Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/374

368 received the new arrival. After they had been engaged in conversation for some time, he heard “the Preceptor of Heaven” say, “Although such is heaven’s decree, you must deal with a lenient hand with a view to your own happiness.” After the visitor had retired, the scholar inquired who the person was to whom such respect had been shown. The Heavenly Preceptor replied that he was the dragon of the Kwai Fung Hill, and that he had come to inform him that heaven was about to visit the province of Kwangtung with a great disaster, the carrying out of which had been entrusted to the “bob-tailed dragon”.

The Cantonese firmly believe in the existence of this fabulous monster, and regard it as the instrument of violent storms, etc.

Author:James Haldane Stewart Lockhart.