk-stories the dragons have fish forms or avatars. They may be eels, carps, or migratory fish like the salmon. It is believed that those fish that ascend a river’s “dragon gate” become dragons, while those that remain behind continue to be fish. Dragons are closely associated with waterfalls. They haunt in one or other of their forms the deep pools below them.

In western European stories, dragons and gods of fire and water assume the forms of fish, and hide themselves in pools. Loki of Icelandic legend has a salmon form. When the gods pursue him, he hides in Franang’s stream, or “under the waters of a cascade called Franangurfors”.[1] After he is caught and bound, Loki is tortured by a serpent. When he twists his body violently, earthquakes are caused. He is closely associated with [[77]]the “dragon-woman”, and is the father of monsters, including the moon-swallowing wolf-dragon.

Andvari, the guardian of Nibelung treasure, has a pike form.[2]

In Gaelic legend the salmon is the source of wisdom and of the power to foretell events. Finn (Fionn) tastes of the “Salmon of Knowledge” when it is being cooked, and immediately becomes a seer. Michael Scott, in like manner, derives wisdom from the “juices” of the white snake. The salmon is, in Gaelic, a form of the dragon. The dragon of Lough Bel Séad[3] (Lake of the Jewel Mouth), in Ireland, was caught “in the shape of a salmon”.

Sigurd, the dragon-slayer of Norse Icelandic stories, eats the dragon’s heart, and at once understands the language of birds. So does Siegfried of Germanic romance. The birds know the secrets of the gods. They are themselves forms of the gods. Apollonius of Tyana acquired wisdom by eating the hearts of dragons in Arabia.

In ancient Egypt the heart was not only the seat of life, but the mind, and therefore the source of “words of power”. The Hebrews and many other peoples used “heart” when they wrote of “mind”.[4] Ptah, god of Memphis, was the “heart” (mind) of the gods. The “heart” fashioned the gods. Everything that is came into existence by the thought of the “heart” (mind).

The Egyptian belief about the power of the “heart” (the source of magic knowledge, and healing, and creative power) lies behind the stories regarding heroes eating dragons’ hearts. In an Egyptian folk-tale the dragon-slayer [[78]]does not eat the heart of the reptile god, but gets possession of a book of spells, and, on reading these, acquires knowledge of the languages of all animals, including fish and birds.[5]

When, however, we investigate the dragon beliefs of ancient Babylonia, we meet with a reference to the Ku-pu as the source of divine power and wisdom. After Merodach (Marduk) the dragon-slayer kills Tiamat, the “mother dragon”, a form of the mother-goddess, he “divides the flesh of the Ku-pu, and devises a cunning plan”. As the late Mr. Leonard W. King pointed out,[6] Ku-pu is a word of uncertain meaning. It did not signify the heart, because it had been previously stated in the text that Merodach severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart.

Jensen has suggested that Ku-pu signifies “trunk, body”. It is more probable that the Ku-pu was the seat of the soul, mind, and magical power; the power that enabled the slain reptile to come to life again in another form.[7]

It may be that a clue is afforded in this connection by the Polynesian idea of Kupua. Mr. Westervelt, who has carefully recorded what he has found, writes regarding the Mo-o (dragons) of the Hawaiians:

“Mighty eels, immense sea turtles, large fish of the ocean, fierce sharks, were all called mo-o. The most ancient dragons of the Hawaiians are spoken of as living in pools or lakes. These [[79]]dragons were known also as Kupuas, or mysterious characters, who could appear as animals, or human beings, according to their wish. The saying was, ‘Kupuas have a strange double body!’ ”

The Polynesian beliefs connected with the Kupuas are highly suggestive. Mr. Westervelt continues:

“It was sometimes thought that at birth another natural form was added, such as an egg of a fowl or a bird, or the seed of a plant, or the embryo of some animal which, when fully developed, made a form which could be used as readily as the human body. These Kupuas were always given some great magic power. They were wonderfully strong, and wise, and skilful.

“Usually the birth of a Kupua, like the birth of a high chief, was attended with strange disturbances in the heavens, such as reverberating thunder, flashing lightning, and severe storms which sent the abundant red soil of the islands down the mountain-sides in blood-red torrents, known as ka-ua-koko (the blood rain). The name was also given to misty, fine rain when shot through by the red waves of the sun.”

All the dragons of Hawaii were descended from Mo-o-inanea (the self-reliant dragon), a mother-goddess. She had a dual nature, “sometimes appearing as a dragon, sometimes as a woman”. Hawaiian dragons also assumed the forms of large stones, some of which were associated with groves of hau trees; on these stones ferns and flowers were laid and referred to as “kupuas”.[8]

In China the dragon’s kupua (to use the Polynesian term) figures in various stories. We meet with the “Red Cloud herb”, or the “Dragon Cloud herb”, which cures diseases. It is the gift of the dragon, and apparently a dragon kupua. Other curative herbs are the “dragon-whisker’s herb” and the “dragon’s liver”, a species of gentian, which is in Japan a badge of the Minamoto family. The “dragon’s spittle” had curative qualities, [[80]]the essence of life being in the body moisture of a deity. The pearl, which the dragon spits out, has, or is, “soul substance”. The plum tree was in China connected with the dragon. A story tells that once a dragon was punished by having its ears cut off. Its blood fell on the ground, and a plum tree sprang up; it bore fleshy fruit without kernels.[9] When in an ancient Egyptian story the blood of the Bata bull falls to the ground two trees containing his soul-forms grow in a night.[10]

A Chinese “Boy Blue” story deals with the search made by Wang Shuh, a herbalist, for the Red Cloud herb. He followed the course of a mountain stream on a hot summer day, and at noon sat down to rest and eat rice below shady trees beside the deep pool of a waterfall. As he lay on the bank, gazing into the water, he was astonished to see in its depths a blue boy, about a foot in height, with a blue rush in his hand, riding on the back of a red carp, without disturbing the fish, which darted hither and thither. In time the pair came to the surface, and, rising into the air, turned towards the east. Then they went swiftly in the direction of a bank of cloud that was creeping across the blue sky, and vanished from sight.

The herbalist continued to ascend the mountain, searching for the herb, and when he reached the summit was surprised to find that the sky had become completely overcast. Great masses of black and yellow clouds had risen over the Eastern Sea, and a thunder-storm was threatening. Wang Shuh then realized that the blue boy he had seen riding on the back of the red carp was no other than the thunder-dragon. He peered at [[81]]the clouds, and perceived that the boy and the carp[11] had been transformed into a black kiao (scaled dragon). He was greatly alarmed, and concealed himself in a hollow tree.

Soon the storm burst forth in all its fury. The herbalist trembled to hear the voice of the black thunder-dragon and to catch glimpses of his fiery tongue as he spat out flashes of lightning. Rain fell in torrents, and the mountain stream was heavily swollen, and roared down the steep valley. Wang Shuh feared that each moment would be his last.

In time, however, the storm ceased and the sky cleared. Wang Shuh then crept forth from his hiding-place, thankful to be still alive, although he had seen the dragon. He at once set out to return by the way he had come. When he drew near to the waterfall he was greatly astonished to hear the sound of sweet humming music. Peering through the branches of the trees, he beheld the little blue boy riding on the back of the red carp, returning from the east and settling down on the surface of the pool. Soon the boy was carried into the depths and past the playful fish again.

Struck with fear, the herbalist was for a time unable to move. When at length he had summoned sufficient strength and courage to go forward, he found that the boy and the carp had vanished completely. Then he perceived that the Red Cloud herb, for which he had been searching, had sprung up on the very edge of the swirling water. Stooping, he plucked it greedily. As soon as he had done so, he went scampering down the side of the mountain. On reaching the village, Wang told his friends the wonderful story of his adventure and discovery.

CARP LEAPING FROM WAVES

From a Japanese painting in the British Museum

[[82]]

Now it happened that the Emperor’s daughter—a very beautiful girl—was lying ill in the royal palace. The Court physicians had endeavoured in vain to restore her to health. Hearing of Wang Shuh’s discovery of the Red Cloud herb, the Emperor sent out for him. On reaching the palace, the herbalist was addressed by the Emperor himself, who said: “Is it true, as men tell, that you have seen the black kiao in the form of a little blue boy riding on a red carp?”

“It is indeed true,” Wang Shuh made answer.

“And is it true that you have found the dragon herb that sprang up during the thunder-storm?”

“I have brought the herb with me, Your Majesty.”

“Mayhap,” the Emperor said, “it will give healing to my daughter.”

Wang Shuh at once made offer of the herb, and the Emperor led him to the room in which the sick princess lay. The herb had a sweet odour,[12] and Wang Shuh plucked a leaf and gave it to the lady to smell. She at once showed signs of reviving, and this was regarded as a good omen. Wang Shuh then made a medicine from the herb, and when the princess had partaken of it, she grew well and strong again.

The Emperor rewarded Wang Shuh by appointing him his chief physician. Thus the herbalist became a great and influential man.

To few mortals comes the privilege of setting eyes on a dragon, and to fewer is the vision followed by good fortune.

In this quaint story the Red Cloud herb is evidently [[83]]a kupua of the thunder-dragon. It had “soul substance” (the vital essence). Another kupua or avatar was the carp.

In China and Japan there are references in dragon stories to pine trees being forms assumed by dragons. The connection between the tree and dragon is emphasized by the explanation that when a pine becomes very old it is covered with scales of bark, and ultimately changes into a dragon. By night “dragon lanterns” (ignis fatuus) are seen on pine trees in marshy places, and on the masts of ships at sea.

The pine trees at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines are said to be regularly illuminated by these “supernatural” lights. The “lanterns” are supposed to come from the sea. Japanese stories tell that when a lantern appears on a pine, a little boy, known as the “Heavenly Boy”, is to be seen sitting on the topmost branch. Some lights were supposed to be the souls of holy men. In Gaelic stories are told about little men being seen in these wandering lights.

There is an evil form of the fire which is supposed to rise from the blood of a suicide or of a murderer’s victim. The “heart fire” (the “vital spark”) in the blood is supposed to rise as a flame from the ground. A similar superstition prevailed in England. If lights made their appearance above a prison on the night before the arrival of the judges of assize, the omen was regarded as a fatal one for the prisoners. The belief is widespread in the British Isles that lights (usually greenish lights) appear before a sudden death takes place.

Wandering lights seen on mountains were supposed by the Chinese and Japanese to be caused by dragons. A Japanese legend associates them with a dragon woman, named Zennyo, who appears to have the attributes of a [[84]]fire-goddess. It is told regarding a Buddhist priest who lived beside a dragon hole on Mount Murōbu. One day, as he was about to cross a river, a lady wearing rich and dazzling attire came up to him and made request for a magic charm he possessed. She spoke with averted face, telling who she was. The priest repeated the charm to her and then said: “Permit me to look upon your face”.

Said the dragon woman: “It is very terrible to behold. No man dare gaze on my face. But I cannot refuse your request.”

The priest had his curiosity satisfied, but apparently without coming to harm. Priestly prestige was maintained by stories of this kind.

As soon as the priest looked in her face the dragon woman rose in the air, and stretched out the small finger of her right hand. It was not, however, of human shape, but a claw that suddenly extended a great length and flashed lights of five colours. The “five colours” indicate that the woman was a deity. Kwan Chung, in his work Kwantsze, says: “A dragon in the water covers himself with five colours. Therefore, he is a god (shin).”[13]

The “fire nail” figures prominently in Polynesian mythology. In the legend of Maui, that hero-god goes to the old woman (the goddess), his grandmother, to obtain fire for mankind. “Then the aged woman pulled out her nail; and as she pulled it out fire flowed from it, and she gave it to him. And when Maui saw she had drawn out her nail to produce fire for him, he thought it a most wonderful thing.”[14]

The reference in the Japanese story to the averted face of the dragon woman may be connected with the ancient belief that the mortal who looked in the face of [[85]]a deity was either shrivelled up or transformed into stone, as happened in the case of those who fixed their eyes upon the face of Medusa. Goddesses like the Egyptian Neith were “veiled”. A Japanese legend tells of a dragon woman who appeared as a woman with a malicious white face. She laughed loudly, displaying black teeth. She was often seen on a bridge, binding up her hair.[15] Apparently she was a variety of the mermaid family, and this may explain the reference to her being “one legged”. The people scared her away by forming a torch-light procession and advancing towards her. Dragons were sometimes expelled by means of fire. In Europe, bonfires were lit when certain “ceremonies of riddance” were performed.

British mermaids are credited, in the folk-tales, with providing cures for various diseases, and especially herbs,[16] and in this connection they link with the dragon wives of China and Japan. Some dragon women lived for a time among human beings as do swan-maidens, nereids, mermaids, and fairies in the stories of various lands.

A Japanese legend tells of an elderly and mysterious woman who had the power to cure any ill that flesh is heir to. When a patient called, she listened attentively to what was told her. Then she retired to a secret chamber, sat down and placed a rush mat[17] on her head. [[86]]After sitting alone for a time (apparently engaged in working a magic spell) she left the chamber and returned to the patient. She recommended the “faith cure”. Making the pretence that she was handing over a medicine, she said: “Believe that I have given you medicine. Now, go away. Each day you must sit down and imagine that you are taking my medicine. Come back to me in seven days’ time.” Those who faithfully carried out her instructions are said to have been cured. Large numbers visited her daily.

It was suspected that this woman was possessed by the spirit of a water-demon. A watch was set upon her, and one night she was seen going from her house to a well in which, during the day, she often washed her head while being consulted by patients. Those who watched her told that she remained in human shape for a little time. Then she transformed herself into a white mist and entered the well. Protective charms were recited, and she never returned. For many years afterwards, however, her house was haunted.

De Groot relates a story about one of the wives of an Emperor of China who practised magic by means of reptiles and insects. Her object was to have her son selected as crown prince. She was detected, and she and her son were imprisoned. Both became dragons before they died.

Dragons sometimes appear in the stories in the rôle of demon lovers. A Japanese legend tells of two boys who were the children of a man and a dragon woman. In time they changed into dragons and flew away. The [[87]]woman herself came to her lover in the shape of a snake, and then transformed herself into a beautiful maiden.

This is a version of a very widespread story, found in the Old and New World, which was possibly distributed by ancient mariners and traders. Its most familiar form is the French legend of Melusina, the serpent woman, who became the wife of Raymond of Poitou, and the mother of his disfigured children.[18]

A Chinese legend of the Melusina order deals with the fall of the Hea Dynasty. A case of dragon foam which had been kept in the royal palace during three dynasties was one day opened, and there issued forth a dragon in the form of a black lizard. It touched a young virgin, who became the mother of a girl whom she bore in secret and abandoned in a wood. It chanced that a poor man and his wife, who were childless, hearing the cries of the babe, took her to their house, where they cared for her tenderly. But the magicians came to know of the dragon’s daughter, of whom it had been prophesied that she would destroy the dynasty. Search was made for the child, and the foster-parents fled with her to the land of Pao. They presented her to the king of the land, and she grew up to be a beautiful maid who was called Pao Sze. The king loved her dearly, and when she gave birth to a son, he made her his queen, degrading Queen Chen and her son, the crown prince. Poh Fuh, the son of the dragon woman, then became crown prince instead.

Now Pao Sze, although very beautiful, was always sad of countenance. She never smiled. The king did everything in his power to make her smile and laugh. But his efforts were in vain.

“Fain would I hear you laugh,” said he.

But she only sighed and said: “Ask me not to laugh.” [[88]]

One day the king, in his endeavours to break the spell of sadness that bound his beautiful queen, arranged that his lords should enter the palace and declare that an enemy army was at hand, and that the life of the king was in peril.

This they did. The king was at the time making merry when his lords entered suddenly and said: “Your Majesty, the enemy have come, while you sit making merry, and they are resolved to slay you.”

The king’s sudden change of countenance made the dragon woman laugh. His Majesty was well pleased.

Then, as it chanced, the enemy came indeed. But when the alarm was raised, the lords thought it was a false one. The army took possession of the city, entered the palace, and slew the king. Pao Sze was taken prisoner, because of her fatal beauty; but she brought no joy to her captor and transformed herself into a dragon, departing suddenly and causing a thunder-storm to rage.

CHINESE PORCELAIN VASE DECORATED WITH FIVE-CLAWED DRAGONS RISING FROM WAVES

(Victoria and Albert Museum)

To those who win their favour, the dragons are preservers even when they come forth as destroyers. The story is told of how Wu, the son of a farmer named Yin, won the favour of a dragon and rose to be a great man in China. When he was a boy of thirteen, he was sitting one day at the garden gate, looking across the plain which is watered by a winding river that flows from the mountains. He was a silent, dreamy boy, who had been brought up by his grandmother, his mother having died when he was very young, and it was his habit thus to sit in silence, thinking and observing things. Along the highway came a handsome youth riding a white horse. He was clad in yellow garments and seemed to be of high birth. Four man-servants accompanied him, and one held an umbrella to shield him from the sun’s bright [[89]]rays. The youth drew up his horse at the gate and, addressing Wu, said: “Son of Yin, I am weary. May I enter your father’s house and rest a little time?”

The boy bowed and said: “Enter.”

Yin then came forward and opened the gate. The noble youth dismounted and sat on a seat in the court, while his servants tethered the horse. The farmer chatted with his visitor, and Wu gazed at them in silence. Food was brought, and when the meal was finished, the youth thanked him for his hospitality and walked across the courtyard. Wu noticed that before one of the servants passed through the gate, he turned the umbrella upside down. When the youth had mounted his horse, he turned to the silent, observant boy and said: “I shall come again to-morrow.”

Wu bowed and answered: “Come!”

The strangers rode away, and Wu sat watching them until they had vanished from sight.

When evening came on, the farmer spoke to his son regarding the visitors, and said: “The noble youth knew my name and yet I have never set eyes on him before.”

Wu was silent for a time. Then he said: “I cannot say who the youth is or who his attendants are.”

“You watched them very closely, my son. Did you note anything peculiar about them?”

Said Wu: “There were no seams in their clothing; the white horse had spots of five colours and scaly armour instead of hair. The hoofs of the horse and the feet of the strangers did not touch the ground.”[19]

Yin rose up with agitation and exclaimed: “Then they are not human beings, but spirits.” [[90]]

Said Wu: “I watched them as they went westward. Rain-clouds were gathering on the horizon, and when they were a great distance off they all rose in the air and vanished in the clouds.”[20]

Yin was greatly alarmed to hear this, and said: “I must ask your grandmother what she thinks of this strange happening.”

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.

Said Wu: “I have just seen the dragon. As I looked towards the sky he spread out his great hood above our home. He is protecting us now.”

“Alas! my son, you are dreaming.” [[92]]

“Listen, father, no rain falls on the roof.”

Yin listened intently. Then he said: “You speak truly, my son. This is indeed a great marvel.”

“It was well,” said Wu, “that you welcomed the dragon yesterday.”

“He spoke to you first, my son; and you answered, ‘Enter’. Ah, you have much wisdom. You will become a great man.”

The storm began to subside, and Wu prevailed upon his father to lie down and sleep.[24]

Much damage had been done by storm and flood, and large numbers of human beings and domesticated animals had perished. In the village, which was situated at the mouth of the valley, only a few houses were left standing.

The rain ceased to fall at midday. Then the sun came out and shone brightly, while the waters began to retreat.

Wu went outside and sat at the garden gate, as was his custom. In time he saw the yellow youth returning from the west, accompanied by his four attendants. When he came nigh, Wu bowed and the youth drew up his horse and spoke, saying: “I said I should return to-day.”

Wu bowed.

“But this time I shall not enter the courtyard,” the youth added.

“As you will,” Wu said reverently.

The dragon youth then handed the boy a single scale which he had taken from the horse’s neck, and said: “Keep this and I shall remember you.”

Then he rode away and vanished from sight.

The boy re-entered the house. He awoke his father [[93]]and said: “The storm is over and the dragon has returned to his pool.”[25]

Yin embraced his son, and together they went to inform the old woman. She awoke, sat up, and listened to all that was said to her. When she learned that the dragon youth had again appeared and had spoken to Wu, she asked: “Did he give you ought before he departed?”

Wu opened a small wooden box and showed her the scale that had been taken from the neck of the dragon horse.

The woman was well pleased, and said: “When the Emperor sends for you, all will be well.”

Yin was astonished to hear these words, and exclaimed: “Why should the Emperor send for my boy?”

“You shall see,” the old woman made answer as she lay down again.

Before long the Emperor heard of the great marvel that had been worked in the flooded valley. Men who had taken refuge on the mountains had observed that no rain fell on Yin’s house during the storm. So His Majesty sent couriers to the valley, and these bade Yin to accompany them to the palace, taking Wu with him.

On being brought before the Emperor, Yin related everything that had taken place. Then His Majesty asked to see the scale of the dragon horse.

It was growing dusk when Wu opened the box, and the scale shone so brightly that it illumined the throne-room so that it became as bright as at high noon.

Said the Emperor: “Wu shall remain here and become one of my magicians. The yellow dragon has imparted to him much power and wisdom.”

Thus it came about that Wu attained high rank in [[94]]the kingdom. He found that great miracles could be worked with the scale of the dragon horse. It cured disease, and it caused the Emperor’s army to win victories. Withal, Wu was able to foretell events, and he became a renowned prophet and magician.

The farmer’s son grew to be very rich and powerful. A great house was erected for him close to the royal palace, and he took his grandmother and father to it, and there they lived happily until the end of their days.

Thus did Wu, son of Yin, become a great man, because of the favour shown to him by the thunder-dragon, who had wrought great destruction in the river valley and taken toll of many lives.

It will be gathered from this story that the Chinese dragon is not always a “beneficent deity”, as some writers put it. Like certain other gods, he is a destroyer and preserver in one. [[95]]

[1] Teutonic Myth and Legend, p. 174 et seq. [↑]

[2] Teutonic Myth and Legend, p. 286. [↑]

[3] The Irish term sed (pronounced “shade”), the old form of which is set, signified a cow, a measure of value, property, and “a pearl, a precious stone, or a gem of any kind”. Joyce, Irish Names of Places, p. 355 (Dublin, 1875). [↑]

[4] Breasted, A History of Egypt, p. 357. [↑]

[5] Egyptian Myth and Legend, pp. 341, 342. [↑]

[6] Seven Tablets of Creation. [↑]

[7] The belief that the cat has nine lives may be cited, and also the belief that if an eel or a serpent is cut in two it will come to life again. A Chinese dragon may revive after being cut up and buried. The story is told in Japan of a man who killed a snake-dragon, cut it into three pieces, and buried them, but thirteen years later, on the same day of the year on which he slew the dragon, he cried out “I drink water,” choked, and died. His death was caused by the dragon he had endeavoured to kill (de Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 195). The “Deathless Snake” in an ancient Egyptian story comes to life until the severed parts are buried separately. [↑]

[8] Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology), pp. 256–7. [↑]

[9] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 127. See also the Egyptian Bata story, Egyptian Myth and Legend, pp. 49–56. [↑]

[10] Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. 55. [↑]

[11] The Dragon’s Kupuas. [↑]

[12] The odour of the herb was the body odour of the dragon. It helped to restore vitality, as did incense, when burned before an Egyptian mummy. Gods were similarly “fed” by offerings of incense. The Babylonian Noah burned incense, and the gods smelt the sweet savour. The gods gathered like flies about him that offered the sacrifice.—King, Babylonian Religion, p. 136. [↑]

[13] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 63. Kwan Chung died in 645 B.C. [↑]

[14] Polynesian Mythology, Sir George Grey, p. 33. [↑]

[15] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 174. [↑]

[16] A Galloway herbalist who was searching for herbs to cure a consumptive girl, named May, saw a mermaid rising in the sea. According to the folk-story, the mermaid recommended mugwort (southernwood) as a cure by singing:

Would you let bonnie May die in your hand,

And the mugwort flowering in the land?

[17] Jade disks, decorated with the rush pattern, were in China images of Heaven and badges of rank. The rain-dragon in human form carries in his right hand a blue rush. The rush was connected with water—the water below the firmament and the water above the firmament. Reeds were likewise connected with the deities. In Babylonia, priests had visions in reed huts and the dead lay on reed mats. The reed and river-mud were used by Marduk when he created man. Apparently, the reed was an [[86]]avatar of the water deity: it contained “soul substance”. Linen made from flax was sacred and inspiring. It was wrapped round the dead, instead of animal skins, in pre-Dynastic Egypt. The linen ephod was inspiring; like the “prophet’s mantle” it gave the wearer power to foretell events. [↑]

[18] S. Baring-Gould’s Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, pp. 471 et seq. [↑]

[19] A similar belief regarding supernatural beings prevailed in India. See story of Nala in Indian Myth and Legend. [↑]

[20] The appearance of four servants (the gods of the four quarters) with the dragon-god, indicates that the coming storm is to be one of exceptional violence. [↑]

[21] The deep slumberer in a folk-tale is usually engaged “working a spell”. As will be gathered from the story, the boy received his knowledge and power from his grandmother. She resembles the Norse Vala and the Witch of Endor. [↑]

[22] The Norse Vala makes similar complaint when awakened by Odin. It looks as if this Chinese story is based on one about consulting a spirit of a “wise woman” who sleeps in her tomb. [↑]

[23] An interesting glimpse of the connection between colour symbolism and magic. Everything is yellow because a yellow dragon is being invoked. [↑]

[24] This sleep appears to be as necessary as that of the grandmother. [↑]

[25] The latest spell had been worked, and it was not necessary that the father should sleep any longer. [↑]

[[Contents]]

CHAPTER VIII

The Kingdom under the Sea

The Vanishing Island of Far-Eastern Dragon-god—Story of Priest who visited Underworld—Far-Eastern Dragon as “Pearl Princess”—Her Human Lover—An Indian Parallel—Dragon Island in Ancient Egyptian Story—The Osirian Underworld—Vanishing Island in Scotland and Fiji—Babylonian Gem-tree Garden—Far-Eastern Quest of the Magic Sword—Parallels of Teutonic and Celtic Legend—“Kusanagi Sword”, the Japanese “Excalibur”—City of the Far-Eastern Sea-god—Japanese Vision of Gem-tree Garden—Weapon Demons—Star Spirits of Magic Swords—Swords that become Dragons—Dragon Jewels—Dragon Transformations.

The palace of the dragon king is situated in the Underworld, which can be entered through a deep mountain cave or a dragon-guarded well. In some of the Chinese stories the dragon palace is located right below a remote island in the Eastern Sea. This island is not easily approached, for on the calmest of days great billows dash against its shelving crags. When the tide is high, it is entirely covered by water and hidden from sight. Junks may then pass it or even sail over it, without their crews being aware that they are nigh to the palace of the sea-god.

Sometimes a red light burns above the island at night. It is seen many miles distant, and its vivid rays may be reflected in the heavens.

In a Japanese story the island is referred to as “a glowing red mass resembling the rising sun”. No mariner dares to approach it.

There was once a Chinese priest who, on a memorable [[96]]night, reached the dragon king’s palace by entering a deep cave on a mountain-side. It was his pious desire to worship the dragon, and he went onward in the darkness, reciting religious texts that gave him protection. The way was long and dark and difficult, but at length, after travelling far, he saw a light in front of him. He walked towards this light and emerged from the cavern to find that he was in the Underworld. Above him was a clear blue firmament lit by the night sun. He beheld a beautiful palace in the midst of a garden that glittered with gems and flowers, and directed his steps towards it. He reached a window the curtain of which rustled in the wind. He perceived that it was a mass of gleaming pearls. Peering behind it, as it moved, he beheld a table formed of jewels. On this table lay a book of Buddhist prayers (sutras).

As he gazed with wonder and reverence, the priest heard a voice that spake and said: “Who hath come nigh and why hath he come?”

The priest answered in a low voice, giving his name, and expressing his desire to behold the dragon king, whom he desired to worship.

Then the voice made answer: “Here no human eye can look upon me. Return by the way thou hast come, and I shall appear before thee at a distance from the cavern mouth.”

The priest made obeisance, and returned to the world of men by the way he had come. He went to the spot that the voice had indicated, and there he waited, reading sacred texts. Soon the earth yawned and the dragon king arose in human shape, wearing a red hat and garment. The priest worshipped him, and then the dragon vanished from sight. On that sacred spot a temple was afterwards erected.

RESONANT STONE OF JADE SHOWING DRAGON WITH CLOUD ORNAMENTS, SUSPENDED FROM CARVED BLACKWOOD FRAME

A fine specimen of the glyptic art of the Kʼien-lung period. The symbols include the peach of longevity, the swashtika, the luck bat, the fungus of immortality, &c. These combined signify, “May numberless years and luck come to an end only at old age.”

By courtesy of B. Laufer, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago

[[97]]

Once upon a time the daughter of the dragon king, who was named “Abundant Pearl Princess”, fell in love with a comely youth of Japan. He was sitting, on a calm summer day, beneath a holy tree, and his image was reflected in a dragon well. The princess appeared before him and cast a love spell over his heart. The youth was enchanted by her beauty, and she led him towards the palace of the dragon king, the “Abundant Pearl Prince”. There she married him, and they lived together for three years. Then the youth was possessed by a desire to return to the world of men. In vain the princess pleaded with him to remain in the palace. When, however, she found that his heart was set on leaving the kingdom of the Underworld, she resolved to accompany him. He was conveyed across the sea on the back of a wani (a dragon in crocodile shape). The princess accompanied him, and he built a house for her on the seashore.

The “Abundant Pearl Princess” was about to become a mother, and she made the youth promise not to look upon her until after her child was born. But he broke his vow. Overcome with curiosity, he peered into her chamber and saw that his wife had assumed the shape of a dragon. As soon as the child was born, the princess departed in anger and was never again beheld by her husband.

This story, it will be noted, is another Far-Eastern version of the Melusina legend.

An Indian version of the tale relates that the hero was a sailor, the sole survivor from a wreck, who swam to a small island in the midst of the sea. When he reached the shore, he set out to look for food, but found that the trees and shrubs, which dazzled him with their beauty, bore beautiful gems instead of fruit. At length, however, he found a fruit-bearing tree. He ate and was [[98]]well content. Then he sat down beside a well. As he stooped to drink of its waters, he had a vision of the Underworld in all its beauty. At the bottom of the well sat a fair sea-maid, who looked upwards with eyes of love and beckoned him towards her. He plunged into the well and found himself in the radiant Kingdom of Ocean. The maid was the queen, and she took him as her consort. She promised him great wealth, but forbade him to touch the statue of an Apsara[1], which was of gold and adorned with gems. But one day he placed his hand on the right foot of the image. The foot darted forth and struck him with such force that he was driven through the sea and washed ashore on his native coast.[2]

The oldest version of this type of story comes from Egypt. It has been preserved in a papyrus in the Hermitage collection at Petrograd, and is usually referred to as of Twelfth Dynasty origin (c. 2000 B.C.). A sailor relates that he was the sole survivor from a wreck. He had seized a piece of wood and swam to an island. After he recovered from exhaustion, he set out to search for food. “I found there figs and grapes, all manner of good herbs, berries and grain, melons of all kinds, fishes and birds.” In time, he heard a noise “as of thunder”, while “the trees shook and the earth was moved”. The ruler of the island drew nigh. He was a human-headed serpent “thirty cubits long, and his beard greater than two cubits; his body was as overlaid with gold, and his colour as that of true lapis-lazuli”.

The story proceeds to tell that the sailor becomes the guest of the serpent, who makes speeches to him and introduces him to his family. It is stated that the island “has risen from the waves and will sink again”. After [[99]]a time the sailor is rescued by a passing vessel.[3] This ancient Egyptian tale links with the Indian and Chinese versions given above. The blue serpent resembles closely the Chinese dragon; the vanishing island is common to Egypt and China. Like much else that came from Egypt, the island has a history. Long before the ancient mariners transferred it to the ocean, it figured in the fused mythology of the Solar and Osirian cults. Horus hid from Set on a green floating island on the Nile. He was protected by a serpent deity. His father, Osiris, is Judge and Ruler of the Underworld, and has a serpent shape as the Nile god and the dragon of the abyss. The red light associated with the Chinese dragon island of ocean recalls the Red Horus, a form of the sun-god, rising from the Nile of the Underworld, on which floated the green nocturnal sun, “the green bed of Horus” and a form of his father Osiris as the solar deity of night.

The Osirian underworld idea appears to have given origin to the widespread stories found as far apart as Japan and the British Isles regarding “Land-under-Waves” and “the Kingdom of the Sea”. The green floating island of Paradise is referred to in Scottish Gaelic folk-tales. In Fiji the natives tell of a floating island that vanishes when men approach it.[4]

In some Chinese legends Egyptian conceptions blend with those of Babylonia. The Chinese priest who, in the dragon-king story, reached the Underworld through a deep cave, followed in the footsteps of Gilgamesh, who went in search of the “Plant of Life”—the herb that causes man “to renew his youth like the eagle”.[5] Gilgamesh [[100]]entered the cave of the Mountain of Mashi (Sunset Hill), and after passing through its night-black depths, reached the seaside garden in which, as on the island in the Indian story, the trees bore, instead of fruit and flowers, clusters of precious stones. He beheld in the midst of this garden of dazzling splendour the palace of Sabitu, the goddess, who instructed him how to reach the island on which lived his ancestor Pir-naphishtum (Ut-napishtim). Gilgamesh was originally a god, the earlier Gishbilgames of Sumerian texts.[6]

The Indian Hanuman (the monkey-god) similarly enters a deep cave when he goes forth as a spy to Lanka, the dwelling-place of Ravana, the demon who carried away Sita, wife of Rama, the hero of the Rámáyana. A similar story is told in the mythical history of Alexander the Great. There are also western European legends of like character. Hercules searches for the golden apples that grow in the Hesperian gardens.[7] In some Far Eastern stories the hero searches for a sword instead of an herb. “Every weapon,” declares an old Gaelic saying, “has its demon.” The same belief prevailed in China, where dragons sometimes appeared in the form of weapons, and in India, where the spirits of celestial weapons appeared before heroes like Arjuna and Rama.[8] In the Teutonic Balder story, as related by Saxo Grammaticus,[9] the hero is slain by a sword taken from the Underworld, where it was kept by Miming (Mimer), the god, in an Underworld cave. Hother, who gains possession of it, goes by a road “hard for mortal man to travel”.

In the Norse version the sword becomes an herb—the mistletoe, a “cure-all”, like the Chinese dragon herb and [[101]]the Babylonian “Plant of Life”. Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur, was obtained from the lake-goddess (a British “Naga”), and was flung back into the lake before he died:

So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur:

But ere he dipped the surface, rose an arm

Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,

And caught him by the hilt, and brandished him

Three times, and drew him under in the mere.[10]

The Japanese story of the famous Kusanagi sword is a Far-Eastern link between the Celestial herb- and weapon-legends of Asia and Europe. It tells that this magic sword was one of the three treasures possessed by the imperial family of Japan, and that the warrior who wielded it could put to flight an entire army. At a naval battle the sword was worn by the boy-Emperor, Antoku Tennō. He was unable to make use of it, and when the enemy were seen to be victorious, the boy’s grandmother, Nu-no-ama, clutched him in her arms and leapt into the sea.

Many long years afterwards, when the Emperor Go Shirakawa sat on the imperial throne, his barbarian enemies declared war against him. The Emperor arose in his wrath and called for the Kusanagi sword. Search was made for it in the temple of Kamo, where it was supposed to be in safe-keeping. The Emperor was told, however, that it had been lost, and he gave orders that ceremonies should be performed with purpose to discover where the sword was, and how it might be restored. One night, soon afterwards, the Emperor dreamed a dream, in which a royal lady, who had been dead for centuries, appeared before him and told that the Kusanagi sword [[102]]was in the keeping of the dragon king in his palace at the bottom of the sea.

Next morning the Emperor related his dream to his chief minister, and bade him hasten to the two female divers, Oimatsu and her daughter Wakamatsu, who resided at Dan-no-ura, so that they might dive to the bottom of the sea and obtain the sword.

The divers undertook the task, and were conveyed in a boat to that part of the ocean where the boy-Emperor, Antoku Tennō, had been drowned. A religious ceremony was performed, and the mother and daughter then dived into the sea. A whole day passed before they appeared again. They told, as soon as they were taken into the boat, that they had visited a wonderful city at the bottom of the sea. Its gates were guarded by silent sentinels who drew flashing swords when they (the divers) attempted to enter. They were consequently compelled to wait for several hours, until a holy man appeared and asked them what they sought. When they had informed him that they were searching for the Kusanagi sword, he said that the city could not be entered without the aid of Buddha.

Said the Emperor’s chief minister: “The city is that of the god of the sea.”

“It is very beautiful,” Oimatsu told him; “the walls are of gold, and the gates of pearl. Above the city walls are seen many-coloured towers that gleam like to precious stones. When one of the gates was opened, we perceived that the streets were of silver and the houses of mother-of-pearl.”

Said the Emperor’s chief minister: “Fain would I visit that city.”

He looked over the side of the boat and sighed, “I see naught but darkness.”

“When we dived and reached the sea-bottom,” [[103]]Oimatsu continued, “we beheld a cave and entered it. Thick darkness prevailed, but we walked on and on, groping as we went, until we reached a beautiful plain over which bends the sky, blue as sapphire. Trees growing on the plain bear clusters of dazzling gems that sparkle among their leaves.”

“Were you not tempted to pluck them?” asked the minister.

“Each tree is guarded by a poisonous snake,” Oimatsu told him, “and we dared not touch the gems.”

On the following day the divers were provided with sutra-charms by the chief priest of the temple of Kamo.

They entered the sea again, and told, on their return next morning, that they had visited the city, and reached the palace of the dragon king, which was guarded by invisible sentries. Two women came out of the palace and bade them stand below an old pine tree, the bark of which glittered like the scales of a dragon. In front of them was a window. The blind was made of beautiful pearls, and was raised high enough to permit them to see right into the room.

One of the palace ladies said, “Look through the window.”

The women looked. In the room they saw a mighty serpent with a sword in his mouth. He had eyes bright as the sun, and a blood-red tongue. In his coils lay a little boy fast asleep.[11] The serpent looked round and, addressing the women, spoke and said: “You have come hither to obtain the Kusanagi sword, but I shall keep it for ever. It does not belong to the Emperor of Japan. Many years ago it was taken from this palace by a dragon prince who went to dwell in the river Hi. He was slain [[104]]by a hero of Japan.[12] This hero carried off the sword and presented it to the Emperor. After many years had gone past a sea-dragon took the form of a princess. She became the bride of a prince of Japan, and was the grandmother of the boy-Emperor with whom she leapt into the sea during the battle of Dan-no-ura. This boy now lies asleep in my coils.”

The Emperor of Japan sorrowed greatly when he was informed regarding the dragon king’s message. “Alas!” he said, “if the Kusanagi sword cannot be obtained, the barbarians will defeat my army in battle.”

Then a magician told the Emperor that he knew of a powerful spell that would compel the dragon to give up the sword. “If it is successful,” the Emperor said, “I shall elevate you to the rank of a prince.”

The spell was worked, and when next the female divers went to the Kingdom under the Sea, they obtained the sword, with which they returned to the Emperor. He used it in battle and won a great victory.

The sword was afterwards placed in a box and deposited in the temple of Atsuta, and there it remained for many years, until a Korean priest carried it away. When, however, the Korean was crossing the ocean to his own land, a great storm arose. The captain of the vessel knew it was no ordinary storm, but one that had been raised by a god, and he spoke and said, “Who on board this ship has offended the dragon king of Ocean?”

Then said the Korean priest, “I shall throw my sword into the sea as a peace-offering.”

He did as he said he would, and immediately the storm passed away.

TORTOISE AND SNAKE

From a rubbing in the British Museum of a Chinese original

[[105]]

The dragon king caused the sword to be replaced in the temple from which the Korean had stolen it. There it lay for a century. Then it was carried back to the palace of the dragon-god in his Kingdom under the Sea.

Magic or supernatural swords were possessed by the spirits of dragon-gods.

According to a Chinese story in the Books of the Tsin Dynasty, an astrologer once discovered that among the stars there shone the spirits of two magic swords, and that they were situated right above the spot where the swords had, in time past, been concealed. Search was made for these, and deep down in the earth was found a luminous stone chest. Inside the chest lay two swords that bore inscriptions indicating that they were dragon swords. As soon as they were taken out of the box, their star-spirits faded from the sky.

These dragon swords could not be retained by human beings for any prolonged period. Stories are told of swords being taken away by spirit-beings and even of swords leaping of their own accord from their sheaths into rivers or the ocean, and assuming dragon shape as soon as they touched water.[13]

Similarly dragon jewels might be carried away by dragons who appeared in human shape—either as beautiful girls or as crafty old men.

It was fortunate for mortals when dragons appeared as human beings, as animals, or as fish that spoke with human voices. Dragons were unable to change their shapes when angry, or when they intended to avenge a wrong. A transformed dragon was therefore quite harmless. [[106]]

[1] Indian fairy girl. There are apsaras in the Paradise of Indra. [↑]

[2] Indian Fairy Stories (London, 1915), pp. 47 et seq. [↑]

[3] Egyptian Tales (first series), W. H. Flinders Petrie (London, 1899), pp. 81 et seq. [↑]

[4] Folk Lore Journal, Vol. V, p. 257. [↑]

[5] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 177 et seq. [↑]

[6] L. W. King, Legends of Babylonia and Egypt (London, 1918), p. 146. [↑]

[7] See references in Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 184 et seq. [↑]

[8] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 256 and p. 381. [↑]

[9] Book III. [↑]

[10] Tennyson’s The Passing of Arthur. [↑]

[11] Like the Indian god Vishnu, who lies asleep on the Naga. This sleep, like that of magicians, is a spell-working or power-accumulating sleep. [↑]

[12] Like the Egyptian hero who slays the river serpent which guards the box containing magic spells. Sigurd, Siegfried, and other dragon-slaying heroes may be compared with this Far-Eastern hero. [↑]

[13] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan. [↑]

[[Contents]]

CHAPTER IX

The Islands of the Blest

Souls on Islands—Wells of Life and Trees or Plants of Life in China, Ancient Egypt, Babylonia, &c.—How Islands were Anchored—The Ocean Tortoise—A Giant’s Fishing—The Mystery of Fu-sang—Island of Women—Search for Fabled Isles—Chinese and Japanese Stories—How Navigation was Stimulated—Columbus and Eden—Water of Life in Ceylon, Polynesia, America, and Scotland—Delos, a Floating Island—Atlantis and the Fortunate Isles—Celtic Island Paradise—Apples and Nuts as Food of Life—America as Paradise—The Indian Lotus of Life—Buddhist Paradise with Gem-trees—Diamond Valley Legend in China and Greece—Luck Gems and Immortality.

The Chinese and Japanese, like the Egyptians, Indians, Fijians, and others, believed, as has been shown, in the existence of a floating and vanishing island associated with the serpent-god or dragon-god of ocean. They believed, too, that somewhere in the Eastern Sea lay a group of islands that were difficult to locate or reach; which resembled closely, in essential particulars, the “Islands of the Blest”, or “Fortunate Isles”, of ancient Greek writers. Vague beliefs regarding fabulous countries far across the ocean were likewise prevalent.

In some native accounts these Chinese Islands of the Blest are said to be five in number, and named Tai Yü, Yüan Chiao, Fang Hu, Ying Chou, and P’ēng-lai; in others the number is nine, or ten, or only three. A single island is sometimes referred to; it may be located in the ocean, or in the Yellow River, or in the river of the Milky Way, the Celestial Ho. [[107]]

The islands are, in Chinese legend, reputed to be inhabited by those who have won immortality, or by those who have been transported to their Paradise to dwell there in bliss for a prolonged period so that they may be reborn on earth, or pass to a higher state of existence.

It is of special interest to note in connection with these islands that they have Wells of Life and Trees or Herbs of Life. The souls drink the water and eat the herb or fruit of the tree to prolong their existence. One Chinese “plant of life” is li chih, “the fungus of immortality”. It appears on Chinese jade ornaments as a symbol of longevity. “This fungus”, writes Laufer, “is a species of Agaric and considered a felicitous plant, because it absorbs the vapours of the earth. In the Li Ki (ed. Couvreur, Vol. I, p. 643) it is mentioned as an edible plant. As a marvellous plant foreboding good luck, it first appeared under the Han Dynasty, in 109 B.C., when it sprouted in the imperial palace Kan-tsʼüan. The emperor issued an edict announcing this phenomenon, and proclaimed an amnesty in the empire except for relapsing criminals. A hymn in honour of this divine plant was composed in the same year.”[1]

Like the Red Cloud herb the li chih had evidently a close connection with the dragon-god.

The question arises whether the idea of an island of paradise was of “spontaneous origin” in China, or whether the ancient Chinese borrowed the belief from intruders, or from peoples with whom they had constant trading relations. There is evidence that as far back as the fourth century B.C., a Chinese explorer set out on an expedition to search for the island or islands of Paradise [[108]]in the Eastern Sea. But it is not known at what precise period belief in the island arose and became prevalent.

The evidence afforded by the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts is of special interest and importance in connection with the problem of origin. As far back as c. 2500 B.C. “the departed Pharaoh hoped to draw his sustenance in the realm of Re (Paradise)” from “the tree of life in the mysterious isle in the midst of the Field of Offerings”. The soul of the Pharaoh, according to the Pyramid Texts, set out, soon after death, in search of this island “in company with the Morning Star. The Morning Star is a gorgeous green falcon, a solar divinity, identified with Horus of Dewat.” The Egyptian story of the soul’s quest goes on to tell that “this King Pepi … went to the great isle in the midst of the Field of Offerings over which the gods make the swallows fly. The swallows are the Imperishable Stars. They give to this King Pepi the tree of life, whereof they live, that ye (Pepi and the Morning Star) may at the same time live thereof.” (Pyramid Texts, 1209–16). Sinister enemies “may contrive to deprive the king of the sustenance provided for him.…” Charms were provided to protect the fruit of immortality. “The enemy against which these are most often directed in the Pyramid Texts is serpents.” In the Japanese story of the Kusanagi sword, the gem-trees of the Otherworld are protected by dragons.

The Pyramid Texts devoted to the ancient Egyptian King Unis tell that a divine voice cries to the gods Re and Thoth (sun and moon), saying, “Take ye this King Unis with you that he may eat of that which ye eat, and that he may drink of that which ye drink.” The magic well is referred to as “the pool of King Unis”.[2] The soul of the Pharaoh also sails with the unwearied stars in [[109]]the barque of the sun-god, not only by day but by night, and as the Egyptian night sun was green, “the green bed of Horus”, the idea of the floating solar island on the Underworld Nile became fused with that of the island with the Well of Life and the Tree of Life. In the Pyramid Texts the Celestial Otherworld “is”, as Breasted says, “not only the east, but explicitly the east of the sky”.[3] Similarly the fabulous continents of the Chinese were situated to the east of the mythical sea.

The Sumerians and early Babylonians had, like the Egyptians, their Islands of the Blest. Gilgamesh, who reaches these islands by crossing the mythical sea, finds dwelling on one of them Ut-napishtim (the Babylonian Noah) and his wife. Ut-napishtim directs the hero to another island on which there is a fountain of healing waters and a magic plant that renews youth. Gilgamesh finds the Plant of Immortality, but as he stoops to drink water from a stream, a serpent darts forth and snatches the plant from him. This serpent was a form of “the Earth Lion” (the dragon).[4]

The Gilgamesh legend dates back beyond 2500 B.C. Like the Egyptian one enshrined in the Pyramid Texts, it has two main features, the Well of Life and the Tree or Plant of Life, which are situated on an island. The island in time crept into the folk-tales. It was no doubt the prototype of the vanishing island of the Egyptian mariner’s story already referred to.

In the Shih Chi (Historical Record) of Ssŭ-ma Chʼien, “the Herodotus of China”, a considerable part of which has been translated by Professor Ed. Chavannes,[5] the three Chinese Islands of the Blest (San, Shen, Shan) are [[110]]named P’ēng-lai, Fang Chang, and Ying Chou. They are located in the Gulf of Chihli, but are difficult to reach because contrary winds spring up and drive vessels away in the same manner as the vessel of Odysseus was driven away from Ithaca. It is told, however, that in days of old certain fortunate heroes contrived to reach and visit the fabled isles. They told that they saw there palaces of gold and silver, that the white men and women, the white beasts and the white birds ate the Herb of Life and drank the waters of the Fountain of Life. On the island of Ying Chou are great precipices of jade. A brook, the waters of which are as stimulating as wine, flows out of a jade rock. Those who can reach the island and drink of this water will increase the length of their lives. When the jade water is mixed with pounded “fungus of immortality” a food is provided which ensures a thousand years of existence in the body.

Chinese legends tell that the lucky mariners who come within view of the Isles of the Blest, behold them but dimly, as they seem to be enveloped in luminous clouds. When vessels approach too closely, the islands vanish by sinking below the waves, as do the fabled islands of Gaelic stories.

Lieh Tze, alleged to be an early Taoist writer,[6] but whose writings, or those writings attributed to him, were forged in the first or second century A.D., has located the islands to the east of the gulf of Chihli in that fathomless abyss into which flow all the streams of the earth and the river of the Milky Way. Apparently this abyss is the Mythical Sea which was located beyond the eastern horizon—a part of the sea that surrounds the world. Into this sea or lake, according to the ancient Egyptian texts, [[111]]pours the celestial river, along which sails the barque of the sun-god. The Nile was supposed by the Ancient Egyptians to be fed by the waters above the firmament and the waters below the earth. The Pyramid Texts, when referring to the birth of Osiris as “new water” (the inundation), say:

The waters of life that are in the sky come;

The waters of life that are in the earth come.

The sky burns for thee,

The earth trembles for thee.[7]

In India the Ganges was likewise fed by the celestial Ganges that poured down from the sky.

Lieh Tze’s Islands of the Blest are five in number, and are inhabited by the white souls of saintly sages who have won immortality by having their bodies rendered transparent, or after casting off their bodies as snakes cast off their skins. All the animals on these islands are likewise white and therefore pure and holy. The spirit-dwellings are of gold and jade, and in the groves and gardens the trees and plants bear pearls and precious stones. Those who eat of the fungus, or of perfumed fruit, renew their youth and acquire the power of floating like down through the air from island to island.

At one time the islands drifted about on the tides of ocean, but the Lord of All who controls the Universe, having been appealed to by the Taoist sages who dwelt on the isles, caused three great Atlas-turtles to support each island with their heads so that they might remain steadfast. These turtles are relieved by others at the end of sixty thousand years. In like manner, in Indian mythology, the tortoise Kurma, an avatar of the god Vishnu, supports Mount Meru when it is placed in the [[112]]Sea of Milk. The Japanese Creator has a tortoise form that supports the world-tree, on the summit of which sits a four-armed god. In China the tortoise had divine attributes. Tortoise shell is a symbol of unchangeability, and a symbol of rank when used for court girdles. The tortoise was also used for purposes of divination.[8]

A gigantic mythical tortoise is supposed, in the Far East, to live in the depths of ocean. It has one eye situated in the middle of its body. Once every three thousand years it rises to the surface and turns over on its back so that it may see the sun.

GATHERING FRUITS OF LONGEVITY

From a Chinese painting in the British Museum

Once upon a time, a legend tells, the Atlas-turtles that support the Islands of the Blest suffered from a raid by a wandering giant. As the Indian god Vishnu and the Greek Poseidon could cross the Universe at three strides, so could this giant pass quickly from country to country and ocean to ocean. One or two strides were sufficient for him to reach the mythical ocean from the Lung-po mountains. He sat on the mountain summit of one of the Islands of the Blest, and cast his fishing-line into the deep waters.[9] The Atlas-turtles were unable to resist the lure of his bait and, having hooked and captured six of them, he threw them over his back and returned home in triumph. These turtles had been supporting the two islands, Tai Yü and Yüan Chiao, which, having been set free, were carried by powerful tides towards the north, where they stranded among the ice-fields. The white beings that inhabited these islands were thus separated from their fellow saints on the other three islands, Fang Hu, Ying Chou, and Pʼēng-lai. We are left to imagine how lonely they felt in isolation. No [[113]]doubt, they suffered from the evils associated with the north—the “airt” of drought and darkness. The giant and his tribesmen were punished by the Lord of the Universe for this act by having their stature and their kingdom greatly reduced.

On the fabled islands, the white saints cultivate and gather the “fungus of immortality”, as the souls in the Paradise of Osiris cultivate and harvest crops of barley and wheat and dates. Like the Osirian corn, the island fungus sprouts in great profusion. This fungus has not only the power to renew youth but even to restore the dead to life. The “Herodotus of China” has recorded that once upon a time leaves of the fungus were carried by ravens to the mainland from one of the islands, and dropped on the faces of warriors slain in battle. The warriors immediately came to life, although they had lain dead for three days. The “water of life” had similarly reanimating properties.

The famous magician, Tung-fang Shuo, who lived in second century B.C., tells that the sacred islands are ten in number, there being two distinct groups of five. One of the distant islands is named Fu-sang, and it has been identified by different western writers with California, Mexico, Japan, and Formosa. Its name signifies “the Land of the Leaning Mulberry”. The mulberries are said to grow in pairs and to be of great height. Once every nine thousand years they bear fruit which the saints partake of. This fruit adds to their saintly qualities, and gives them power to soar skyward like celestial birds.

Beyond Fu-sang is a country of white women who have hairy bodies. In the spring season they enter the river to bathe and become pregnant, and their children are born in the autumn. The hair of their heads is so [[114]]long that it trails on the ground behind them. Instead of breasts, they have white locks or hairy organs at the back of their necks from which comes a liquor that nourishes their children. These women, according to some accounts, have no husbands, and take flight when they see a man. A historian who, by the way, gives them husbands, has recorded that a Chinese vessel was once driven by a tempest to this wonderful island. The crew landed and found that the women resembled those of China, but that the men had heads like dogs and voices that sounded like the barking of dogs. Evidently the legends about the fabled islands became mixed up with accounts of the distant islands of a bearded race reached by seafarers.

There are records of several attempts that were made by pious Chinese Emperors to discover the Islands of the Blest, with purpose to obtain the “fungus of immortality”. One mariner named Hsu Fü, who was sent to explore the Eastern Sea so that the fungus might be brought to the royal palace, returned with a wonderful story. He said that a god had risen out of the sea and inquired if he was the Emperor’s representative. “I am,” the mariner made answer.

“What seek ye?” asked the sea-god.

“I am searching for the plant that has the power to prolong human life,” Hsu Fü answered.

The god then informed the Emperor’s messenger that the offerings he brought were not sufficient to be regarded as payment for this magic plant. He was willing, however, that Hsu Fü should see the fungus for himself so that, apparently, the Emperor might be convinced it really existed.

The vessel was then piloted in a south-easterly direction until the Islands of the Blest were reached. Hsu [[115]]Fü was permitted to land on P’ēng-lai, the chief island, on which was situated the golden palace of the dragon king of ocean. There he saw newly-harvested crops of the “fungus of immortality” guarded by a great brazen dragon of ferocious aspect. Not a leaf could he obtain, however, to bring back to China.

The pious mariner knelt before the sea-god and asked him what offering he required from the Emperor in return for the fungus. He was informed that many youths and girls would have to be sent to P’ēng-lai.

On ascertaining the price demanded by the god for the magic fungus, the Emperor dispatched a fleet of vessels with three thousand young men and virgins. Hsu Fü was placed in command of the expedition. But he never returned again to China. According to some, he and his followers still reside on P’ēng-lai; others assert that he reached a distant land, supposed to be Japan, where he founded a state over which he reigned as king.

Other Chinese Emperors were similarly anxious to discover the fabled islands, and many expeditions were sent to sea. One exasperated monarch is said to have had nearly five hundred magicians and scholars put to death because their efforts to assist him in discovering the islands had proved to be futile.

Another Emperor fitted out a naval expedition which he himself commanded. Each vessel was packed with soldiers who in mid-ocean raised a great clamour, blowing horns, beating drums, and shouting in chorus, with purpose to terrify the gods of ocean and compel them to reveal the location of the Isle of Immortality. In time the dragon-god appeared in his fiercest shape, with the head of a lion and a shark-like body 500 feet in length. The Emperor ordered his fleet to surround the [[116]]god, who had apparently come with the intention of preventing the ships going any farther. A fierce battle ensued. Thousands of poisoned arrows were discharged against the god, who was so grievously wounded that his blood tinged the sea over an area of 10,000 miles. But despite this victory achieved by mortals, the famous island on which grew the herb of immortality was never reached. On the same night the Emperor had to engage in single combat with the dragon-god, who came against him in a dream. This was a combat of souls, for in sleep, as was believed, the soul leaves the body. The soul of the Emperor fared badly. On the day that followed his majesty was unable to rise from his couch, and he died within the space of seven days.

In Japanese stories the island of P’ēng-lai is referred to as Horaizan. It has three high mountains, on the chief of which, called Horai, grows the Tree of Life. This tree has a trunk and branches of gold, roots of silver, and gem-leaves and fruit. In some stories there are three trees, the peach, the plum, and the pine. The “fungus of immortality” is also referred to. It grows in the shade of one or another of the holy trees, usually the pine. There is evidence, too, of the belief that a “grass of immortality” grew on the sacred island as well as the famous fungus. The life-giving fountain was as well known to the Japanese as it was to the Chinese and others.

A story is told of a Japanese Gilgamesh, named Sentaro, who, being afraid of death, summoned to his aid an immortal saint so that he might be enabled to obtain the “grass of immortality”. The saint handed him a crane made of paper which, when mounted, came to life and carried Sentaro across the ocean to Mount Horai. There he found and ate the life-giving grass. When, however, [[117]]he had lived for a time on the island he became discontented. The other inhabitants had already grown weary of immortality and wished they could die. Sentaro himself began to pine for Japan and, in the end, resolved to mount his paper crane and fly over the sea. But after he left the island he doubted the wisdom of his impulsive resolution. The result was that the crane, which moved according to his will, began to crumple up and drop through the air. Sentaro was greatly scared, and once again yearned so deeply for his native land that the crane, straightened and strengthened by his yearning, rose into the air and continued its flight until Japan was reached.

Another Japanese hero, named Wasobioye, the story of whose wanderings is retold by Professor Chamberlain,[10] once set out in a boat to escape troublesome visitors. The day was the eighth of the eighth month and the moon was full. Suddenly a storm came on, which tore the sail to shreds and brought down the mast. Wasobioye was unable to return home, and his boat was driven about on the wide ocean for the space of three months. Then he reached the Sea of Mud, on which he could not catch any fish. He was soon reduced to sore straits and feared he would die of hunger, but, in time, he caught sight of land and was greatly cheered. His boat drifted slowly towards a beautiful island on which there were three great mountains. As he drew near to the shore, he found, to his great joy, that the air was laden with most exquisite perfumes that came from the flowers and tree-blossoms of that wonderful isle. He landed and found a sparkling well. When he had drunk of the water his strength was revived, and a feeling of intense pleasure tingled in his veins. He rose up refreshed and happy and, walking inland, soon met with Jofuku the [[118]]sage, known in China as Hsu Fü, who had been sent to the Island of the Blest (P’ēng-lai) by the Emperor She Wang Ti to obtain the “fungus of immortality”, with the youths and virgins, but had never returned.

Wasobioye was taken by the friendly sage to the city of the immortals, who spent their lives in the pursuit of pleasure. He found, however, that these people had grown to dislike their monotonous existence, and were constantly striving to discover some means whereby their days would be shortened. They refused to partake of mermaid flesh because this was a food that prolonged life; they favoured instead goldfish and soot, a mixture which was supposed to be poisonous. The manners of the people were curious. Instead of wishing one another good health and long life, they wished for sickness and a speedy death. Congratulations were showered on any individual who seemed to be indisposed, and he was sympathized with when he showed signs of recovering.

Wasobioye lived on the island for nearly a quarter of a century. Then, having grown weary of the monotonous life, he endeavoured to commit suicide by partaking of poisonous fruit, fish, and flesh. But all his attempts were in vain. It was impossible for anyone to die on that island. In time he came to know that he could die if he left it, but he had heard of other wonderful lands and wished to visit them before his days came to an end. Then, instead of eating poisonous food, he began to feast on mermaid flesh so that his life might be prolonged for many years beyond the allotted span. Thereafter he visited the Land of Shams, the Land of Plenty, &c. His last visit was paid to the Land of Giants. Wasobioye is usually referred to as the “Japanese Gulliver”.

The search for the mythical islands with their “wells of life” and “trees” or “plants of life” is referred to in the [[119]]stories of many lands and even in history, especially the history of exploration, for the world-wide search for the Earthly Paradise appears to have exercised decided influence in stimulating maritime enterprise in mediæval as well as prehistoric times. Columbus searched for the island paradise in which the “well” and “tree” were to be found. He sailed westward so as to approach the paradise “eastward in Eden”,[11] through “the back door” as it were, and wrote: “The saintly theologians and philosophers were right when they fixed the site of the terrestrial paradise in the extreme Orient, because it is a most temperate clime; and the lands which I have just discovered are the limits of the Orient.” In another letter he says: “I am convinced that there lies the terrestrial paradise”.[12]

As Ellis reminds us, “the expedition which led to the discovery of Florida was undertaken not so much from a desire to explore unknown countries”, as to find a “celebrated fountain, described in a tradition prevailing among the inhabitants of Puerto Rico, as existing in Binini, one of the Lucayo Islands. It was said to possess such restorative powers as to renew youth and the vigour of every person who bathed in its waters. It was in search of this fountain, which was the chief object of their expedition, that Ponce de Leon ranged through the Lucayo Islands and ultimately reached the shores of Florida.”

Ellis refers to this voyage because he found that the mythical island and well were believed in by the Polynesians. He refers, in this connection, to the “Hawaiian account of the voyage of Kamapiikai to the land where [[120]]the inhabitants enjoyed perpetual health and youthful beauty, where the wai ora (life-giving fountain) removed every internal malady, and every external deformity or paralysed decrepitude, from all those who were plunged beneath its salutary waters”. Ellis anticipates the views of modern ethnologists when dealing with the existence of the same beliefs among widely-separated peoples. He says: “A tabular view of a number of words in the Malayan, Asiatic, or the Madagasse, the American, and the Polynesian languages, would probably show that, at some remote period, either the inhabitants of these distant parts of the world maintained frequent intercourse with each other, or that colonies from some one of them originally peopled, in part or altogether, the others”. He adds, “Either part of the present inhabitants of the South Sea Islands came originally from America, or tribes of the Polynesians have, at some remote period, found their way to the (American) continent”.[13]

W. D. Westervelt, in his Legends of Old Honolulu, heads his old Hawaiian story “The Water of Life of Ka-ne”, which he himself has collected, with the following extract from the Maori legend of New Zealand:

When the moon dies, she goes to the living water of Ka-ne, to the water which can restore all life, even the moon to the path in the sky.

In the Hawaiian form of the legend the hero, who found the water so that his sick father, the king, might be cured, met with a dwarf who instructed him where to go and what to do.

A russet dwarf similarly figures in the Gaelic story of Diarmaid’s search for the cup and the water of life so that the daughter of the King of Land-under-Waves [[121]]might be cured of her sickness. This dwarf takes the Gaelic hero across a ferry and instructs him how to find the cup and the water.[14]

The Polynesians’ ghosts went westward. In their Paradise was a bread-fruit tree. “This tree had two branches, one towards the east and one towards the west, both of which were used by the ghosts. One was for leaping into eternal darkness into Po-pau-ole, the other was a meeting-place with the helpful gods.”[15] Turner tells that “some of the South Sea Islanders have a tradition of a river in their imaginary world of spirits, called the ‘water of life’. It was supposed that if the aged, when they died, went and bathed there, they became young and returned to earth to live another life over again.”[16] Yudhishthira, one of the heroes of the Aryo-Indian epic the Mahábhárata, becomes immortal after bathing in the celestial Ganges.[17] In the Æneid, the hero sees souls in Paradise drinking of the water of Lethe so that they may forget the past and be reborn among men.

Sir John de Mandeville, the fourteenth-century traveller and compiler of traveller’s stories, located the fountain of life at the base of a great mountain in Ceylon. This “fayr well … hathe odour and savour of all spices; and at every hour of the day, he chaungethe his odour and his savour dyversely. And whoso drinkethe 3 times fasting of that watre of that welle, he is hool (whole) of alle maner (of) sykenesse that he hathe. And they that duellen (dwell) there and drynken often of that welle, thei nevere hau (have) sykenesse, and thei semen [[122]](seem) alle weys yonge.” Sir John says that he drank of the water on three or four occasions and fared the better for it. Some men called it the “Welle of Youthe”. They had often drunk from it and seemed “alle weys yongly (youthful)” and lived without sickness. “And men seyn that that welle comethe out of Paradys, and therefore it is so vertuous.” The “tree of life” is always situated near the “well of life” in mediæval literature. At Heliopolis in Egypt a well and tree are connected by Coptic Christians and Mohammedans with Christ. When Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt they rested under this tree, according to Egyptian belief, and the clothes of the holy child were washed in the well. Heliopolis, the Biblical On, is “the city of the sun”, and the Arabs still call the well the “spring of the sun”. According to ancient Egyptian belief the sun-god Ra washed his face in it every morning. The tree, a sycamore, was the mother-goddess.

That European ideas regarding a floating island or islands were of Egyptian origin and closely connected with the solar cult, is suggested by the classical legend regarding Delos, one of the Cyclades. It was fabled to have been raised to the surface of the sea at the command of Poseidon, so that the persecuted goddess Latona, who was pursued from land to land by a python, as the Egyptian Isis was pursued by Set, might give birth there to Apollo. On Delos the image of Apollo was in the shape of a dragon, and delivered oracles. It was unlawful for any person to die on Delos, and those of its inhabitants who fell sick were transported to another island.

Delos was a floating island like the floating island of the Nile, “the green bed of Horus” on which that son of Osiris and Isis hid from Set. The most ancient Apollo was the son of cripple Hephaistos. Cripple [[123]]Horus was, in one of his forms, a Hephaistos and a metal-worker. Homer knew of the fabled island of Apollo. The swineherd, addressing Odysseus, says,[18] “There is a certain isle called Syria … over above Ortygia, and there are the turning places of the sun. It is not very great in compass, though a goodly isle, rich in herds, rich in flocks, with plenty of corn and wine. Dearth never enters the land, and no hateful sickness falls on wretched mortals.”

The later Greeks located the island Paradise in the Atlantic, and it is referred to as “Atlantis”, the Islands of the Blest and the Fortunate Isles (fortunatae insulae). Hercules set out to search for the golden apples, the fruit of immortality that grow in

those Hesperian gardens famed of old,

Fortunate fields and groves and flowery vales.

The garden of Paradise, cared for by those celebrated nymphs, the daughters of Hesperus, brother of Atlas—Hesperus is the planet Venus as an evening star—was also located among the Atlas mountains in Africa. There the tree of life, which bore the golden apples, was guarded by the nymphs and by a sleepless dragon, like the gem-trees in the Paradises of China and Japan.

According to Diodorus, the Phœnicians discovered the island Paradise. Plutarch placed it at a distance of five days’ voyage to the west of Brittia (England and Scotland), apparently confusing it with Ireland (the “sacred isle” of the ancients), or with an island in the Hebrides.

The island of immortals in the western ocean is found in Gaelic folk- and manuscript-literature.

Among the Gaelic names of Paradise is that of [[124]]“Emain Ablach” (Emain rich in apples). In one description a youth named Conla and his bride Veniusa are referred to. “Now the youth was so that in his hand he held a fragrant apple having the hue of gold; a third part of it he would eat, and still, for all he consumed, never a whit would it be diminished. The fruit it was that supported the pair of them and when once they had partaken of it, nor age nor dimness could affect them.” A part of this Paradise was reserved for “monarchs, kings, and tribal chiefs”. Teigue, a Celtic Gilgamesh who visited the island, saw there “a thickly furnished wide-spreading apple tree that bore blossom and ripe fruit” at the same time. He asked regarding the great tree and was informed that its fruit was “meat” intended to “serve the congregation” which was to inhabit the mansion.[19] The rowan berry and hazel nut were also to the Gaels fruits of immortality. There once came to St. Patrick “from the south” a youth wearing a crimson mantle fixed by a fibula of gold over a yellow shirt. He brought “a double armful of round yellow-headed nuts and of beautiful golden-yellow apples”.[20] The Gaelic Islands of the Blest are pictured in glowing colours:

Splendours of every colour glisten

Throughout the gentle-voiced plains.

Joy is known, ranked around music

In the southern Silver-cloud Plain.

Unknown is wailing or treachery …

There is nothing rough or hoarse …

Without grief, without sorrow, without death,

Without sickness, without debility …

A lovely land

On which the many blossoms drop.[21]

SHOU SHAN (i.e. “HILLS OF LONGEVITY”), THE TAOIST PARADISE

From a woven silk picture in the Victoria and Albert Museum

[[125]]

The hero Bran sets out to search for the islands, and, like one of the Chinese mariners, meets with the sea-god, who addresses him and tells of the wonders of the island Paradise with its trees of life.

A wood laden with beautiful fruit …

A wood without decay, without defect,

On which is a foliage of a golden hue.[22]

The green floating and vanishing island and the well of life are common in Scottish Gaelic folk-lore. It was believed that the life-giving water had greatest potency if drunk at dawn of the day which was of equal length with the night preceding it, and that it should be drunk before a bird sipped at the well and before a dog barked. The Scandinavians heard of the Gaelic Island of the West during their prolonged sojourn in the British Isles and Ireland, and referred to it as “Ireland hit Mikla” (“The Mickle Ireland”), and the mythical island was afterwards identified with Vinland, believed to be America, which was apparently reached by the hardy sea-rovers.

The Earthly Paradise was also located in Asia. In the mythical histories of Alexander a hero sets forth like Gilgamesh on the quest of the Water of Life. He similarly enters a cavern of a great mountain in the west which is guarded by a monster serpent. In one version of the tale this hero carries a jewel that shines in darkness—a jewel that figures prominently in Chinese lore (Chap. XIII)—and passes through the dark tunnel. He reaches the Well of Life and plunges into it. When he came out he found that his body had turned a bluish-green colour, and ever afterwards he was called “El Khidr”, which means “Green”.[23] [[126]]

The Well of Life is referred to in the Koran. Commentators explain a reference to a vanishing fish by telling that Moses or Joshua carried a fried fish when they reached the Well of Life. Some drops of the water fell on the fish, which at once leapt out of the basket into the sea and swam away.

In the Aryo-Indian epic, the Mahábhárata, the hero Bhima sets out in search of the Lake of Life and the Lotus of Life. He overcomes the Yaksha-guardians of the lake, and when he bathes in the lake his wounds are healed.[24]

There are glowing descriptions in Buddhist literature of the Paradise reached by those who are to qualify for Buddhahood. A proportion of the Chinese Taoist inhabitants of the Islands of the Blest similarly wait for the time when they will pass into another state of existence. A similar belief prevailed in the West. Certain Celtic heroes, like Arthur, Ossian, Fionn (Finn), Brian Boroimhe, and Thomas the Rhymer, live in Paradise for long periods awaiting the time when they are to return to the world of men, as do Charlemagne, Frederick of Barbarossa, William Tell, and others on the Continent.

In the Buddhist Paradise the pure beings have faces “bright and yellowish”, yellow being the sacred colour of the Buddhist as it is the colour of the chief dragon of China. In this Paradise is the Celestial Ganges and the great Bodhi-tree, “a hundred yojanas in height”, which prolongs life and increases “their stock of merit”. Their “merit” may “grow in the following shapes, viz. either in gold, in silver, in jewels, in beryls, in shells, in stones, in corals, in amber, in red pearls, in diamonds, &c., or in any one of the other jewels; or in all kinds of perfumes, in flowers, in garlands, in ointment, in incense-powder, [[127]]in cloaks, in umbrellas, in flags, in banners, or in lamps; or in all kinds of dancing, singing, and music”.[25]

The gem-trees abound in this Paradise. “Of some trees”, one account runs, “the trunks are of coral, the branches of red pearls, the small branches of diamonds, the leaves of gold, the flowers of silver, and the fruits of beryl.”[26] In the “eastern quarter” there are “Buddha countries equal to the sand of the River Ganga (Ganges)”. The purified beings in the lands “surpass the light of the sun and moon, by the light of wisdom, and by the whiteness, brilliancy, purity, and beauty of their knowledge”.[27] There are references to “the king of jewels that fulfils every wish”. It has “golden-coloured rays excessively beautiful, the radiance of which transforms itself into birds possessing the colours of a hundred jewels, which sing out harmonious notes”.[28] The purified may become like Buddha “with bodies bright as gold and blue eyes”, for “the eyes of Buddha are like the water of the four great oceans; the blue and the white are quite distinct”.[29] The imaginations of the Buddhists run riot in their descriptions of the Land of Bliss, and the stream of glowing narrative carries with it many pre-Buddhist beliefs about metals and precious stones, “red pearls, blue pearls”, and so on, and “nets of gold adorned with the emblems of the dolphin, the svastika (swashtika), the nandyāvarta, and the moon”.[30] In their Paradise even the river mud is of gold. The religious ideas of the early searchers for “soul substance” in the form of metals and gems are thus found to be quaintly blended with Buddhist conceptions of the Earthly Paradise. [[128]]

In some Chinese and Japanese stories the souls of the dead are carried to Paradise by birds, and especially by the crane or stork, which takes the place of the Indian man-eagle Garuda (Japanese Gario, the woman-bird with crane’s legs), and of the Babylonian eagle that carried the hero Etana to heaven. The saints who reach the Indian Paradise of Uttara Kuru, situated at the sources of the River Indus, among the Himalayan mountains, and originally the homeland of the Kuru tribe of Aryans, are supposed to have their lives prolonged for centuries. When they die their bodies are carried away by gigantic birds and dropped into mountain recesses. The belief enshrined in stories of this kind may be traced to the wide-spread legend of the Diamond Valley. Laufer notes that a version of it occurs in the Liang se kung ki, “one of the most curious books of Chinese literature”. A prince is informed by scholars regarding the wonders of distant lands. “In the west, arriving at the Mediterranean,” one Chinese story runs, “there is in the sea an island of two hundred square miles. On this island is a large forest, abundant in trees with precious stones, and inhabited by over ten thousand families. These men show great ability in cleverly working gems, which are named for the country Fu-lin (Syria). In a north-westerly direction from the island is a ravine, hollowed out like a bowl, more than a thousand feet deep. They throw flesh into this valley. Birds take it up in their beaks, whereupon they drop the precious stones.” Here Fu-lin, in the Mediterranean area, is referred to as early as the beginning of the sixth century.

The Chinese Diamond Valley story is “an abridged form of a well-known Western legend”. In a version of it in the writings of Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus (c. 315–403), the valley is situated in “a [[129]]desert of great Scythia”, and the precious stones are gathered on the mountains, whence the eagles carry them. The eagle-stone is “useful to women in aiding parturition”. Laufer notes that Pliny knew about the parturition stone, and that the beliefs associated with it are found in Egypt and India. In the latter country it occurs in legends about the combats between the eagle and serpent.[31]

A Scottish Gaelic folk-story tells of a man who had a combat with an eagle which carried him away to the floating island of the blest. He was killed, but came to life again after drops of the water from the well of life were thrown on his body. Stones found in eagles’ or ravens’ nests, according to Scottish belief, imparted to their possessors the power of prophecy or healing.

The gems from the trees of Paradise in Babylonian, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese literature were supposed to confer special powers on those who became possessed of them. To this class belongs the “Jewel that grants all Desires”, the “gem that shines in darkness”, the prophet’s or priest’s jewel or jewels, &c. Gems were searched for in ancient times because they were supposed to possess what has been called “soul substance”. They protected those who wore them from all evil, they assisted birth, they prolonged life. Precious metals were similarly believed to be “luck-bringers”, and to early man luck meant everything he wished for, including good health, longevity, plentiful supplies of food, a knowledge of the future, offspring, and so on.

In the stories of the Islands of the Blest the happy souls are, in the ancient sense of the term, “lucky souls”. [[130]]Paradise was a land in which life-giving water and fruit, and innumerable gems were to be found, and those who reached it became wise as magicians and prophets, and lived for thousands of years free from sickness and pain. It was the land of eternal youth and unlimited happiness. [[131]]

[1] Jade: A Study in Chinese Archæology and Religion, Berthold Laufer (Chicago, 1912), pp. 209–10. [↑]

[2] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Egypt, pp. 133–7. [↑]

[3] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Egypt, p. 102. [↑]

[4] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 181–3. [↑]

[5] Mémoires Historiques de Se-ma Tsʼien (1895–1905). [↑]

[6] He figures as a character (not a real one) in the writings of Kwang-tze, who was born in the fourth century B.C. [↑]

[7] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 145. [↑]

[8] Dr. J. Legge, Chinese Classics, Vol. III, Part I, p. 240, and Part II, p. 554. [↑]

[9] In Scottish giant-lore giants sit on mountains in like manner and fish for whales, using trees as fishing-rods. [↑]

[10] Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan. [↑]

[11] [Genesis, ii, 8]. [↑]

[12] Navarrette, Coll. de Documents, I, p. 244, quoted in Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, p. 525. [↑]

[13] William Ellis, Polynesian Researches (1st edition, London, 1829), Vol. II, pp. 47 et seq. [↑]

[14] Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, Vol. III, Tale LXXXVI. [↑]

[15] Legends of Gods and Ghosts, p. 246. [↑]

[16] Nineteen Years in Polynesia, p. 353. [↑]

[17] Swarga-rohanika Parva, Section III (Roy’s translation), p. 9. The chief of the gods says to Yudhishthira: “Here is the celestial river.… Plunging into it, thou wilt go to thine own regions (Paradise).” Having bathed, the hero “cast off his human body” and “assumed a celestial form”. [↑]

[18] Odyssey, XV (Butcher and Lang’s trans.), p. 253. [↑]

[19] S. H. O’Grady, Silva Gadelica, Vol. II, pp. 393–4. [↑]

[20] Ibid., Vol. II, p. 113. [↑]

[21] The Voyage of Bran. [↑]

[22] Ancient Irish Poetry, p. 8. [↑]

[23] The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great, trans. by E. Walter Budge, pp. 11 et seq., and 167 et seq. [↑]

[24] “Vana Parva” of Mahábhárata, and Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 105–9. [↑]

[25] Description of Sukhāvatī, the Land of Bliss, in Buddhist Mahayana Texts (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XLIX), pp. 16, 17. [↑]

[26] Ibid., p. 35. [↑]

[27] Ibid., p. 56. [↑]

[28] Ibid., p. 174. [↑]

[29] Ibid., p. 180. [↑]

[30] Ibid., p. 50. [↑]

[31] B. Laufer, The Diamond (A Study in Chinese and Hellenistic Folk-lore) (Chicago, 1915). [↑]

[[Contents]]

CHAPTER X

The Mother-goddess of China and Japan

Food for the Dead—Milk, Bread, and Beer in Paradise—The Western Tree of Life in Egypt—Tree of Life in Greece, Britain, and Polynesia—The Underworld Paradise—The “Wonderful Rose Garden”—Chinese Cult of the West—Biblical Tree Parable—Chinese Peach Tree of Longevity—The “Royal Mother of the West”—Visit of the Chinese Emperor—A Far-Eastern El-Khidr—The Sacred Chrysanthemum—The Cassia Tree Cult—Celestial Yellow River—Moon Myths—Lunar Elixir in China, India, and Scandinavia—Chinese Star Maiden—The Sun Barque—“Island of Blest” in Celestial River—Moon-girl Story—The “Makara” in China and Japan—The Chinese Ishtar—Deluge Legend—Tree Spirits—Story of Little Peachling—“Soul Substance” in Dragon Bones, Trees, and Pearls.

The quest of the “elixir of life”, the “water of life”, or “the food of life” is as prominent a feature of ancient religious literature as is the quest of the Holy Grail in the Arthurian romances. As has been shown in the last chapter, the belief that prompted the quest was widely prevalent, and of great antiquity. The Babylonian hero, Gilgamesh, whose story is told in the oldest epic in the world, undertook his long and perilous journey to the Otherworld, in quest of the Plant of Life, because the thought of death was sorrowful to him. When his friend, Ea-bani, had expired,

Gilgamesh wept bitterly, and he lay stretched out upon the ground.

He cried, “Let me not die like Ea-bani.…

I fear death.”[1]

[[132]]

In the Babylonian myth of Adapa reference is made to the “water of life” and the “food of life”, which give wisdom and immortality to the gods and to the souls of those mortals who win their favour. The sacred tree in Babylonian art is evidently the Tree of Life.[2]

We seem to meet with the history of the immemorial quest in the Pyramid Texts of Ancient Egypt. The ancient priests appear to have concerned themselves greatly regarding the problem how the dead were to be nourished in the celestial Paradise. “The chief dread felt by the Egyptian for the hereafter,” says Breasted, “was fear of hunger.”[3] In Egypt, as in other lands offerings of food were made at the tombs, and these were supposed to be conveyed to the souls by certain of the gods. But those who hoped to live for ever knew well that the time would come when grave-offerings would cease to be made, and their own names would be forgotten on earth. Some Pharaohs endowed their chapel-tombs for all time, but revolutions ultimately caused endowments to be appropriated.

The Babylonians believed that if the dead were not fed, their ghosts would prowl through the streets and enter houses, searching for food and water.[4] In Polynesia the homeless and desolate ghosts were those of poor people, “who during their residence in the body had no friends and no property”.[5] The custom of including food-vessels and drinking-cups in the funerary furniture of prehistoric graves in different countries was no doubt connected with the fear of hunger in the hereafter. The custom was widespread of giving the dead food offerings [[133]]at regular intervals. Once a year the living held feasts in the burial-grounds, and invited the dead to partake of their share. Among the Hallowe’en beliefs in the British Isles is one that ghosts return home during the year-end festival to attend “the feast of all souls”. The Hebridean custom, which lingered even in the nineteenth century, of placing food and water, or milk, beside a corpse while it lay in a house, and outside the door or at the grave after the burial took place, was no doubt a relic of an ancient custom, based on the haunting belief that the dead were in need of nourishment, if not for all time, at any rate until the journey to the Otherworld was completed.

As has been said, it was the provision of food in the celestial Paradise, far removed from the earth and its produce, that chiefly concerned the Egyptians. In the Underworld Kingdom, presided over by Osiris, the souls grew corn and gathered fruit. But the Paradise of the solar cult was above or beyond the sky. Some of the sun-worshippers are found in the Pyramid Texts to have placed their faith in the food-supplying Great Mother, the goddess Hathor, who gave them corn and milk during their earthly lives. As son of Re, born of the sky-goddess, he (the Pharaoh) is frequently represented as suckled by one of the sky-goddesses, or some other divinity connected with Re, especially the ancient goddesses of the prehistoric kingdoms of South and North. These appear as “the two vultures with long hair and hanging breasts; … they draw their breasts over the mouth of King Pepi, but they do not wean him forever.…” Another text invokes the mother-goddess: “Give thy breast to this King Pepi, … suckle this King Pepi therewith”. As a result, perhaps, of the prevalence of Osirian beliefs, the solar cult adopted [[134]]the idea that food, such as is found in Egypt, might be provided in the regions above or beyond the sky. The sun-god was appealed to: “Give thou bread to this King Pepi, from this thy eternal bread, thy everlasting beer”.[6]

But the chief source of nourishment in the celestial Paradise was the Tree of Life (a form of the mother-goddess) on the great isle in the mythical lake or sea beyond the Eastern horizon.[7] Egyptian artists depicted this tree as a palm, or sycamore, with a goddess rising from inside it, pouring water from a vessel on the hands of the Pharaoh’s soul, which might appear in human form, or in the man-bird form called the ba. In the funeral ritual the ceremony of pouring out a libation was performed with the object of restoring the body moisture (the water of life) to the mummy.[8] A Biblical reference to the ceremony is found in 2 Kings, iii, 11, in which it is said of Elisha that he “poured water on the hands of Elijah”. No doubt the Egyptian soul received water as nourishment, as well as to ensure its immortality, from the tree-goddess.

In the Book of the Dead (Chapter LIX), the Tree of Life is referred to as “the sycamore of Nut” (the sky-goddess). Other texts call the tree “the Western Tree” of Nut or Hathor. It may be that the solar cult of the East took over the tree from the Osirian cult of the West.

This mythical tree figures in many ancient mythologies. The goddess Europa was worshipped at Gortyna, in Crete, during the Hellenic period, as a sacred tree.[9] The tree may be traced from the British Isles to India, and there are numerous legends of spirits entering or leaving [[135]]it. The Polynesians have stories of this kind. Their Tree of Life was the local bread-fruit tree which “became a god”, or, as some had it, a goddess. “Out of this magic bread-fruit tree,” a legend says, “a great goddess was made.”[10]

It may be that the island Paradise with its Tree of Life was specially favoured after maritime enterprise made strong appeal to the imagination of the Egyptians. No doubt the old sailors who searched for “soul-substance” in the shape of pearls, precious stones, and metals had much to do with disseminating the idea of the Isles of the Blest. At any rate, it became, as we have seen, a tradition among seafarers to search for the distant land in which was situated the “water of life”. The home-dwelling Osirians clung to their idea of an Underworld Paradise, and belief in it became fused with that of the floating island, or Islands of the Blest. Those who dwelt in inland plains and valleys, and those accustomed to cross the great mysterious deserts on which the oasis-mirage frequently appeared and vanished like the mythical floating island, conceived of a Paradise on earth. There are references in more than one land to a Paradise among the mountains. It figures in the fairy stories of Central Europe, for instance, as “the wonderful Rose Garden” with its linden Tree of Immortality, the hiding-place of a fairy lady, its dancing nymphs and its dwarfs; the king of dwarfs has a cloak of invisibility which he wraps round those mortals he carries away.[11]

At first only the souls of kings entered Paradise. But, in time, the belief became firmly established that the souls of others could reach it too, and be fed there. The quest of the “food of life” then became a popular [[136]]theme of the story-tellers, and so familiar grew the idea of the existence of this fruit that people believed it could be obtained during life, and that those who partook of it might have their days prolonged indefinitely. For, as W. Schooling has written, “a few simple thoughts on a few simple subjects produce a few simple opinions common to a whole tribe” (and even a great part of mankind), “and are taught with but little modification to successive generations; hence arises a rigidity that imposes ready-made opinions, which are seldom questioned, while such questioning as does occur is usually met with excessive severity, as Galileo and others have found out”.[12]

THE CHINESE SI WANG MU (JAPANESE SEIOBO) AND MAO NU

From a Japanese painting (by Hidenobu) in the British Museum

The apple, as we have seen, was to the Celts the fruit of immortality: the Chinese favoured the peach—that is, it was favoured by the Chinese cult of the West. As all animals were supposed to be represented in the Otherworld by gigantic prototypes—the fathers or mothers of their kind—so were trees represented by a gigantic tree.[13] This tree was the World Tree that supported the Universe. In Egypt the World Tree was the sycamore of the sky-goddess, who was the Great Mother of deities and mankind. The sun dropped into the sycamore at eventide; when darkness fell the swallows (star-gods) perched in its branches. In Norse mythology the tree is the ash, called Ygdrasil, and from the well at its roots souls receive the Hades-drink of immortality, drinking from a horn embellished with serpent symbols. The Tree figures prominently in Iranian mythology: the Aryo-Indian Indra constructs the World-house round [[137]]it. This Tree is, no doubt, identical with the sacred tree in Assyrian art, which is sometimes the date, the vine, the pomegranate, the fir, the cedar, and perhaps the oak. It may be that the Biblical parable about the talking trees is a memory of the rivalries of the various Assyrian tree cults:

The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour god and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us. But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my vine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us. And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me King over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

As in Assyria, there was in China quite a selection of life-giving trees.

The Chinese gigantic Peach Tree, whose fruit was partaken of by gods and men, grew in the Paradise among the Kwun-lun mountains in Tibet, and, like the Indian Mount Meru (“world spine”), supported the Universe. Its fruit took three thousand years to ripen. The tree was surrounded by a beautiful garden, and was under the care of the fairy-like lady Si Wang Mu, the queen of immortals, the “Mother of the Western King”, and the “Royal Mother of the West”. She appears to have originally been the mother-goddess—the Far-Eastern form of Hathor. In Japan she is called Seiobo. Her Paradise, which is called “the palace of exalted purity”, and “the metropolis of the pearl mountain”, or of “the jade mountain”, and is entered through “the golden [[138]]door”,[14] was originally that of the cult of the West. Sometimes Si Wang Mu is depicted as quite as weird a deity as the Phigalian Demeter, with disordered hair, tiger’s teeth, and a panther’s tail. Her voice is harsh, and she sends and cures diseases. Three blue birds bring food to her.

Chinese emperors and magicians were as anxious to obtain a peach from the Royal Mother’s tree in the Western Paradise, as they were to import the “fungus of immortality” from the Islands of the Blest in the Eastern Sea.

There once lived in China a magician named Tung Fang So, who figures in Japanese legend as Tobosaku, and is represented in Japanese art as a jolly old man, clasping a peach to his breast and performing a dance, or as a dreamy sage, carrying two or three peaches, and accompanied by a deer—an animal which symbolized longevity. Various legends have gathered round his name. One is that he had several successive rebirths in various reigns, and that originally he was an avatar of the planet Venus. He may therefore represent the Far-Eastern Tammuz, the son of the mother-goddess. Another legend tells that he filched three peaches from the Tree of Life, which had been plucked by the “Royal Mother of the West”.

Tung Fang So was a councillor in the court of Wu Ti, the fourth emperor of the Han Dynasty, who reigned for over half a century, and died after fasting for seven days in 87 B.C. In Japanese stories Wu Ti is called Kan no Buti. He was greatly concerned about finding the “water of life” or the “fruit of life”, so that his days might be prolonged. In his palace garden he caused to be erected a tower over 100 feet high, which appears to [[139]]have been an imitation of a Babylonian temple. On its summit was the bronze image of a god, holding a golden vase in its hands. In this vase was collected the pure dew that was supposed to drip from the stars. The emperor drank the dew, believing that it would renew his youth.

One day there appeared before Wu Ti in the palace garden a beautiful green sparrow. In China and Japan the sparrow is a symbol of gentleness, and a sparrow of uncommon colour is supposed to indicate that something unusual is to happen. The emperor was puzzled regarding the bird-omen, and consulted Tung Fang So, who informed him that the Queen of Immortals was about to visit the royal palace.

Before long Si Wang Mu made her appearance. She had come all the way from her garden among the Kwun-lun mountains, riding on the back of a white dragon, with seven of the peaches of immortality, which were carried on a tray by a dwarf servant. Her fairy majesty was gorgeously attired in white and gold, and spoke with a voice of bird-like sweetness.

When she reached Wu Ti there were only four peaches on the tray, and she lifted one up and began to eat it. The peach was her symbol, as the apple was that of Aphrodite. Tung Fang So peered at her through a window, and when she caught sight of his smiling face, she informed the emperor that he had stolen three of her peaches. Wu Ti received a peach from her, and, having eaten it, became an immortal. A similar story is told regarding the Chinese Emperor, Muh Wang.

In her “Jade Mountain” Paradise of the West (the highest peak of the Kwun-lun mountains) this goddess is accompanied by her sister, as the Egyptian Isis is by Nephthys, and the pair are supposed to flit about in [[140]]Cloud-land, followed by the white souls of good women of the Taoist cult. Her attendants include the Blue Stork, the White Tiger, the Stag, and the gigantic Tortoise, which are all gods and symbols of longevity in China.

Among the many stories told about Tung Fang So is one regarding a visit he once paid to the mythical Purple Sea. He returned after the absence of a year, and on being remonstrated with by his brother for deserting his home for so long a period, he contended that he had been away for only a single day. His garments had been discoloured by the waters of the Purple Sea, and he had gone to another sea to cleanse them. In like manner heroes who visit Fairyland find that time slips past very quickly.

The Purple Sea idea may have been derived from the ancient Well of Life story about El Khidr,[15] whose body and clothing turned green after he had bathed in it. Purple supplanted green and blue as the colour of immortality and royalty after murex dye became the great commercial asset of sea-traders. Tung Fang So may have had attached to his memory a late and imported version of the El Khidr story.

MOUNTAIN VIEW WITH SCHOLAR’S RETREAT

From a Chinese painting in the British Museum

The reference to Wu Ti’s dew-drinking habit recalls the story of the youthful Keu Tze Tung, a court favourite, who unwittingly offended the emperor, Muh Wang, and was banished. As the Egyptian Bata, who similarly fell into disgrace in consequence of a false charge being made against him, fled to the “Valley of the Acacia”, Keu Tze Tung fled to the “Valley of the Chrysanthemum”. There he drank the dew that dropped from the petals of chrysanthemums, and became an immortal. The Buddhists took over this story, and [[141]]told that the youth had been given a sacred text, which he painted on the petals. This text imparted to the dew its special qualities. In the Far East the chrysanthemum is a symbol of purity. The chrysanthemum with sixteen petals is the emblem of the Mikado of Japan.

A Chinese sage, who, like the Indian Rishis, practised yoga until he became immortal, engaged his spare moments in painting fish. He lived on the bank of a stream for over two hundred years. In the end he was carried away to the Underworld Paradise of the Lord of Fish, who was, of course, the dragon-god. He paid one return visit to his disciples, riding like the Chinese “Boy Blue” in the dragon story, on the back of a red carp.

Another Chinese “tree-cult” favoured, instead of the peach tree, a cassia tree. This cassia-cult must have been late. The peach tree is indigenous. “Of fruits,” says Laufer, “the West is chiefly indebted to China for the peach (Amygdalus persica) and the apricot (Prunus armeniaca). It is not impossible that these two gifts were transmitted by the silk-dealers, first to Iran (in the second or first century B.C.) and thence to Armenia, Greece, and Rome (in the first century A.D.).” In India the peach is called cinani (“Chinese fruit”). “There is no Sanskrit name for the tree (peach); nor does it play any rôle in the folk-lore of India, as it does in China.” … Persia “has only descriptive names for these fruits, the peach being termed saft alu (‘large plum’), the apricot, zard alu (‘yellow plum’).”[16]

It is difficult to identify the cassia tree of Chinese religious literature. “The Chinese word Kwei occurs at an early date, but it is a generic term for Lauraceæ; and there are about thirteen species of Cassia, and about sixteen species of Cinnamomum in China. The essential [[142]]point is that the ancient texts maintain silence as to cinnamon; that is, the product from the bark of the tree. Cinnamomum cassia is a native of Kwan-si, Kwan-tun, and Indo-China; and the Chinese made its first acquaintance under the Han, when they began to colonize and to absorb southern China.” The first description of this tree goes no farther back than the third century. “It was not the Chinese, but non-Chinese peoples of Indo-China who first brought the tree into civilization, which, like all other southern cultivations, was simply adopted by the conquering Chinese.”[17] It has been suggested that the cinnamon bark was imported into Egypt from China as far back as the Empire period (c. 1500 B.C.) by Phœnician sea-traders.[18] Laufer rejects this theory.[19] Apparently the ancient Egyptians imported a fragrant bark from their Punt (Somaliland, or British East Africa). At a very much later period cinnamon bark was carried across the Indian Ocean from Ceylon.

The Egyptians imported incense-bearing trees from Punt to restore the “odours of the body” of the dead, and poured out libations to restore its lost moisture.[20] “When”, writes Professor Elliot Smith, “the belief became well established that the burning of incense was potent as an animating force, and especially a giver of life to the dead, it naturally came to be regarded as a divine substance in the sense that it had the power of resurrection. As the grains of incense consisted of the exudation of trees, or, as the ancient texts express it, ‘their sweat’, the divine power of animation in course of time became transferred to trees. They were no [[143]]longer merely the source of the life-giving incense, but were themselves animated by the deity, whose drops of sweat were the means of conveying life to the mummy.… The sap of trees was brought into relationship with life-giving water.… The sap was also regarded as the blood of trees and the incense that exuded as sweat.” As De Groot reminds us, “tales of trees that shed blood, and that cry out when hurt are common in Chinese literature (as also in Southern Arabia, notes Elliot Smith); also of trees that lodge, or can change into maidens of transcendent beauty.”[21]

Apparently the ancient seafarers who searched for incense-bearing trees carried their beliefs to distant countries. The goddess-tree of the peach cult was evidently the earliest in China. It bore the fruit of life. The influence that led to the foundation of this cult probably came by an overland route. The cassia-tree cult was later, and beliefs connected with it came from Southern China; these, too, bear the imprint of ideas that were well developed before they reached China.

There are references in Chinese lore to a gigantic cassia tree which was 10,000 feet high. Those who ate of its fruit became immortal. The earlier belief connected with the peach tree was that the soul who ate one of its peaches lived for 3000 years.

This cassia world-tree appears first to have taken the place of the peach tree of the “Royal Mother of the West”. It was reached by sailing up the holiest river in China, the Hoang-Ho (Yellow River), the sources of which are in the Koko-Nor territory to the north of Tibet. It wriggles like a serpent between mountain barriers before it flows northward; then it [[144]]flows southward for 200 miles on the eastern border of Shensi province (the Chinese homeland), and then eastward for 200 miles, afterwards diverging in a north-easterly direction towards the Gulf of Chihli, in which the Islands of the Blest were supposed to be situated.

It was believed that the Hoang-Ho had, like the Ganges of India and the Nile of Egypt, a celestial origin. Those sages who desired to obtain a glimpse of Paradise sailed up the river to its fountain head. Some reached the tree and the garden of Paradise. Others found themselves sailing across the heavens. The Western Paradise was evidently supposed by some to be situated in the middle of the world, and by others to have been situated beyond the horizon.

Chang Kiʼen, one of the famous men attached to the court of Wu Ti, the reviver of many ancient beliefs and myths, was credited with having followed the course of the sacred river until he reached the spot where the cassia tree grew. Beside the tree were the immortal animals that haunt the garden of the “Royal Mother of the West”. In addition, Chang Kiʼen saw the moon-rabbit or moon-hare, which is adored as a rice-giver. In the Far East, as in the Near East and in the West, the moon is supposed to ripen crops. The lunar rabbit or hare is associated with water; in the moon grow plants and a tree of immortality. There is also, according to Chinese belief, a frog in the moon. It was originally a woman, the wife of a renowned archer, who rescued the moon from imprisonment in masses of black rain-clouds. The “Royal Mother of the West” was so grateful to the archer for the service he had rendered that she gave him a jade cup filled with the dew of immortality. His wife stole the cup and drank the dew. For this offence the “Royal Mother of the West” transformed her into a frog, and [[145]]imprisoned her in the moon. In Egypt the frog was a symbol of resurrection or rebirth, and the old frog-goddess Hekt is usually regarded as a form of Hathor, the Great Mother.

The lunar tree is sometimes identified with the cassia tree of immortality. Its leaves are red as blood, and the bodies of those who eat of its fruit become as transparent as still water.

The moon-water which nourishes plants and trees (eight lunar trees of immortality are referred to in some legends), and the dew of immortality in the jade cup, appear to be identical with the Indian soma and the nectar of the classical gods. In Norse mythology the lunar water-pot (a symbol of the mother-goddess) was filled at a well by two children, the boy Hyuki and the girl Bil,[22] who were carried away by the moon-god Mani. Odin was also credited with having recovered the moon-mead from the hall of Suttung, “the mead wolf”, after it had been stolen from the moon. The god flew heavenward, carrying the mead, in the form of an eagle.[23] Zeus’s eagle is similarly a nectar-bringer.

In Indian mythology the soma was contained in a bowl fashioned by Twashtri, the divine artisan, and was drunk by the gods, and especially by Indra, the rain-bringer. A Vedic frog-hymn was chanted by Aryo-Indian priests as a rain-charm when Indra’s services were requisitioned. In one of the Indian legends an eagle or falcon carries the soma to Indra. The souls who reach Paradise are made immortal after they drink of the soma. In India the soma was personified, and the lunar god, Soma, became a god of love, immortality, and fertility. The soma juice was obtained by the Vedic priests from [[146]]some unknown plant. There are also references in Indian mythology to the “Amrita”, which was partaken of by the gods. It was the sap of sacred trees that grew in Paradise. Trees and plants derived their life and sustenance from water. The Far-Eastern beliefs in “the dew of immortality”, “the fungus of immortality”, and “the fruit of immortality” have an intimate connection with the belief that the mother-goddess was connected with the moon, which exercised an influence over water. The mother-goddess was also the love-goddess, the Ishtar of Babylonia, the Hathor of Egypt, the Aphrodite of Greece. Her son, or husband, was, in one of his phases, the love-god.

The sage of the Chinese Emperor Wu Ti, who followed the course of the Yellow River so as to reach the celestial Paradise, saw, in addition to the moon-rabbit, or hare, the “Old Man of the Moon”, the Chinese Wu Kang and Japanese Gekkawo, the god of love and marriage. He is supposed to unite lovers by binding their feet with invisible red silk cords. The “Old Man in the Moon” is, in Chinese legend, engaged in chopping branches from the cassia tree of immortality. New branches immediately sprout forth to replace those thus removed, but the “Old Man” has to go on cutting till the end of time, having committed a sin for which his increasing labour is the appropriate punishment.

A Buddhist legend makes Indra the old man. He asked for food from the hare, the ape, and the fox. The hare lit a fire and leapt into it so that the god might be fed. Indra was so much impressed by this supreme act of friendship and charity that he placed the exemplary hare in the moon. A version of this story is given in the Mahábhárata.

In European folk-lore the “Old Man” is either a [[147]]thief who stole a bundle of faggots, or a man who “broke the Sabbath” by cutting sticks on that holy day.

See the rustic in the Moon,

How his bundle weighs him down;

Thus his sticks the truth reveal

It never profits man to steal.

Various versions of the Man in the Moon myth are given by S. Baring-Gould,[24] who draws attention to a curious seal “appended to a deed preserved in the Record office, dated the 9th year of Edward the Third (1335)”. It shows the “Man in the Moon” carrying his sticks and accompanied by his dog. Two stars are added. The inscription on the seal is, “Te Waltere docebo cur spinas phebo gero (I will teach thee, Walter, why I carry thorns in the moon)”. The deed is one of conveyance of property from a man whose Christian name was Walter.

Wu Ti’s sage travelled through the celestial regions until he reached the Milky Way, the source of the Yellow River. He saw the Spinning Maiden, whose radiant garment is adorned with silver stars. She had a lover, from whom she was separated, but once a year she was allowed to visit him, and passed across the heavens as a meteor. This Spinning Maiden, who weaves the net of the constellations, is reminiscent of the Egyptian sky-goddess, Hathor (or Nut), whose body is covered with stars, and whose legs and arms, as she bends over the earth, “represent the four pillars on which the sky was supposed to rest and mark the four cardinal points”. Her lover, from whom she was separated, was Seb.[25] In China certain groups of stars are referred to as the [[148]]“Celestial Door”, the “Hall of Heaven”, &c. Taoist saints dwell in stellar abodes, as well as on the “Islands of the Blest”; some were, during their life on earth, incarnations of star-gods. The lower ranks of the western-cult immortals remain in the garden of the “Royal Mother”; those of the highest rank ascend to the stars.

Wu Ti’s sage, according to one form of the legend, never returned to earth. His boat, which sailed up the Yellow River and then along the “Milky Way”, was believed to have reached the Celestial River that flows round the Universe, and along which sails the sun-barque of the Egyptian god Ra (or Re). One day the Chinese sage’s oar—apparently his steering oar—was deposited in the Royal Palace grounds by a celestial spirit, who descended from the sky. Here we have, perhaps, a faint memory of the visits paid to earth from the celestial barque by the Egyptian god Thoth, in his captivity as envoy of the sun-god Ra.

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.

As the dragon was connected with the moon, and the moon with the bamboo, it might be expected that the dragon and bamboo would be closely linked. One of the holy men is credited with having reached the lunar heaven by cutting down a bamboo, which he afterwards transformed into a dragon. He rode heavenwards on the dragon’s back.

Saintly women, as a rule, rise to heaven in the form of birds, or in their own form, without wings, on account of the soul-like lightness of their bodies, which have become purified by performing religious rites and engaging in prayer and meditation. Their husbands have either to climb trees or great mountains. Some holy women, after reaching heaven, ride along the clouds on the back of the Kʼilin, the bisexual monster that the soul of Confucius is supposed to ride. It is a form of the dragon, but more like the makara of the Indian god Varuna than the typical “wonder beast” of China and Japan. Some of these monsters resemble lions, dogs, deer, walruses, or unicorns. They are all, however, varieties of the makara. [[151]]

Sometimes we find that the attributes of the Great Mother, who, like Aphrodite, was a “Postponer of Old Age” (Ambologera), being the provider of the fruit of immortality and a personification of the World Tree, have been attached to the memory of some famous lady, and especially an empress. As the Egyptian Pharaoh, according to the beliefs of the solar cult, became Ra (the sun-god) after death, so did the Chinese empress become the “Royal Lady of the West”. Nu Kwa, a mythical empress of China, was reputed to have become a goddess after she had passed to the celestial regions. She figures in the Chinese Deluge Myth. Like the Babylonian Ishtar, she was opposed to the policy of destroying mankind. She did not, however, like Ishtar, content herself by expressing regret. When the demons of water and fire, aided by rebel generals of her empire, set out to destroy the world, Nu Kwa waged war against them. Her campaign was successful, but not until a gigantic warrior had partly destroyed the heavens by upsetting one of its pillars and the flood had covered a great portion of the earth. The empress stemmed the rising waters by means of charred reeds (a Babylonian touch), and afterwards rebuilt the broken pillar, under which was placed an Atlas-tortoise. Like Marduk (Merodach), she then set the Universe in order, and formed the channel for the Celestial River. Thereafter she created the guardians of the four quarters, placing the Black Tortoise in the north, and giving it control over winter; the Blue Dragon in the east, who was given control over spring; the White Tiger in the west, who was given control over autumn; and the Red Bird in the south, who was given control over summer, with the Golden Dragon, whose special duty was to guard the sun, the moon being protected by the White [[152]]Deity of the west. The broken pillar of heaven was built up with stones coloured like the five gods.

Among the gifts conferred on mankind by this Empress-Goddess was jade, which she created so that they might be protected against evil influence and decay.

In this Deluge Myth, which is evidently of Babylonian origin, the gods figure as rebels and demons. The Mother Goddess is the protector of the Universe, and the friend of man. Evidently the cult of the Mother Goddess was at one time very powerful in China. In Japan the Empress Nu Kwa is remembered as Jokwa.

The Tree of Immortality, as has been seen, is closely associated with the Far Eastern Mother Goddess, who may appear before favoured mortals either as a beautiful woman, as a dragon, or as a woman riding on a dragon, or as half woman and half fish, or half woman and half serpent. It is from the goddess that the tree receives its “soul substance”; in a sense, she is the tree, as she is the moon and the pot of life-water, or the mead in the moon. The fruits of the tree are symbols of her as the mother, and the sap of the tree is her blood.

Reference has been made to Far Eastern stories about dragons transforming themselves into trees and trees becoming dragons. The tree was a “kupua” of the dragon. The mother of Adonis was a tree—Myrrha—the daughter of King Cinyras of Cyprus, who was transformed into a myrrh tree. A Japanese legend relates that a hero, named Manko, once saw a beautiful woman sitting on a tree-trunk that floated on the sea. She vanished suddenly. Manko had the tree taken into his boat, and found that the woman was hidden inside the trunk. She was a daughter of the Dragon King of Ocean.

GENII AT THE COURT OF SI WANG MU

From a Chinese painting in the British Museum

A better-known Japanese tree hero is Momotaro [[153]](momo, peach, taro, eldest son), whose name is usually rendered in English as “Little Peachling”. He is known in folk-stories as a slayer of demons—a veritable Jack the Giant-Killer.

The legend runs that one day an old wood-cutter went out to gather firewood, while his wife washed dirty clothes in a river. After the woman had finished her work, she saw a gigantic peach drifting past. Seizing a pole, she brought it into shallow water, and thus secured it. The size of the peach astonished her greatly, and she carried it home, and, having washed it, placed it before her husband when he returned home for his evening meal. No sooner did the wood-cutter begin to cut open the peach than a baby boy emerged from the kernel. The couple, being childless, were greatly delighted, and looked upon the child as a gift from the Celestials, and they believed he had been sent so as to become their comfort and helper when they grew too old to work.

Momotaro, “the elder son of the peach”, as they called him, grew up to be a strong and valiant young man, who performed feats of strength that caused everyone to wonder at him.

There came a day when, to the sorrow of his foster-parents, he announced that he had resolved to leave home and go to the Isle of Demons, with purpose to secure a portion of their treasure. This seemed to be a perilous undertaking, and the old couple attempted to make him change his mind. Momotaro, however, laughed at their fears, and said: “Please make some millet dumplings for me. I shall need food for my journey.”

His foster-mother prepared the dumplings and muttered good wishes over them. Then Momotaro bade the old couple an affectionate farewell, and went on his way. [[154]]

The young hero had not travelled far when he met a dog, which barked out: “Bow-wow! where are you going, Peach-son?”

“I am going to the Isle of Demons to obtain treasure,” the lad answered.

“Bow-wow! what are you carrying?”

“I am carrying millet dumplings that my mother made for me. No one in Japan can make better dumplings than these.”

“Bow-wow! give me one and I shall go with you to the Isle of Demons.”

The lad gave the dog a dumpling, and it followed at his heels.

Momotaro had not gone much farther when a monkey, perched on a tree, called out to him, saying: “Kia! Kia! where are you going, Son of a Peach?”

Momotaro answered the monkey as he had answered the dog. The monkey asked for a dumpling, promising to join the party, and when he received one he set off with the lad and the dog.

The next animal that hailed the lad was a pheasant, who called out: “Ken! Ken! where are you going, Son of a Peach?”

Momotaro told him, and the bird, having received the dumpling he asked for, accompanied the lad, the dog, and the monkey on the quest of treasure.

When the Island of Demons was reached they all went together towards the fortress in which the demon king resided. The pheasant flew inside to act as a spy. Then the monkey climbed over the wall and opened the gate, so that Momotaro and the dog were able to enter the fortress without difficulty. The demons, however, soon caught sight of the intruders, and attempted to kill them. Momotaro fought fiercely, assisted by the [[155]]friendly animals, and slew or scattered in flight the demon warriors. Then they found their way into the royal palace and made Akandoji, the king of demons, their prisoner. This great demon was prepared to wield his terrible club of iron, but Momotaro, who was an expert in the jiu-jitsu system of wrestling, seized the demon king and threw him down, and, with the help of the monkey, bound him with a rope.

Momotaro threatened to put Akandoji to death if he would not reveal where his treasure was hidden.

The king bade his servants do homage to the Son of the Peach and to bring forth the treasure, which included the cap and coat of invisibility, magic jewels that controlled the ebb and flow of ocean, gems that shone in darkness and gave protection against all evil to those who wore them, tortoise-shell and jade charms, and a great quantity of gold and silver.

Momotaro took possession of as much of the treasure as he could carry, and returned home a very rich man. He built a great house, and lived in it with his foster-parents, who were given everything they desired as long as they lived.

In this story may be detected a mosaic of myths. The Egyptian Horus, whose island floated down the Nile, had white sandals which enabled him to go swiftly up and down the land of Egypt. There are references in the Pyramid Texts to his youthful exploits, but the full story of them has not yet been discovered. The Babylonian Tammuz, when a child, drifted in a “sunken boat” down the River Euphrates. No doubt this myth is the one attached to the memory of Sargon of Akkad,[26] the son of a vestal virgin, who was placed in an ark and set adrift on the river. He was found by a gardener, [[156]]and was afterwards raised to the kingship by the goddess Ishtar. Karna, the Aryo-Indian Hector, the son of Surya, the sun-god, and the virgin-princess Pritha, was similarly set adrift in an ark, and was rescued from the Ganges by a childless woman whose husband was a charioteer. The poor couple reared the future hero as their own son.[27]

Adonis, the son of the myrrh tree, was a Syrian form of Tammuz. Horus was the son of Osiris, whose body was enclosed by a tree after Set caused his death by setting him adrift in a chest. When Isis found the tree, which had been cut down for a pillar, the posthumous conception of the son of Osiris took place.[28] The Momotaro legend has thus a long history.

The friendly animals figure in the folk-tales of many lands. Momotaro’s fight for the treasure, including the cloak of invisibility, bears a close resemblance to Siegfried’s fight for the treasure of the Nibelungs.[29] In western European, as in Far Eastern lore, the treasure is guarded by dragons as well as by dwarfs and giants and other demons. When the dragon-slayer is not accompanied by friendly animals, he receives help and advice from birds whose language he acquires by eating a part of the dragon, or, as in the Egyptian tale, after getting possession of the book of spells, guarded by the “Deathless Snake”. When the Egyptian hero reads the spells he understands the language of birds, beasts, and fishes. The treasure-guarding dragon appears, as has been suggested, to have had origin in the belief that sharks were the guardians of pearl-beds and preyed upon the divers who stole their treasure. [[157]]

The beliefs connected with the life-giving virtues of the tree of the Mother Goddess were attached to shells, pearls, gold, and jade. The goddess was the source of all life, and one of her forms was the dragon. As the dragon-mother she created or gave birth to the dragon-gods. Dragon-bones were ground down for medicinal purposes; dragon-herbs cured diseases; the sap of dragon-trees, like the fruit, promoted longevity, as did the jade which the goddess had created for mankind.

The beliefs connected with jade were similar to those connected with pearls, which were at a remote period emblems of the moon in Egypt. In China the moon was “the pearl of heaven”. One curious and widespread belief was that pearls were formed by rain-drops, or by drops of dew from the moon, the source of moisture, and especially of nectar or soma. Pearls and pearl-shells were used for medicinal purposes. They were, like the sap of trees, the very essence of life—the soul-substance of the Great Mother.[30]

That the complex ideas regarding shells, pearls, dew, trees, the moon, the sun, the stars, and the Great Mother were of “spontaneous generation” in many separated countries is difficult to believe. It is more probable that the culture-complexes enshrined in folk-tales and religious texts had a definite area of origin in which their history can be traced. The searchers for precious stones and metals and incense-bearing trees must have scattered their beliefs far and wide when they exploited locally-unappreciated forms of wealth. [[158]]

[1] L. W. King, Babylonian Religion (London, 1903), p. 171. [↑]

[2] L. W. King, Legends of Babylon and Egypt (London, 1918), p. 136. [↑]

[3] Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 130. [↑]

[4] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 71. [↑]

[5] Westervelt, Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology), p. 245. [↑]

[6] Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, pp. 120 et seq. [↑]

[7] Ibid., p. 134. [↑]

[8] G. Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, pp. 23 et seq. [↑]

[9] Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, Vol. III, pp. 14, 30; Cook, Zeus, Vol. I, p. 537. [↑]

[10] Westervelt, Legends of Old Honolulu, pp. 22 et seq., and p. 29. [↑]

[11] Teutonic Myth and Legend, pp. 424–32. [↑]

[12] Westminster Review, November, 1892, p. 523. [↑]

[13] When, some years ago, an ass was acquired by a tenant on a Hebridean island, a native, on seeing this animal for the first time, exclaimed, “It is the father of all the hares”. [↑]

[14] Dr. Joseph Edkins, Religion in China, p. 151. [↑]

[15] Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 185 et seq. [↑]

[16] Laufer, Sino Iranica (Chicago, 1919), pp. 539 et seq. [↑]

[17] Laufer, Sino-Iranica, p. 543. [↑]

[18] Transactions Am. Phil. Association, Vol. XXIII, 1892, p. 115. [↑]

[19] Sino-Iranica, pp. 542–3. [↑]

[20] G. Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, pp. 36 et seq. [↑]

[21] Religious System of China, Vol. IV, pp. 272–6: and Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, pp. 38–9. [↑]

[22] The Jack and Jill of the nursery rhyme. [↑]

[23] Teutonic Myth and Legend, pp. 22 et seq. [↑]

[24] Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, pp. 190 et seq. [↑]

[25] Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. II, p. 104. [↑]

[26] Babylonian Myth and Legend, p. 126–7. [↑]

[27] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 173 et seq., and 192–94. [↑]

[28] Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. 19 et seq. [↑]

[29] Teutonic Myth and Legend, pp. 352 (n.), 376, 383, 389, 391, 446. [↑]

[30] For beliefs connected with pearls and shells, see Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture, I. Wilfrid Jackson (London, 1917). [↑]

[[Contents]]

CHAPTER XI

Tree-, Herb-, and Stone-lore

“Soul Substance” in Medicinal Plants—Life-fire in Water and Plants—“The Blood which is Life”—Colour Symbolism in East and West—Charm Symbolism—Gems as Fruit—Jade and Vegetation—Far Eastern Elixirs of Life—Links between Pine, Cypress, Mandrake, and Mugwort—Story of Treasure-finding Dog—The Far Eastern Artemis—Her Mugwort, Lotus, and Fruit Basket—Herbs and Pearl-shell—Goats and Women’s Herb—Chinese and Tartar’s Fight for Mandrake—Tea as an Elixir—Far Eastern Rip Van Winkles—Problem of the Date Tree—“Tree Tears” and “Stone Tears”—Weeping Deities—Goats and Thunder-gods—Goats and Sheep become Stones—Gems and Herbs connected with Moon—Graded Herbs, Deities, and Stones—Foreign Ideas in China.

In the ancient medical lore of China, as in the medical lores of other lands, there are laudatory references to “All-heal” plants and plants reputed to be specific remedies for various diseases. Not a few of these medicinal plants have been found to be either quite useless or positively harmful, but some are included in modern pharmacopœias, after having been submitted to the closest investigations of physiological science.

The old herbalists, witch-doctors, and hereditary “curers”, who made some genuine discoveries that have since been elaborated, were certainly not scientists in the modern sense of the term. Their “cures” were a quaint mixture of magic and religion. They searched for those plants and substances that appeared, either by their shape or colour, to contain in more concentrated form than others the “essence of life”, the “soul substance” that restored health and promoted longevity. [[159]]

This “soul substance” was concentrated in body-odours and body-moistures. It was a something mixed in water which had colour, odour, and heat—a something derived from the Great Mother, who had herself sprung from water, as did the Egyptian Hathor and the Greek Aphrodite, or, if not directly from the Great Mother, from one or other of her offspring. The “soul substance” of the goddess was in vegetation; the sap of trees was identified with her blood—the “blood which is life”. Blood was one kind of body-moisture; other kinds were sweat, tears, saliva, &c. All these moistures had fertilizing properties. The Mother, as the sky-goddess, provided the world’s supply of fertilizing water. In China the supply was controlled by the dragon-gods, who caused the thunder and lightning that released the rain and flooded the rivers.

Winter is the Chinese dry season. It was believed that during this period the dragons were concealed and asleep. No growth was possible during winter because of the scarcity of water—the life-giving water that caused Nature to “renew her youth” in the spring season. When the dragons awoke and rose fighting and thundering, parched wastes were soaked and fertilized by rain. Then the old, decaying world renewed her youth and fresh vegetation appeared, because “soul substance” in the form of rain had entered the soil and furnished plants with “blood-sap”, and at the same time with vital energy, vital odours, and vital colours. Thus life, which had its origin in water, was sustained by the products of water and by the properties in water.

The plants that were supposed to store up most “soul substance” were those that grew in water, like the lotus, those that constantly absorbed moisture, like the “fungus of immortality”, or those that sprang up suddenly [[160]]during a thunder-storm, like the “Red Cloud herb”. The latter required a heavy deluge to bring it into existence. It was a special gift of the dragon-god—or an “avatar” of that deity—and had concentrated in it the essence of much rain, and, in addition, the essence of lightning—the “fire of heaven”, ejected by the rain-dragon. The lightning was the “dragon’s tongue”, and had therefore substance, moisture, and heat, as well as brilliance. To the early thinkers the life fluid was not only blood, but warm blood—blood pulsating with the “vital spark”, the “fire of life”. These men would have accepted in the literal sense the imagery of the modern Irish poet, who wrote:

O, there was lightning in my blood,

Red lightning lighten’d through my blood,

My Dark Rosaleen.

The “fire of life” might be locked up in vegetation, in stone, or in red earth, and be made manifest by its colour alone.

SQUARE BRICK OF THE HAN DYNASTY, WITH MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES AND INSCRIPTIONS

The figures enclosed in the rectangular panel surrounded by a geometrical border represent the four quadrants of the Chinese uranoscope, being: 1. The Blue Dragon of the East. 2. The Black Warriors, Tortoise and Serpent of the North. 3. The Red Bird of the South. 4. The White Tiger of the West. The eight archaic characters filling in the intervals read: Chʼien chʼiu wan sui chʼang lo wei yang, “For a thousand autumns and a myriad years everlasting joy without end.”

The genesis of this idea can be traced at a very early period in the history of modern man (Homo sapiens). In Aurignacian times in western Europe (that is, from ten till twenty thousand years ago) blood was identified with life and consciousness. The red substance in “the blood which is life” was apparently regarded as the vitalizing agency, and was supposed to be the same as red earth (red ochre). It is found, from the evidence afforded by burial customs, that the Aurignacian race originated or perpetuated the habit of smearing the bodies of their dead with red ochre. After the flesh had decayed, the red ochre fell on and coloured the bones and the pebbles around the bones. Whether or not the red ochre was supposed to be impregnated with the essence of fire, [[161]]or of the sun, the source of fire, it is impossible to say. Behind the corpse-painting custom there was, no doubt, a body of definite beliefs. As much is suggested by the fact that shell-amulets and spine-amulets were laid on or about the dead. The belief that the first man had been formed of red clay mixed with water may well have been in existence in Aurignacian times. The amulets associated with Aurignacian ceremonial burials suggest, too, that ideas had been formulated regarding the after-life. Was it believed that the painted, and therefore reanimated, body would rise again, or that the soul could be assisted to travel to the Otherworld? These questions cannot yet be answered. We can do no more than note here that Colour Symbolism, and especially Red Symbolism and all it entails, had origin in remote antiquity.

In China red flowers and red berries were supposed, because of their colour, to be strongly impregnated with “soul substance” or “vital essence”, or, to use the Chinese term, with shen. These flowers and berries had curative qualities. In western Europe the red holly berry was in like manner regarded as an “All-heal”. The tree on which the red berry appears is so full of divine life that it is an evergreen. In Gaelic folk-lore holly is associated with the Mother Goddess and with the water-beast (dragon) and its “avatar”, the red-spotted salmon, which is supposed to swallow the holly berries that drop into its pool.

The red substance which is in the blood was not necessarily confined, however, to vegetation. As it was of the earth, earthy, or a product of some mysterious agency at work in the earth, it might be found in coagulated form as a ruby, or any other red stone, or as a stone streaked or spotted with red; it might be found in water [[162]]as a shell, wholly or partly red, or as a red or yellow pearl inside a shell. It might likewise be found concentrated in the red feathers of a bird. A bird with red feathers was usually recognized as a “thunder bird”—Robin Red-breast is a European “thunder bird”[1]—and the red berry as a “thunder berry”—a berry containing the “soul substance” of the god of lightning and fire. Fire was obtained by friction from trees associated with the divine Thunderer; his spirit dwelt in the tree. One of the “fire sticks” was invariably taken from a red-berried tree.

The red vital substance might likewise be displayed by a sacred fish—the “thunder fish”. In the Chinese “Boy Blue” story the thunder-dragon in human form rides on the back of a red carp.

Yellow is, like red, reputed to be a vital colour. Lightning is yellow; the flames of wood fires are yellow, while the embers are red. Early man appears to have recognized the close association of yellow and red in fire. Gold is yellow, and it was connected, as a substitute for red and yellow shells, with the sun, which at morning and evening sends forth red and yellow rays. The fire which is in the sun “warms the blood” and promotes the growth of plants, as does the moisture in the moon—the moon which controls the flow of sap and blood. The combination of sun-fire, lunar-fire, and moisture, or of fire-red earth and rain, constituted, according to early man’s way of thinking, the mystery called life. Yellow berries and yellow flowers were as sacred to him, and had as great life-prolonging and curative qualities, as red berries, red flowers, red feathers, and the skins and scales of red fish. Yellow gems and yellow metals were consequently valued as highly as were red gems [[163]]and red metals. In China yellow is the earth colour. In Ceylon, Burmah, Tibet, and China it is the sacred colour of the Buddhists.

Blue, the sky colour, and therefore the colour of the sky-deity, was likewise holy. Torquoise and lapis-lazuli were connected with the Great Mother. The sacredness of green has a more complex history. It was not reverenced simply because of the greenness of vegetation. The mysterious substance that makes plants green was derived from the supreme source of life—the green form of the water-goddess or god—and was to be found in concentrated form in green gems and stones, including green jade. White was the colour of day, the stars, and the moon, and black the colour of night and of death, and therefore the colour of deities associated with darkness and the Otherworld. In China black is the colour of the north, of winter, and of drought. The combination of the five colours (black, white, red, yellow, and blue or green) was displayed by all deities. This conception is enshrined in the religious text which De Visser gives without comment:

“A dragon in the water covers himself with five colours;

Therefore he is a god.”[2]

In China, as in several other countries, the colour of an animal, plant, or stone was believed to reveal its character and attributes. A red berry was regarded with favour, because it displayed the life colour. A red stone was favoured for the same reason. When it is nowadays found that some particular berry or herb, favoured of old as an “All-heal”, is really an efficacious medicine, an enthusiast may incline to regard it as a wonderful thing that modern medical science has not achieved, in [[164]]some lines, greater triumphs than were achieved by the “simple observers” of ancient times. But it may be that the real cures were of accidental discovery, and that the effective berry or herb would, on account of its colour alone, have continued in use whether it had cured or not.

In China not only the berry with a “good colour” was used by “curers”, but even the stone with a “good colour”. The physicians, for instance, sometimes prescribed ground jade, and we read of men who died, because, as it was thought, the quantities of jade-medicine taken were much too large. Some ancient writers assert, in this connection, that although a dose of ground jade may bring this life to a speedy end, it will ensure prolonged life in the next world.

The berries and stones which were reputed to be “All-heals” were not always devoured. They could be used simply as charms. The vital essence or “soul substance” in berry or stone was supposed to be so powerful that it warded off the attacks of the demons of disease, or expelled the demons after they had taken possession of a patient. Medicines might be prepared by simply dipping the charms into pure well water. These charms were often worn as body-ornaments. All the ancient personal ornaments were magic charms that gave protection or regulated the functions of body organs. When symbols were carved on jade, the ornaments were believed to acquire increased effectiveness. Gold ornaments were invariably given symbolic shape. Like the horse-shoe, which in western Europe is nailed on a door for “luck”—that is, to ward off evil—these symbolic ornaments were credited with luck-bringing virtues. The most ancient gold ornaments in the world are found in Egypt, and these are models of shells, which had been worn as “luck-bringers” long before [[165]]gold was worked.[3] These shells had an intimate association with the Mother Goddess, who, in one of her aspects, personified the birth-aiding and fertilizing shell.

The idea that the coloured fruits and the coloured stones were life-giving “avatars” of the Mother Goddess is well illustrated in the glowing accounts of the Chinese Paradise. The Tree of Life might bear fruit or gems. The souls swallowed gems as readily as fruit. In the Japanese Paradise the immortals devour powdered mother-of-pearl shells as well as peaches, dried cassia pods, cinnabar, pine needles, or pine cones.

Jade was connected with vegetation on this earth as well as in Paradise. As we have seen, the Great Mother goddess created this famous mineral for the benefit of mankind. It contained her “soul substance”, as did the trees, their blossoms, and their fruit, and even their leaves and bark. This quaint belief is enshrined in the following quotation from the Illustrated Mirror of Jades, translated by Laufer and given without comment:

“In the second month, the plants in the mountains receive a bright lustre. When their leaves fall, they change into jade. The spirit of jade is like a beautiful woman.”[4]

It is obvious that the “beautiful woman” is the Goddess of the West. Reference to coral trees in Paradise are numerous. It was believed not only in China but in western Europe, until comparatively recent times, that coral was a marine tree—the tree of the water-goddess. The Great Mother was connected with the [[166]]water above and beyond the firmament, as well as the rivers and the sea.

“Good health” in the Otherworld was immortality or great longevity. A soul which ate of a peach from the World Tree was assured of 3000 years of good health. He renewed his youth, and never grew old, so long as the supply of peaches was assured.[5]

In China men lengthened their days by partaking of “soul substance” in various forms. The pine-tree cult made decoctions of pine needles and cones, or of the fungus found at the roots of pines. “The juice of the pine”, says one Chinese sage, “when consumed for a long time, renders the body light, prevents man from growing old, and lengthens his life. Its leaves preserve the interior of the body; they cause a man never to feel hunger, and increase the years of his life.” The cypress was also favoured. “Cypress seeds,” the same writer asserts, “if consumed for a long period, render a man hale and healthy. They endow him with a good colour, sharpen his ears and eyes, cause him never to experience the feeling of hunger, nor to grow old.” The camphor tree comes next to the pine and cypress as “a dispenser and depository of vital power”.[6]

Apparently the fact that pines and cypresses are evergreens recommended them to the Chinese, although it was not for that reason only the belief arose about their richness of “soul substance”. An ancient Chinese sage has declared: “Pines and cypresses alone on this earth are endowed with life, in the midst of winter as [[167]]well as in summer they are evergreen. Pines 1000 years old resemble a blue ox, a blue dog, or a blue human being. Cypresses 1000 years old have deep roots shaped like men in a sitting posture.… When they are cut they lose blood.… Branches of pines which are 3000 years old have underneath the bark accumulations of resin in the shape of dragons, which, if pounded and consumed in a quantity of full ten pounds, will enable a man to live 500 years.”[7]

Here we have the tree connected with the blue dragon. As has been stated, ancient pines were transformed into dragons. The assertion that the pines and cypresses were the only trees possessed of “vital power” does not accord with the evidence regarding the peach-tree cult. The peach, although not an evergreen, was credited with being possessed of much “soul substance”.

No doubt the ideas connected with evergreens had a close association with the doctrines of colour symbolism. The Chinese “Tree of Heaven” (Ailanthus glandulosa) appears to have attracted special attention, because in spring its leaves are coloured reddish-violet or reddish-brown before they turn green. The walnut, cherry, and peony similarly show reddish young leaves, and these trees have much lore connected with them.

One seems to detect traces of the beliefs connected with the mandrake in the reference to the human-shaped roots of the 1000-year-old cypress tree. The mandrake was the plant of Aphrodite, and its root, which resembles the human form, was used medicinally; it has narcotic properties, and was believed also to be a medicine which promoted fertility, assisted birth, and caused youths and girls to fall in love with one another. According to [[168]]mandrake-lore, the plant shrieks when taken from the earth, and causes the death of the one who plucks it.[8] Dogs were consequently employed to drag it out of the ground, and they expired immediately. The “mandrake apple” is believed by Dr. Rendel Harris to have been the original “love apple”.[9]

In like manner the mugwort, the plant of Artemis, was connected in China and Japan with the pine which had virtues similar to those of the herb. Although the mandrake-dog is not associated with the cypress, it is found connected in a Japanese folk-story with the pine. The hero of the tale, an old man called Hana Saka Jijii, acquired the secret how to make withered trees blossom. He possessed a wonderful dog, named Shiro, which one day attracted his attention by sniffing, barking, and wagging his tail at a certain spot in the cottage garden. The old man was puzzled to know what curious thing in the ground attracted the dog, and began to dig. After turning up a few spadefuls of earth he found a hoard of gold and silver pieces.

CHINESE BOWL WITH SYMBOL OF LONGEVITY

(Victoria and Albert Museum)

A jealous neighbour, having observed what had happened, borrowed Shiro and set the animal to search for treasure in his own garden. The dog began to sniff and bark at a certain spot, but when the man turned over the soil, he found only dirt and offal that emitted an offensive smell. Angry at being deceived by the dog, he killed it and buried the body below the roots of a pine tree. Hana Saka Jijii was much distressed on account of the loss of Shiro. He burned incense below the pine tree, laid flowers on the dog’s grave, and shed [[169]]tears. That night he dreamed a wonderful dream. The ghost of Shiro appeared before him, and, addressing him, said: “Cut down the pine tree above my grave and make a rice mortar of it. When you use the mortar think of me.”

The old man did as the dog advised, and discovered to his great joy that when he used the pine-tree mortar each grain of rice was transformed into pure gold. He soon became rich.

The envious neighbour discovered what was going on and borrowed the mortar. In his hands, however, it turned rice into dirt. This enraged him so greatly that he broke the mortar and burned it.