At the foot of Bell Mountain is a
god with a human face and a snake’s body that is red. His eye is vertical.
When he closes his eye, it becomes night, and when he opens it to gaze, it
becomes day. He neither eats nor sleeps, but he can summon the
wind and rain. His exhaling causes winter, his inhaling causes summer, and his
breathing causes the wind. He illuminates the ninefold darkness. This is
Torch-Dragon (烛龙).
Once upon a time a countryman came into the town on market-day, and brought a load of very special pears with him to sell. He set up his barrow in a good corner, and soon had a great crowd round him ; for everyone knew he always sold extra fine pears, though he did also ask an extra high price. Now, while he was crying up his fruit, a poor, old, ragged, hungry-looking priest stopped just in front of the barrow, and very humbly begged him to give him one of the pears. But the countryman, who was very mean and very nasty-tempered, wouldn't hear of giving him any, and as the priest didn't seem inclined to move on, he began calling him all the bad names he could think of. " Good sir," said the priest, " you have got hundreds of pears on your barrow. I only ask you for one. You would never even know you had lost one. Really, you needn't get angry." "Give him a pear that is going bad ; that will make him happy," said one of the crowd. "The o
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