His first thought was to engage
in a lengthy course of self-abasement before it, but remembering the
words which had been spoken to him while in the Upper Air, he
refrained, and even ventured to go forward with a confident but
somewhat self-deprecatory air, to regain the spear, which he perceived
lying at the foot of the rock. With feelings of a reassuring nature he
then saw that the very undesirable expression which he had last beheld
upon the dragon face had melted into one of encouraging urbanity and
benignant esteem.
Close by the place where he had landed he discovered his boat, newly
furnished with wine and food of a much more attractive profusion than
that which he had purchased in the village. Embarking in it, he made
as though he would have returned to the south, but the spear which he
held turned within his grasp, and pointed in an exactly opposite
direction. Regarding this fact as an express command on the part of
the Deities, Yin turned his boat to the north, and in the space of two
days' time--being continually guided by the fixed indication of the
spear--he reached the shore and prepared to continue his travels in
the same direction, upheld and inspired by the knowledge that
henceforth he moved under the direct influence of very powerful
spirits.
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