Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/175

Rh the Yang and grow the Yin; cultivate and cherish the precious seed. When it springs up, it shows a yellow bud; the bud produces mercury, and the mercury crystallizes into granules like grains of golden millet. One grain is to be taken at a dose, and the doses repeated for a hundred days, when the body will be transformed and the bones converted into gold. Body and spirit will both be endowed with miraculous properties, and their duration will have no end." It is not to be wondered at that these experiments often ended disastrously, and the drinker of the concoction, instead of attaining immortal life on this earth, departed thence in a great hurry.

Both the Chinese and the people of India considered the centre of Asia to be a wonderful region. The traditions concerning the Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty, who reigned from 140 to  86, says that there were immortal beings in the Kwenlun mountains, ruled over by the immortal queen of the west, who possessed a peach tree that only bore fruit once in three thousand years. The peach was a symbol of longevity among the Chinese, and those who possessed the fruit of this marvellous tree were assured of long life. It is significant to find that in this case, as among the Celts, that the place where givers of life were to be found was said to be ruled over by a queen.

The Japanese had also ideas about the life-giving powers of precious stones and metals.

A significant summary of some of the effects of the belief in the life-giving properties of various substances has been given by Mr. Martin in his work on The Lore of Cathay. He says, "Man's first desire is long life—his second is to be rich. The Taoist commenced with the former, but was