Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/407

Rh divest itself of its feathers and become a woman. At Twan-sin-chow dwells the Wan-mu Niao (mother of mosquitoes), a fish-eating bird, from whose mouth issue swarms of mosquitoes when it cries. Yung-chow has its stone-swallow, which flies during wind and rain, and in fine weather turns to stone again. Another bird when killed gives much oil to the hunter, and when the skin is thrown into the water it becomes a living bird again. With regard to animals, few are so useful as the "Jih-kih" ox, found in Kansuh, from which large pieces of flesh are cut for meat and grow again in a single day. The merman of the Southern Seas can weave a kind of silky fabric which keeps a house cool in summer if hung up in one of the rooms. The tears of this merman are pearls. A large hermit-crab is attended by a little shrimp which lives in the stomach of its master; if the shrimp is successful in its depredations the crab flourishes, but the latter dies if the shrimp does not return from his daily excursions. The "Ho-lo" is a fish having one head and ten bodies. The myths about snakes are the strangest of all. Thus the square snake of Kwangsi has the power of throwing an inky fluid when attacked, which kills its assailants at once. Another snake can divide itself up into twelve pieces, and each piece if touched by a man will instantly generate a head and fangs at each end. The calling snake asks a traveller, "Where are you from, and whither are you bound?" If he answers, the snake follows him for miles, and entering the hotel where he is sleeping, raises a fearful stench. The hotel proprietor, however, guards against this by putting a centipede in a box under the pillow, and when the snake gives forth the evil odour, the centipede is let out, and flying at the snake, instantly kills him with a bite. The fat of this snake, which grows to a great size, makes oil for lamps and produces a flame which cannot be blown out. In Burmah and Cochin-China is a snake which has, in the female sex, a face like a pretty girl, with two feet growing under the neck, each with five fingers, exactly like the fingers of a human hand. The male is green in colour, and has a long beard; it will kill a tiger, but a fox is more than a match for it.