Page:A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1919).djvu/186

 THE DRAGON OF THE BLACK POOL

the waters of the Black Pool, coloured like ink; They say a Holy Dragon lives there, whom men have never seen. Beside the Pool they have built a shrine; the authorities have established a ritual; A dragon by itself remains a dragon, but men can make it a god. Prosperity and disaster, rain and drought, plagues and pestilences — By the village people were all regarded as the Sacred Dragon's doing. They all made offerings of sucking-pig and poured libations of wine; The morning prayers and evening gifts depended on a "medium's" advice.

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