nd of Ceylon. It
was there that the son of a Brahminic king lived, who had left his
home in his youth, and had renounced all wishes and all sensation.
With the greatest renunciation of self he did penance so that all
living creatures might be saved. In the course of time he gained the
hidden knowledge and was called Buddha.

In the days of the Emperor Ming Di, of the dynasty of the Eastern
Hans, a golden glow was seen in the West, a glow which flashed and
shone without interruption.

One night the emperor dreamed that he saw a golden saint, twenty feet
in height, barefoot, his head shaven, and clothed in Indian garb
enter his room, who said to him: "I am the saint from the West! My
gospel must be spread in the East!"

When the ruler awoke he wondered about this dream, and sent out
messengers to the lands of the West in order to find out what it
meant.

Thus it was that the gospel of Buddha came to China, and continued to
gain in influence up to the time of the Tang dynasty. At that time,
from emperors and kings down to the peasants in the villages, the wise
and the ignorant alike were filled with reverence for Buddha. But
under the last two dynasties his gospel came to be more and more
neglected. In these days the Buddhist monks run to the houses of the
rich, read their sutras and pray for pay. And one hears nothing of the
great saints of the days gone by.

At the time of the Emperor Tai Dsung, of the Tang dynasty, it once
happened that a great drought reigned in the land, so that the emperor
and all his officials erected altars everywhere in order to plead for
rain.

Then the Dragon-King of the Eastern Sea talked with the Dragon of the
Milky Way and said: "To-day they are praying for rain on earth below.
The Lord of the Heavens has granted the prayer of the King of Tang.
To-morrow you must let three inches of rain fall!"

"No, I must let only two inches of rain fall," said the old dragon.

So the two dragons made a wager, and the one who lost promised as a
punishment to turn into a mud salamander.

The following day the Highest Lord suddenly issued an order saying
that the Dragon of the Milky Way was to instruct the wind and cloud
spirits to send down three inches of rain upon the earth. To
contradict this command was out of the question.

But the old dragon thought to himself: "It seems that the Dragon-King
had a better idea of what was going to happen than I had, yet it is
altogether too humiliating to