hortly after the enchantment of Apsu and Mummu and the defeat of Hubur’s army, Kinabalu, son of Apsu, like his father before him, grew weary of the incessant noise of his aunts, uncles and cousins.  Not wanting to rise against Tiamat and Marduk and suffer the same fate as his father, Kinabalu decided to make his home elsewhere.  He therefore went before his grandmother, Tiamat, Mother of All Dragons, and requested her blessing to leave the land between the rivers and search for a new home.  Tiamat granted his supplication and as her blessing gave him a wondrous pearl which would provide for him should he ever be in need in his new dwelling place.  With the Great Mother’s blessing upon him, Kinabalu bid adieu to his home between the Tigris and the Euphrates.  As he flew east he caught sight of a goodly river called by the men of that land Huang He or Yellow.  Having inherited his father’s love of freshwater he made his home in this river and lived there peacefully.  After some time he felt a great loneliness and decided to walk upon the land and view its inhabitants so that his heart might be eased.  So he emerged from the Huang He and did explore the lands to either side of it.  As he rambled over the hills and valley, the pearl, which he always kept atop his head, was knocked loose and fell into the grass, unnoticed by Kinabalu.  Indeed, Kinabalu finished his explorations, returned to his underwater dwelling and did not notice the pearl’s absence until many days later.

s it happed during the time that Kinabalu first inhabited the River Huang He, a great drought did smite the land and cause its inhabitants much suffering.  On the outskirts of a small village near the Huang He a young girl lived with her mother in a small cottage.  The girl’s name was Xiao Sheng, for her father had ridden to the war shortly before she was born and had ordered her mother to give the child that name when it was born.  Xiao Sheng’s father never returned from the war and was never able to rescind his order when the child was born girl instead of boy.  So Xiao Sheng was duly given the name was intended for the first born son.  However, it was said by the villagers that Xiao Sheng was better than ten sons for she expertly ran her father’s farm and cared for her mother.  When the drought came Xiao Sheng wandered far and wide to provide fodder for her animals.  But despite her determination, fresh grass grew harder and harder to come by.  One day Xiao Sheng happened upon a patch of grass that was as fresh and green as if it had just been soaked by a spring rain.  She quickly gathered as much as she could carry and returned to her home.  The next day she returned to that spot and found that all of the grass she had cut the day before had miraculously re-grown during the night.  As she gathered more grass she happened upon a beautiful pearl.  It was indeed the selfsame pearl that Kinabalu had dropped during his wanderings.  She took the pearl home to her mother along with the grass and when her mother saw the lustrous pearl she insisted that it be hidden in the rice jar so that it would not be stolen.  The following morning Xiao Sheng went again to the spot where the grass grew only to find that it had withered in the night and that that which she took the previous day had not grown back.  Greatly saddened by this she gathered as much fodder as she could and returned home.  When she got back to the cottage her mother asked her to make some rice for them to eat.  As Xiao Sheng went to the rice jar she gasped in amazement for the jar, which had been all but empty, was now brimming full with rice.  She realized immediately that the pearl was responsible for this and told her mother of it.  Her mother hastened to put the pearl in their small sack of gold coins.  In the morning they found that the sack was full to bursting with gold.  Soon the girl and her mother became very rich and used their wealth to aid the people of the village.  Unfortunately their sudden wealth attracted the attentions of the town’s greedy magistrate.  By the use of spies he found out that the source of their wealth was a magical pearl.  He then sent soldiers to fetch the pearl and bring it to him.  When Xiao Sheng saw the soldiers coming she quickly swallowed the pearl to keep it from the wicked hands of the magistrate.  But as the pearl settled in her stomach she felt as if it was slowly catching on fire.  She had no time to contemplate this however for the soldiers of the magistrate were coming ever nearer.  To escape them she ran towards the river.

eanwhile, Kinabalu had heard of the sudden fortunes of Xiao Sheng and her mother and had guessed what had become of his pearl.  Since the women seemed to be doing more good than evil with their new found wealth he saw no reason to reclaim his pearl immediately.  On the day that the  soldiers came to Xiao Sheng for the pearl he was lounging in the shallows of the river.  As he saw the girl running to the river with the soldiers pursuing her he realized what had happened.  With a mighty roar he drove away the soldiers of the magistrate and told the girl to drink the river water for it would quench the fire of the pearl.  Xiao Sheng did this and slowly the flames inside her died, but as they did so she felt herself changing.  Her body absorbed the pearl’s magic and as the last flame of the pearl was extinguished Xiao Sheng completed her transformation into a dragon.  She was greatly surprised at this and inquired of Kinabalu what had happened.  Kinabalu explained to her that the pearl was given to him to provide for his needs in this land.  It was only now that he realized that his need had been for the companionship of another of his kind, and that the pearl had provided that for him.  Xiao Sheng was moved by his words and agreed to become his wife.  However, she did not forget the people that she was born to and so she and her husband became the guardians of the Chinese people.  They ended the drought by sending water filled clouds to nourish the land and their children did the same for generations afterward.  This is why in the land of the east dragons have always been viewed as benevolent.  Because of this view eastern dragons were never subject to the prejudices of mankind that are displayed in the next chapter.