Opening the bundle, Brother Monkey found some scones made of coarse flour, which he took out and gave to his master. He also noticed the dazzling brocade tunic and the hat with inlaid golden patterns.
“Did you bring this tunic and hat with you from the East?” he asked. Sanzang had to make something up on the spot.
“I used to wear them when I was young. With that hat on you can recite scriptures without ever having been taught them, and if you wear that tunic you can perform the rituals without any practice.”
“Dear master, please let me wear them,” Monkey pleaded.
“I don't know whether they'll fit you, but if you can get them on, you can wear them.” Monkey took off the old white tunic, put the brocade one on instead, and found that it was a perfect fit. Then he put the hat on his head. As soon as he had the hat on, Sanzang stopped eating and silently recited the Band-tightening Spell.
“My head aches, my head aches,” cried Brother Monkey, but his master went on and recited the spell several times more. Monkey, now rolling in agony, tore the hat to shreds, and Sanzang stopped reciting the spell for fear he would break the golden band. The moment the spell stopped the pain finished. Reaching up to feel his head, Monkey found something like a golden wire clamped so tightly around it that he could not wrench or snap it off. It had already taken root there. He took the needle out of his ear, forced it inside the band, and pulled wildly at it. Sanzang, again frightened that he would snap it, started to recite the spell once more. The pain was so bad this time that Monkey stood on his head, turned somersaults, and went red in the face and ears. His eyes were popping and his body went numb. Seeing the state he was in, Sanzang had to stop, and the pain stopped again too.
“Master,” said Monkey, “What a curse you put on me to give me a headache like that.”
“I didn't put a curse on you, I recited the Band-tightening Spell,” Sanzang replied.
“Say it again and see what happens,” said Monkey, and when Sanzang did as he asked, Monkey's head ached again. “Stop, stop,” he shouted, “the moment you started reciting it my head ached. Why did you do it?”
“Will you accept my instruction now?” Sanzang asked.
“Yes,” Monkey replied.
“Will you misbehave again in future?”
“I certainly won't,” said Monkey.
Although he had made this verbal promise, he was still nurturing evil thoughts, and he shook his needle in the wind till it was as thick as a ricebowl. He turned on the Tang Priest, and was on the point of finishing him off when the terrified Sanzang recited the spell two or three more times.
The monkey dropped his cudgel and fell to the ground, unable to raise his arm, “Master,” he shouted, “I've seen the light. Stop saying the spell, please stop.”
“How could you have the perfidy to try to kill me?” asked Sanzang.
“I'd never have dared,” said Brother Monkey, adding, “who taught you that spell, master?”
“An old lady I met just now,” replied Sanzang. Monkey exploded with rage.
“Tell me no more,” he said, “I'm sure and certain the old woman was that Guanyin. How could she do this to me? Just you wait. I'm going to the Southern Sea to kill her.”
“As she taught me this spell,” Sanzang replied, “she's bound to know it herself. If you go after her and she recites it, that will be the end of you.” Seeing the force of his argument, Monkey changed his mind and gave up the idea of going. He knelt down and pleaded pitifully, “Master, she's used this to force me to go with you to the West. I shan't go to make trouble for her, and you must recite scriptures instead of saying that spell all the time. I promise to protect you, and I shall always be true to this vow.”
“In that case you'd better help me back on the horse,” Sanzang replied. Monkey, who had been plunged into despair, summoned up his spirits, tightened the belt round his brocade tunic, got the horse ready, gathered up the luggage, and hurried off towards the West. If you want to know what other stories there are about the journey, then listen to the explanation in the next installment.
Chapter 15
On the Coiled Snake Mountain the Gods Give Secret Help
In the Eagle's Sorrow Gorge the Thought-Horse Is Reined in
Monkey looked after the Tang Priest as they headed West. They had been travelling for several days in the twelfth month of the year, with its freezing North winds and biting cold. Their path wound along overhanging precipices and steep cliffs, and they crossed range after range of dangerous mountains. One day Sanzang heard the sound of water as he rode along, and he turned around to shout, “Monkey, where's that sound of water coming from?”
“As I remember, this place is called Eagle's Sorrow Gorge in the Coiled Snake Mountain. It must be the water in the gorge.” Before he had finished speaking, the horse reached the edge of the gorge. Sanzang reined in and looked. He saw:
A thin cold stream piercing the clouds,
Deep, clear waves shining red in the sun.
The sound shakes the night rain and is heard in the quiet valley,
Its color throws up a morning haze that obscures the sky.
A thousand fathoms of flying waves spit jade;
The torrent's roar howls in the fresh wind.
The current leads to the misty waves of the sea;
The egret and the cormorant never meet by a fisherman.
As master and disciple watched they heard a noise in the gorge as a dragon emerged from the waves, leapt up the cliff, and grabbed at Sanzang. In his alarm Monkey dropped the luggage, lifted Sanzang off his horse, turned, and fled. The dragon, unable to catch him up, swallowed the white horse, saddle and all, at a single gulp, then disappeared once more beneath the surface of the water. Monkey made his master sit down on a high peak and went back to fetch the horse and the luggage. When he found that the horse had gone and only the luggage was left, he carried the luggage up to his master and put it down before him.
“Master,” he said, “that damned dragon has disappeared without a trace. It gave our horse such a fright that it ran away.”
“However are we going to find the horse, disciple?”
“Don't worry, don't worry, wait here while I go and look for it.”
He leapt into the sky, whistling. Putting up his hand to shade his fiery eyes with their golden pupils, he looked all around below him, but saw no sign of the horse. He put his cloud away and reported, “Master, that horse of ours must have been eaten by the dragon-I can't see it anywhere.”
“Disciple,” Sanzang protested, “how could that wretched creature have a mouth big enough to swallow a horse that size, saddle and all? I think the horse must have slipped its bridle in a panic and run into that valley. Go and have a more careful look.”
“You don't know about my powers,” Monkey replied. “These eyes of mine can see what's happening three hundred miles away, and within that range I can even spot a dragonfly spreading its wings. There's no way I could miss a big horse like that.”
“But we'll never get across those thousands of mountains and rivers.” As he spoke, his tears fell like rain. The sight of him crying was too much for Brother Monkey, who flared up and shouted, “Stop being such an imbecile, master. Sit there and wait while I find that wretch and make him give us back our horse.”
“You mustn't go,” said Sanzang, grabbing hold of him. “I'm frightened that he'll come creeping out again and kill me this time. Then I'll be dead as well as the horse, and that would be terrible.”
This made Monkey angrier than ever, and he roared with a shout like thunder, “You're hopeless, absolutely hopeless. You want a horse to ride but you won't let me go. This way you'll be sitting there looking at the luggage for the rest of your life.”