Dsing was now angry with his son in earnest. Therefore Notscha's
mother sent him to the rear of the house to keep out of his father's
sight. Notscha disappeared and went to his master, in order to ask him
what he should do when the dragon returned. His master advised him and
Notscha went back home. And all the Dragon Kings of the four seas were
assembled, and had bound his parents, with cries and tumult, in order
to punish them. Notscha ran up and cried with a loud voice: "I will
take the punishment for whatever I have done! My parents are
blameless! What is the punishment you wish to lay upon me?" "Life for
life!" said the dragon. "Very well then, I will destroy myself!" And
so he did and the dragons went off satisfied; while Notscha's mother
buried him with many tears.

But the spiritual part of Notscha, his soul, fluttered about in the
air, and was driven by the wind to the cave of the Great One. He took
it in and said to it: "You must appear to your mother! Forty miles
distant from your home rises a green mountain cliff. On this cliff she
must build a shrine for you. And after you have enjoyed the incense of
human adoration for three years, you shall once more have a human
body." Notscha appeared to his mother in a dream, and gave her the
whole message, and she awoke in tears. But Li Dsing grew angry when
she told him about it. "It serves the accursed boy right that he is
dead! It is because you are always thinking of him that he appears to
you in dreams. You must pay no attention to him." The woman said no
more, but thenceforward he appeared to her daily, as soon as she
closed her eyes, and grew more and more urgent in his demand. Finally
all that was left for her to do was to erect a temple for Notscha
without Li Dsing's knowledge.

And Notscha performed great miracles in his temple. All prayers made
in it were granted. And from far away people streamed to it to burn
incense in his honor.

Thus half a year passed. Then Li Dsing, on the occasion of a great
military drill, once came by the cliff in question, and saw the people
crowding thickly about the hill like a swarm of ants. Li Dsing
inquired what there were to see upon the hill. "It is a new god, who
performs so many miracles that people come from far and near to honor
him." "What sort of a god is he?" asked Li Dsing. They did not dare
conceal from him who the god was. Then Li Dsing grew angry. He spurred
his horse up the hill and, sure enough, over the doo