Soft and supple the skin on their stomachs,
Glistening and clean their backs.
Their knees and wrists were rounded and soft;
Only three inches long were their golden lotus feet.
And as for what lay in between,
They showed a glimpse of the cave of pleasure.
The women all jumped into the water and enjoyed themselves as they frolicked in the waves. “If I wanted to hit them,” Monkey thought, “I'd only need to stir the water with my cudgel. It would be like pouring boiling water on a nest of mice: I could kill the lot of them. What a pity. If I hit them I'd kill them, but it wouldn't do my reputation any good. As they say, a real man doesn't fight women. It'd be hopeless if a man like me killed these girls. If I'm not going to hit them I'll have to make things difficult for them so that they can't move.” The splendid Great Sage made a spell with his hands, said the words of it, shook himself and turned into a hungry eagle.
His feathers were like frost or snow,
His eyes like bright stars.
When evil foxes saw him their souls were scared out of them;
And crafty hares were struck with terror.
His steely claws were sharp as spear-points;
His air was both majestic and ferocious.
He used his talons to seize his food,
And was ready to catch his flying prey himself.
He could fly high and low across the chilly sky,
Swooping through clouds and on his quarry at will.
With a whoosh of his wings he flew towards them, stretched his sharp talons to seize all seven sets of clothes that were hung on the stands and flew straight back to the ridge with them. Here he reverted to his own form to see Pig and Friar Sand.
Just look at the idiot as he comes up to Brother Monkey and says with a grin, “The master must have been taken to a pawnbroker's.”
“How can you tell?” asked Friar Sand.
“Can't you see all those clothes our brother's grabbed?” Pig replied.
“These are the evil spirits' clothes,” said Monkey, putting them down.
“How on earth did you get so many?” Pig asked.
“There are seven outfits,” said Monkey.
“How did you strip them so easily, and strip them naked at that?” Pig asked.
“I didn't have to strip them,” said Monkey. “This place is called Gossamer Ridge, and the farm is called Gossamer Gave. The seven she-devils who live there captured the master, hung him up in their cave and all went off to bathe in the Filth-cleansing Spring. It's a natural hot spring. Their plan was to have a bath then steam the master and eat him. I went there with them and watched them undress and get into the water. I wanted to hit them, but I was worried it would contaminate my cudgel and ruin my reputation so I didn't. I just turned myself into a hungry eagle and grabbed their clothes in my talons. Now they're all squatting in the water, too embarrassed to come out. Let's rescue the master and be on our way as quickly as we can.”
“Brother,” grinned Pig, “you always leave something undone. You could see that they were evil spirits, so why didn't you kill them first then rescue the master? Even if they're too embarrassed to come out now they'll certainly come out after nightfall. They're bound to have enough old clothes at home to be able to put on an outfit each and come after us. Even if they don't come after us they live here permanently and we'll have to come this way back after we've fetched the scriptures. As the saying goes, it's better to get into debt on a journey than to get into a fight. When they stop us and make a row they'll really have it in for us.”
“So what do you suggest?” Monkey asked.
“If you ask me we should kill the demons then rescue the master,” said Pig. “That's what's called cutting down weeds and digging them out by the roots.”
“I'm not going to hit them,” Monkey replied. “If you want them hit go and do it yourself.”
Pig then summoned up his spirits and in high delight rushed straight there, his rake held aloft. As he suddenly pushed the gates open and looked inside he saw the seven women squatting in the water and wildly cursing the eagle.
“Feathery beast,” they were saying, “cat-headed monster. What the hell can we do now you've carried our clothes off?”
Pig could not help laughing as he said to them, “Bodhisattvas, carry on with your bath. Do you mind if I join you?”
“You monk, you're disgrace,” the devils retorted angrily as they saw him. “We're laywomen and you're a man of religion. As the ancient book has it, 'From the age of seven boys and girls do not share the same mat.' You mustn't possibly bathe in the same pool as us.”
“But the weather's so scorching hot I've got no choice,” said Pig. “You'll have to make the best of it and let me take a wash. What do you have to show off all that book-learning about sharing mats for?”
With further argument the idiot dropped his rake, stripped off his cotton tunic and jumped in with a splash, to the fury of the demons who all rushed at him to hit him. Little did they realize how expert Pig was in the water. Once in the pool he shook himself and turned into a catfish spirit. The demons then tried to grab him but even when they caught him they could not get a firm grip. If they grabbed to the East he suddenly shot Westwards, and if they tried to grab him to the West he went East. The funny thing was that he kept wriggling around their crotches. The water was about chest-high, and after swimming around at the surface and then at the bottom of the pool for a while he had covered all of it and was panting and exhausted.
Only then did Pig jump out, turn back into himself, put his tunic back on, pick up his rake and shout, “Who am I then? You thought I was a catfish spirit!”
At the sight of him the demons all trembled with fright and said to Pig, “When you came here first you were a monk, then you turned into a catfish in the water and we couldn't catch you. Now you've dressed like that. Where have you come from? You must tell us your name.”
“Bloody demons, you really don't know who I am,” said Pig. “I'm a disciple of the Venerable Tang Priest, who has been sent from Tang in the East to fetch the scriptures. My title is Marshal Tian Peng and I'm called Zhu Wuneng, or Pig. You've hung my master up in your cave and you're planning to steam him and eat him. Is my master just a meal for you to cook? Stretch your heads out at once. I'm going to smash you all with my rake and wipe the lot of you out.”
At this the demons were scared out of their wits. They fell to their knees in the water, kowtowed to him and said, “Please be kind, reverend sir. We were blind and we captured your master by mistake. Although we did hang him up we haven't tortured him. We beg you in your compassion to spare our lives. We'll gladly give you some money for the journey and send your master on his way to the Western Heaven.”
“Cut that talk out,” said Pig, waving his hands. “It's quite right what they say: 'Once you've been tricked by a confectioner you won't believe sweet-talkers again.' I'm going to hit you with my rake, then we can all go our separate ways.”
The idiot was thoroughly rough and crude and wanted to show off his powers. He was unmoved by their fragrant feminine beauty. Raising his rake he charged them, lashing out wildly without caring what he was doing. The demons acted desperately. Forgetting about their modesty they cared only about saving their lives as covering their private parts with their hands they jumped out of the water and ran into the pavilion. Standing there they used magic to make thick silken ropes come out of their navels, filling the sky with a huge silken canopy under which Pig was caught. When the idiot looked up he could not see the sun in the heavens. He tried to run outside, but he could not lift his feet, which were tangled in silken ropes that covered the ground. When he tried to move his feet he tripped and staggered. He tried going left, but his head crashed to the ground, then tried going right and came a cropper. So he turned round as quickly as he could and kissed the dirt, got himself back on his feet, and collapsed head first once more. Goodness only knows how many times he stumbled and fell till his whole body was numb, his feet sore, his head aching and his eyes blurred. He could no longer even crawl, but lay groaning on the floor. Then the demons tied him up. They neither beat him up nor wounded him, but sprang outside to rush back to their cave, leaving the silken canopy to blot out the daylight.