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07 Eagle Grief Gorge

He agreed with his lips but not with his heart, and drew his rod to strike the monk; in alarm the monk recited again, and Wukong begged piteously, "Do not say it, Master, do not! I will never be insolent again!" "Who taught you this?" Wukong asked. "An old woman taught me a while ago," said the monk. "Say no more!" cried Wukong in fury. "It must be that Guanyin! I will go to the South Sea and have it out with her!" "If it was she who gave it to me, and you go in search of her, what will you do when she begins to recite?" said the monk. Seeing the sense in this, Wukong knelt and entreated. "Master, I will not provoke her. I will guard you to the West and never think of turning back." He packed the luggage, helped the Tang Monk mount, and they went on west. Several days on, in the depths of winter, the Tang Monk heard the rush of water in the distance and turned. "Wukong, what water is that?" "This is Serpent-Coil Mountain and Eagle Sorrow Ravine, if I remember right," said Wukong. "It must be the water in the ravine." He went on: "The ravine is deep, steep and broad, and the water so clear that when crows and magpies fly over they see their own reflections, think them birds of their own kind, and plunge in and drown. Hence its name." Soon they came to the ravine. As they were looking, a great crash sounded, waves rose to the sky, and a white dragon shot out of the water and flew straight at the Tang Monk. Wukong dropped the luggage, snatched his master from the horse and slung him on his back and ran. The dragon could not catch them, so it swallowed the white horse, saddle and bridle and all, in one gulp, and dived back into the deep water. Wukong set his master down on a high bank and went back for the horse and the load; there was the luggage, but no horse. He leapt onto a cloud and searched in every direction without finding a trace. He came down and said, "Master, the dragon has certainly eaten the horse." The Tang Monk wept. "Without a mount, how shall I cross these thousand rivers and thousand mountains to reach the West?" Seeing him weep, Wukong could not contain his temper. "None of that snivelling!" he shouted. "Sit here. This old Sun will find the brute and make him give back the horse." He hitched up his tigerskin kilt, braced himself, took his rod and sprang to the ravine, shouting across the water: "Wretched loach, give me back my horse!" The white dragon, having eaten the horse, was resting at the bottom of the ravine. Hearing himself cursed, his anger flared, and he leapt from the water with claws spread. "Who dares revile me here?" "Take this!" roared Wukong, and struck, and the two fell to fighting. They fought a long while, until the dragon's strength failed and he turned and dived back into the depths, and would not come out however Wukong cursed him.

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