fter,
lest anyone should steal it, and then began the preparatory course
in immortality.

At this time there appeared in the south a strange man named Tso Ch'ih,
'Chisel-tooth.' He had round eyes and a long projecting tooth. He
was a well-known criminal. Yao ordered Shen I and his small band
of brave followers to deal with this new enemy. This extraordinary
man lived in a cave, and when Shen I and his men arrived he emerged
brandishing a padlock. Shen I broke his long tooth by shooting an
arrow at it, and Tso Ch'ih fled, but was struck in the back and laid
low by another arrow from Shen I. The victor took the broken tooth
with him as a trophy.

Heng O flies to the Moon

Heng O, during her husband's absence, saw a white light which seemed
to issue from a beam in the roof, while a most delicious odour filled
every room. By the aid of a ladder she reached up to the spot whence
the light came, found the pill of immortality, and ate it. She suddenly
felt that she was freed from the operation of the laws of gravity
and as if she had wings, and was just essaying her first flight when
Shen I returned. He went to look for his pill, and, not finding it,
asked Heng O what had happened.

The young wife, seized with fear, opened the window and flew out. Shen
I took his bow and pursued her. The moon was full, the night clear,
and he saw his wife flying rapidly in front of him, only about the
size of a toad. Just when he was redoubling his pace to catch her up
a blast of wind struck him to the ground like a dead leaf.

Heng O continued her flight until she reached a luminous sphere,
shining like glass, of enormous size, and very cold. The only
vegetation consisted of cinnamon-trees. No living being was to be
seen. All of a sudden she began to cough, and vomited the covering
of the pill of immortality, which was changed into a rabbit as white
as the purest jade. This was the ancestor of the spirituality of the
_yin_, or female, principle. Heng O noticed a bitter taste in her
mouth, drank some dew, and, feeling hungry, ate some cinnamon. She
took up her abode in this sphere.

As to Shen I, he was carried by the hurricane up into a high
mountain. Finding himself before the door of a palace, he was invited
to enter, and found that it was the palace of Tung-hua Ti-chuen,
otherwise Tung Wang Kung, the husband of Hsi Wang Mu.

The Sun-palace and the Bird of Dawn

The God of the Immortals said to Shen I: "You must not be annoye