should not have a son, in consequence of her husband's age,
privately ascended the Ni-ch'iu hill to pray for the boon, and that
when she had obtained it, she commemorated the fact in the
names -- Ch'iu and Chung-ni. But the cripple, Mang-p'i, had
previous been styled Po-ni. There was some reason, previous to
Confucius's birth, for using the term ni in the family. As might be
expected, the birth of the sage is surrounded with many
prodigious occurrences. One account is, that the husband and wife
prayed together for a son in a dell of mount Ni. As Chang-tsai
went up the hill, the leaves of the trees and plants all erected
themselves, and bent downwards on her return. That night she
dreamt the black Ti appeared, and said to her, 'You shall have a
son, a sage, and you must bring him forth in a hollow mulberry
tree.' One day during her pregnancy, she fell into a dreamy state,
and saw five old men in the hall, who called themselves the
essences of the five planets, and led an animal which looked like
a small cow with one horn, and was covered with scales like a
dragon. This creature knelt before Chang-tsai, and cast forth from
its mouth a slip of jade, on which was the inscription,-- 'The son
of the essence of water shall succeed to the decaying Chau, and
be a throneless king.' Chang-tsai tied a piece of embroidered
ribbon about its horn, and the vision disappeared. When Heh was
told of it, he said, 'The creature must be the Ch'i-lin.' As her time
drew near, Chang-tsai asked her husband if there was any place in
the neighborhood called 'the hollow mulberry tree.' He told her
there was a dry cave in the south hill, which went by that name.
Then she said, 'I will go and be confined there.' Her husband was
surprised, but when made acquainted with her former dream, he
made the necessary arrangements. On the night when the child
was born, two dragons came and kept watch on the left and right