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Page 86
In the morning Yin's spirit came back to the earth amid the sound of
music of a celestial origin, which ceased immediately he recovered
full consciousness. Accepting this manifestation as an omen of Divine
favour, Yin journeyed towards the centre of the island where the rock
stood, at every step passing the bones of innumerable ones who had
come on a similar quest to his, and perished. Many of these had left
behind them inscriptions on wood or bone testifying their deliberate
opinion of the sacred rock, the island, their protecting deities, and
the entire train of circumstances, which had resulted in their being
in such a condition. These were for the most part of a maledictory and
unencouraging nature, so that after reading a few, Yin endeavoured to
pass without being in any degree influenced by such ill-judged
outbursts.
"Accursed be the ancestors of this tormented one to four generations
back!" was prominently traced upon an unusually large shoulder-blade.
"May they at this moment be simmering in a vat of unrefined dragon's
blood, as a reward for having so undiscriminatingly reared the person
who inscribes these words only to attain this end!" "Be warned, O
later one, by the signs around!" Another and more practical-minded
person had written: "Retreat with all haste to your vessel, and escape
while there is yet time. Should you, by chance, again reach land
through this warning, do not neglect, out of an emotion of gratitude,
to burn an appropriate amount of sacrifice paper for the lessening of
the torments of the spirit of Li-Kao," to which an unscrupulous one,
who was plainly desirous of sharing in the benefit of the requested
sacrifice, without suffering the exertion of inscribing a warning
after the amiable manner of Li-Kao, had added the words, "and that of
Huan Sin."
Halting at a convenient distance from one side of the rock which,
without being carved by any person's hand, naturally resembled the
symmetrical countenance of a recumbent dragon (which he therefore
conjectured to be the chief point of the entire mass), Yin built his
fire and began an unremitting course of sacrifice and respectful
ceremony. This manner of conduct he observed conscientiously for the
space of seven days. Towards the end of that period a feeling of
unendurable dejection began to possess him, for his stores of all
kinds were beginning to fail, and he could not entirely put behind him
the memory of the various well-intentioned warnings which he had
received, or the sight of the fleshless ones who had lined his path.
On the eighth day, being weak with hunger and, by reason of an
intolerable thirst, unable to restrain his body any longer in the spot
where he had hitherto continuously prostrated himself nine-and-ninety
times each hour without ceasing, he rose to his feet and retraced his
steps to the boat in order that he might fill his water-skins and
procure a further supply of food.
With a complicated emotion, in which was present every abandoned and
disagreeable thought to which a person becomes a prey in moments of
exceptional mental and bodily anguish, he perceived as soon as he
reached the edge of the water that the boat, upon which he was
confidently relying to carry him back when all else failed, had
disappeared as entirely as the smoke from an extinguished opium pipe.
At this sight Yin clearly understood the meaning of Li-Kao's
unregarded warning, and recognized that nothing could now save him
from adding his incorruptible parts to those of the unfortunate ones
whose unhappy fate had, seven days ago, engaged his refined pity.
Unaccountably strengthened in body by the indignation which possessed
him, and inspired with a virtuous repulsion at the treacherous manner
of behaving on the part of those who guided his destinies, he hastened
back to his place of obeisance, and perceiving that the habitually
placid and introspective expression on the dragon face had
imperceptibly changed into one of offensive cunning and unconcealed
contempt, he snatched up his spear and, without the consideration of a
moment, hurled it at a score of paces distance full into the sacred
but nevertheless very unprepossessing face before him.
At the instant when the presumptuous weapon touched the holy stone the
entire intervening space between the earth and the sky was filled with
innumerable flashes of forked and many-tongued lightning, so that the
island had the appearance of being the scene of a very extensive but
somewhat badly-arranged display of costly fireworks. At the same time
the thunder rolled among the clouds and beneath the sea in an
exceedingly disconcerting manner. At the first indication of these
celestial movements a sudden blindness came upon Yin, and all power of
thought or movement forsook him; nevertheless, he experienced an
emotion of flight through the air, as though borne upwards upon the
back of a winged creature. When this emotion ceased, the blindness
went from him as suddenly and entirely as if a cloth had been pulled
away from his eyes, and he perceived that he was held in the midst of
a boundless space, with no other object in view than the sacred rock,
which had opened, as it were, revealing a mighty throng within, at the
sight of whom Yin's internal organs trembled as they would never have
moved at ordinary danger, for it was put into his spirit that these in
whose presence he stood were the sacred Emperors of his country from
the earliest time until the usurpation of the Chinese throne by the
devouring Tartar hordes from the North.
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