d
with Heng O. Everybody's fate is settled beforehand. Your labours
are nearing an end, and you will become an Immortal. It was I who
let loose the whirlwind that brought you here. Heng O, through having
borrowed the forces which by right belong to you, is now an Immortal
in the Palace of the Moon. As for you, you deserve much for having
so bravely fought the nine false suns. As a reward you shall have
the Palace of the Sun. Thus the _yin_ and the _yang_ will be united
in marriage." This said, Tung-hua Ti-chuen ordered his servants to
bring a red Chinese sarsaparilla cake, with a lunar talisman.

"Eat this cake," he said; "it will protect you from the heat of the
solar hearth. And by wearing this talisman you will be able at will
to visit the lunar palace of Heng O; but the converse does not hold
good, for your wife will not have access to the solar palace." This is
why the light of the moon has its birth in the sun, and decreases in
proportion to its distance from the sun, the moon being light or dark
according as the sun comes and goes. Shen I ate the sarsaparilla cake,
attached the talisman to his body, thanked the god, and prepared to
leave. Tung Wang Kung said to him: "The sun rises and sets at fixed
times; you do not yet know the laws of day and night; it is absolutely
necessary for you to take with you the bird with the golden plumage,
which will sing to advise you of the exact times of the rising,
culmination, and setting of the sun." "Where is this bird to be
found?" asked Shen I. "It is the one you hear calling _Ia! Ia!_
It is the ancestor of the spirituality of the _yang_, or male,
principle. Through having eaten the active principle of the sun,
it has assumed the form of a three-footed bird, which perches on the
_fu-sang_ tree [a tree said to grow at the place where the sun rises]
in the middle of the Eastern Sea. This tree is several thousands of
feet in height and of gigantic girth. The bird keeps near the source
of the dawn, and when it sees the sun taking his morning bath gives
vent to a cry that shakes the heavens and wakes up all humanity. That
is why I ordered Ling Chen-tzu to put it in a cage on T'ao-hua Shan,
Peach-blossom Hill; since then its cries have been less harsh. Go
and fetch it and take it to the Palace of the Sun. Then you will
understand all the laws of the daily movements." He then wrote a
charm which Shen I was to present to Ling Chen-tzu to make him open
the cage and hand the golden b