ess") married a youth whom
she observed, reflected in the well, sitting on a cassia tree near the
castle gate. Ashamed at his presence at her lying-in she was changed
into a _wani_ or crocodile (de Visser, p. 139), elsewhere described as a
dragon (_makara_). De Visser gives it as his opinion that the _wani_ is
"an old Japanese dragon, or serpent-shaped sea-god, and the legend is an
ancient Japanese tale, dressed in an Indian garb by later generations"
(p. 140). He is arguing that the Japanese dragon existed long before
Japan came under Indian influence. But he ignores the fact that at a
very early date both India and China were diversely influenced by
Babylonia, the great breeding place of dragons; and, secondly, that
Japan was influenced by Indonesia, and through it by the West, for many
centuries before the arrival of such later Indian legends as those
relating to the palace under the sea, the castle gate and the cassia
tree. As Aston (quoted by de Visser) remarks, all these incidents and
also the well that serves as a mirror, "form a combination not unknown
to European folk-lore".

After de Visser had given his own views, he modified them (on p. 141)
when he learned that essentially the same dragon-stories had been
recorded in the Kei Islands and Minahassa (Celebes). In the light of
this new information he frankly admits that "the resemblance of several
features of this myth with the Japanese one is so striking, that we may
be sure that the latter is of Indonesian origin." He goes further when
he recognizes that "probably the foreign invaders, who in prehistoric
times conquered Japan, came from Indonesia, and brought the myth with
them" (p. 141). The evidence recently brought together by W. J. Perry in
his book "The Megalithic Culture of Indonesia" makes it certain that the
people of Indonesia in turn got it from the West.

An old painting reproduced by F. W. K. Mueller,[173] who called de
Visser's attention to these interesting stories, shows Hohodemi (the
youth on the cassia tree who married the princess) returning home
mounted on the back of a crocodile, like the Indian Varuna upon the
_makara_ in a drawing reproduced by the late Sir George Birdwood.[174]

The _wani_ or crocodile thus introduced from India, _via_ Indonesia, is
really the Chinese and Japanese dragon, as Aston has claimed. Aston
refers to Japanese pictures in which the Abundant-Pearl-Prince and his
daughter are represented with dragon's heads appe