id, "for it is not
respectful that a lower one should be long permitted to gaze upon our
exalted faces. Yet when you go forth and stand once more among men this
is laid on you: that henceforth you are as a being devoted to a fixed
and unchanging end, and whatever moves towards the restoring of the
throne of the Central Empire the outcast but unalterably sacred line of
its true sovereigns shall have your arm and mind. By what combination
of force and stratagem this can be accomplished may not be honourably
revealed by us, the all-knowing. Nevertheless, omens and guidance shall
not be lacking from time to time, and from the beginning the weapon by
which you have attained to this distinction shall be as a sign of our
favour and protection over you."

When the Voice made an end of speaking the sudden blindness came upon
Yin, as it had done before, and from the sense of motion which he
experienced, he conjectured that he was being conveyed back to the
island. Undoubtedly this was the case, for presently there came upon him
the feeling that he was awakening from a deep and refreshing sleep,
and opening his eyes, which he now found himself able to do without
any difficulty, he immediately discovered that he was reclining at full
length on the ground, and at a distance of about a score of paces from
the dragon head. His first thought was to engage in a lengthy course
of self-abasement before it, but remembering the words which had been
spoken to him while in the Upper Air, he refrained, and even ventured to
go forward with a confident but somewhat self-deprecatory air, to
regain the spear, which he perceived lying at the foot of the rock. With
feelings of a reassuring nature he then saw that the very undesirable
expression which he had last beheld upon the dragon face had melted into
one of encouraging urbanity and benignant esteem.

Close by the place where he had landed he discovered his boat, newly
furnished with wine and food of a much more attractive profusion than
that which he had purchased in the village. Embarking in it, he made as
though he would have returned to the south, but the spear which he held
turned within his grasp, and pointed in an exactly opposite direction.
Regarding this fact as an express command on the part of the Deities,
Yin turned his boat to the north, and in the space of two days'
time--being continually guided by the fixed indication of the spear--he
reached the shore and prepared to continue h