There was a mountain sprite at Yunmen Temple, very tricksy and given to frightening people.
A traveller once came to the temple, and the abbot lodged him in the small room beside the gate. On a winter night he was warming himself at the fire and drifted off without meaning to. When he opened his eyes there was a thing three feet long sitting directly opposite him, its hair standing out in a great tangle.
The guest shouted and ran out of the door. The abbot, hearing the noise, came strolling over, took a look, and laughed.
“What harm is there in it?” he said. “It is only Shaggy-Head.”
Deng Chong, the patrol-inspector, came to Mayuan to put a pavilion in order, and lodged in the sleeping-quarters. His cousin Wang Sanxi, who was at the Taoist temple, used to meet him fairly often, and Wang said to him:
“There is a great deal that is strange in these deep hills. You must increase the number of your servants against the unforeseen. Failing that, move into the monks’ quarters — then you may sleep in peace.”
Deng did not believe him.
One day Wang sent a note inviting him to a meal, and Deng answered at once that he was on the point of going home. Wang was surprised at the hurry.
“I did not take your advice,” said Deng. “Last night I had only one small clerk on duty with me, and I was asleep on the big bed. In the middle of the night, fast asleep as I was, I heard on the bed to my left — four times over — the sound of somebody hurling something heavy down, and hammering. I called out to the clerk in a panic, and the clerk was by then already terrified out of his senses, and so the two of us hauled each other off, unbolted the door and ran. We went down more than ten flights of the hall steps without time to set foot to a tread — we rolled and tumbled to the bottom. My wits have not settled since. How could I possibly stay?”
He took his leave that evening.
