The Ancient Yellow-tusked Elephant.
The one on the right had
Golden wings and a leviathan's head,
Leopard eyes with starry pupils.
He shook the North when he headed South,
Fierce, strong and brave.
When he turned to soaring
Quails laughed but dragons were terrified.
When he beat his phoenix wings the birds all hid their heads,
And the beasts all lost their nerve when he spread his talons.
He could fly thirty thousand miles through the clouds,
The Mighty Roc.
Beneath these two were ranged a hundred and ten commanders high and low, all in full armor and looking most imposing and murderous. The sight delighted Brother Monkey, who strode inside, quite unafraid, put down his clappers and bell, and called, “Your Majesties.”
The three old demons chuckled and replied, “So you're back, young Wind-piercer.”
“Yes,” Monkey replied. “When you were patrolling what did you find out about where Sun the Novice is?”
“Your Majesties,” Monkey replied, “I don't dare tell you.”
“Why not?” the senior demon chief asked.
“I was walking along sounding my clappers and ringing my bell following Your Majesties' orders,” Monkey said, “when all of a sudden I looked up and saw someone squatting and polishing a pole there. He looked like one of the gods that clear the way. If he'd stood up he'd have been well over a hundred feet tall. He'd scooped up some water in his hand and was polishing his iron bar on the rocky scar. He was saying to himself that his cudgel still hadn't the chance to show its magical powers here and that when he'd shined it up he was coming to attack Your Majesties. That's how I realized he was Sun the Novice and came here to report.”
On hearing this the senior demon chief broke into a sweat all over and shivered so that his teeth chattered as he said, “Brothers, I don't think we should start any trouble with the Tang Priest. His disciple has tremendous magical powers and he's polishing his cudgel to attack us. Whatever are we to do?”
“Little ones,” he shouted, “call everybody, high and low, who's outside the cave to come inside and shut the gates. Let them pass.”
“Your Majesty,” said one of the subordinate officers who knew what had happened, “the little devils outside have all scattered.”
“Why?” the senior demon asked.
“They must have heard about his terrible reputation. Shut the gates at once! At once!” The hosts of demons noisily bolted all the front and back gates firmly.
“Now they've shut the gates they might ask me all sorts of questions about things in here,” Monkey thought with alarm “If I don't know the right answers I'll give the game away and they'll catch me. I'd better give them another scare and get them to open the gates to let me out.”
“Your Majesty,” he said, stepping forward, “there were some other wicked things he said.”
“What else?” the senior demon chief asked.
“He said he was going to skin Your Senior Majesty,” replied Brother Monkey, “slice up the bones of His Second Majesty, and rip out His Third Majesty's sinews. If you shut the gates and refuse to go out he can do transformations. He might turn himself into a fly, get in through a crack between the gates and catch us all. Then we'll be done for.”
“Be very careful, brothers,” said the senior demon. “We haven't had a fly here for years, so any fly that gets in will be Sun the Novice.”
“So I'll change into a fly and frighten them into opening the gates,” thought Monkey, smiling to himself. The splendid Great Sage then slipped aside, reached up to pull a hair from the back of his head, blew on it with a magic breath, called “Change!” and turned it into a golden fly that flew straight into the old demon's face.
“Brothers,” said the old demon in a panic, “this is terrible! He's inside!” All the demons great and small were so alarmed that they rushed forward to swat the fly with their rakes and brooms.
The Great Sage could not help giggling aloud, which was just what he should not have done as it revealed his true face. The third demon chief leapt forward, grabbed him and said, “Brothers, he almost had us fooled.”
“Who had who fooled?” the senior demon asked.
“The young devil who reported just now was no junior Wind-piercer,” the third chief replied, “but Sun the Novice himself. He must have run into a junior Wind-piercer and somehow or other murdered him and done this transformation to trick us.”
“He's rumbled me,” thought Monkey with alarm, rubbing his face.
“What do you mean, I'm Sun the Novice?” Monkey said to the senior demon chief. “I'm a junior Wind-piercer. His Majesty's mistaken.”
“Brother,” said the senior demon, “he really is a junior Wind-piercer. He's in the roll-call out front three times a day. I know him. Do you have a pass?” he went on to ask Monkey.
“Yes,” Monkey replied, pulling his clothes apart to produce it. Seeing that it looked genuine the senior demon said, “Brother, don't mistreat him.”
“Elder brother,” the third demon chief replied, “didn't you see him slip aside just now and giggle? I saw him show his face: it's like a thunder god's. When I grabbed hold of him he turned back into what he looks like now. Little ones,” he called, “fetch ropes!” The officers then fetched ropes.
The third demon chief knocked Monkey over and tied his hands and feet together. When his clothes were stripped off he was most evidently the Protector of the Horses. Now of the seventy-two transformations that Monkey could perform, when he turned himself into a bird, a beast, a plant, a tree, a vessel or an insect he changed his whole body. When he turned into another person, however, he could only change his head and face but not his body, and indeed he was still covered with brown hair and had red thighs and a tail.
“That's Sun the Novice's body,” the senior demon chief said when he saw this, “and a junior Wind-piercer's face. It's him! Little ones,” he ordered, “bring wine and give His Third Majesty a cup of it to congratulate him. Now that we've captured Sun the Novice the Tang Priest is as good as a meal in our mouths.”
“We mustn't drink now,” said the third demon chief. “Sun the Novice is a slippery customer and is good at escaping by magic. I'm worried he might get away. Tell the juniors to bring the jar out and put him inside. Then we can drink.”
“Yes, yes,” said the senior demon chief with a smile, who then chose thirty-six little demons to go inside, open the storerooms, and carry the jar out. Do you know how big the jar was? It was only two feet four inches high. So why were thirty-six people needed to carry it? It was because the jar was a treasure of the two vital forces, male and female, and contained the seven precious things, the eight trigrams and the twenty-four periods of the year that thirty-six carriers were required to match the number of the stars of the Dipper. Before long the precious jar had been carried out, set down outside the third pair of gates, cleaned up and opened. Monkey was untied, stripped bare and sucked inside the jar with a hiss by magical vapor that came out of it.
The lid was then put back on and sealed on with a label, after which the demons went off to drink, saying, “Now that he's in our jar that monkey can forget all about his journey West. The only way he'll be able to pay his respects to the Buddha and fetch the scriptures now will be by pushing the wheel of destiny backwards and being reborn.” Watch how all the demons great and small go laughing off to celebrate. But of that no more.
Once inside the jar the Great Sage, who was very cramped, decided to transform himself and squat down in the middle, where he found it very cool. “Those evil spirits don't live up to their reputation,” he said to himself, laughing aloud. “Why ever do they tell people that anyone put in this jar will be turned to pus and blood in a few moments. It's so cool that spending seven or eight years here would be no problem.”