Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 8 (Chinese and Japanese).djvu/357

Rh nin and thus to set free the Dragons. To that end the king sent the most beautiful of his court ladies to the mountain where the One-horned was living. The Sennin was so much charmed by the lady's beauty that he consented to drink the wine she offered him. As the Sennin became intoxicated his powers departed from him and the dragons were able to break out from their confinement. The Sennin aroused himself and tried to fight his enemies. But it was too late. The dragons escaped into the sky and the rain poured down in torrents. So the king's plot succeeded and the land was refreshed.

Another well known example of a fallen Sennin is that of Kume-no-Sennin. He lived as an ascetic among the mountains near Kume-dera, a Buddhist temple, and attained the remarkable power of feeding on air and flying in the sky. One day, when he was enjoying himself in the air, he saw beneath him a woman who washed clothes by the river side. His attention was attracted by the white feet of the woman gleaming in the water. He yielded to the allurement and thereby lost his supernatural power. He fell to the earth, fortunately unhurt, but he never regained his miraculous gifts. He is said to have married the woman and left posterity. His fate is always quoted as a typical instance of downfall from on high; but the story seems also to be one of that numerous class which deals with a marriage between a heavenly being and a human being.

Not only are stories of Sennins widely popular in Japan, but belief in these supernatural beings is to a certain extent still a living force among the people. Candidates for Sennin-ship feed themselves on dry vegetable food and avoid any cooked food; they go to and fro among the mountains, they bathe often in cold water and seldom sleep under roofs. They hope for the immortality of the bodily life and they believe themselves to have certain supernormal powers. One of them was sure that he saw purple clouds coming down from Heaven ready to receive him if he should jump from a lofty cliff. He dared to