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Show A DOT IN THE CHirTASEAl : -lie Beautifa? Little Uland of the Seven' Headed Hevll. The little island of Footoo. about 150 mile from Shanghai and forty from Nirrgpo, Is a beautiful little dot in tho China Sea. some four mile square, and is sacred to the worship of Iiuddha. Being a sacred island, Pootoo has its- temple? and the temple has its idol, a monster figure hammer, ed from pure- gold, holding a cornucopia cornu-copia filled with bamboo sticks. A devil with seven red heads, each provided pro-vided with severe mouths filled with blue teeth and white tongues, is said to have once threatened the Chinese and their Buddhistic institutions. He came by way of the China Sea and the people prepared to defend themselves them-selves and their religion. Although floating on the crest of the waves forty miles out from Ningpo, the awful red heads nnd blue teeth of the devil were plainly visible night and day to those on land. The priests Implored Buddha and the common people passed sleepless nights. Finally an old mandarin bethought himself of a plan to rid the country of tho impending1 calamity. He went to tho spot where Buddha had been seen to kneel and pray. Removing the turf, he delved in the clay with a sacred knife and made a round ball and fashioned the image of Buddha's face on one of its sides. With this peculiar relic carefully wrapped in a turban of yellow yel-low silk he joined the grief-stricken, throng at the seashore. Again imploring im-ploring Buddha for divine assistance, he hurled tho sacred clay with might and main at the many-headed demon in the sea. As tho ball receded from tho shore It soomod to grow in size; so also did tho red-hendoti;' blue-toothed devil. But the ball' enlarged much moro rapidly than tho imp of his Satanic Sa-tanic Majesty, and finally dropped prone upon the horrid creature. With a howl of baffled rage and pain the devil tank beneath tho weight of tho ball, but not until he hud given it one furious lash with his spiked tail. The ball of sacred clay continued to grow and is now the island of Pootoo, a great gorge through its center marking mark-ing the spot where tho devil lashed it in his dying rngo. Chinese tradition tradi-tion says that in his last struggles the devil loosened several of hig scales, which were eventually washod upon the sacred island and used in laying tho foundation of the tomplo above raontioned. The cornucopia in the arms of the golden idol now in the temple is mado from one of the blue teeth of tho monster. |