"Accursed be the ancestors of this tormented one to four generations
back!" was prominently traced upon an unusually large shoulder-blade.
"May they at this moment be simmering in a vat of unrefined dragon's
blood, as a reward for having so undiscriminatingly reared the person
who inscribes these words only to attain this end!" "Be warned, O
later one, by the signs around!" Another and more practical-minded
person had written: "Retreat with all haste to your vessel, and escape
while there is yet time. Should you, by chance, again reach land
through this warning, do not neglect, out of an emotion of gratitude,
to burn an appropriate amount of sacrifice paper for the lessening of
the torments of the spirit of Li-Kao," to which an unscrupulous one,
who was plainly desirous of sharing in the benefit of the requested
sacrifice, without suffering the exertion of inscribing a warning
after the amiable manner of Li-Kao, had added the words, "and that of
Huan Sin."

Halting at a convenient distance from one side of the rock which,
without being carved by any person's hand, naturally resembled the
symmetrical countenance of a recumbent dragon (which he therefore
conjectured to be the chief point of the entire mass), Yin built his
fire and began an unremitting course of sacrifice and respectful
ceremony. This manner of conduct he observed conscientiously for the
space of seven days. Towards the end of that period a feeling of
unendurable dejection began to possess him, for his stores of all
kinds were beginning to fail, and he could not entirely put behind him
the memory of the various well-intentioned warnings which he had
received, or the sight of the fleshless ones who had lined his path.
On the eighth day, being weak with hunger and, by reason of an
intolerable thirst, unable to restrain his body any longer in the spot
where he had hitherto continuously prostrated himself nine-and-ninety