are you? Where are you from?” The idiot looked up, lifted his ears from over his eyes, and saw to his horror that they were evil ogres.

“If I say I’m a pilgrim,” he thought, “they’ll catch me. I’ll say I’m just a traveler.” The junior demon reported to the king that he was a traveler. Among the thirty junior demons there were some who had recognized him and some who had not, and one of these who had recognized him remembered Silver Horn being given his instructions.

He said, “This monk looks like Pig in the picture, Your Majesty.”

Silver Horn had the picture hung up, which made Pig think with horror, “No wonder I’m in such low spirits these days—they’ve got my spirit here.”

As the junior devils held it up with their spears, Silver Horn pointed at it and said, “The one on the white horse is the Tang Priest, and the hairy-faced one is Sun the Novice.”

“City god,” thought Pig, “you can leave me out. I’ll offer you the triple sacrifice and 24 cups of pure wine…”

He muttered prayers as the devil continued, “The tall dark one is Friar Sand, and that’s Pig with a long snout and big ears.” At the mention of himself Pig tucked his snout into his clothes.

“Bring your snout out, monk,” said the monster.

“I was born like this,” said Pig, “so I can’t bring it out.” The monster ordered the junior devils to pull it out with hooks, at which Pig hastily thrust it out and said, “I just feel shy about it. Here it is. Look at it if you must, but don’t hook it.”

Recognizing Pig, the monster raised his sword and hacked at him. Pig parried him with his rake and said, “Behave yourself, my lad, and take this.”

“You took your vows quite late,” said the monster with a smile.

“Clever boy,” replied Pig, “but how did you know?”

“From the way you handle that rake,” the monster said, “you used it to level up the ground in a vegetable garden. You must have stolen it.”

“You don’t know this rake, my boy,” said Pig. “It’s not the sort used in ground-leveling:

Its teeth are like a dragon’s claws,

Flecked with gold in tigerish shapes.

Against a foe it blows a freezing wind,

And in a battle it shoots out flame.

It brushes away obstacles in the Tang Priest’s path,

Capturing devils on the way to the Western Heaven.

When whirled, its vapors obscure the sun and moon,

And its black clouds darken the stars.

When it flattens Mount Tai the tigers tremble;

Dragons are frightened when it overturns the ocean.

Even if you have some tricks, you monster,

One blow from this rake will leave nine bloody holes.”

This made the monster more determined that ever, and with his Seven-starred Sword he battled thorough twenty inconclusive rounds with Pig on the mountain. Pig fought back with deadly fury, and at the sight of him pricking up his ears, spewing out saliva, and waving his rake with grunts and shouts, the frightened demon turned round to bring all his underlings into the battle beside him.

Had he been fighting only the one enemy, Pig would have done fine, but when all the little devils rushed him he lost control, could no longer put up any resistance, and fled in defeat. As he was not paying attention to the uneven path he tripped over a creeper and fell over. He was just picking himself up and starting off again when a junior demon who was lying there tugged at his ankle and brought him tumbling down like a dog eating muck. A crowd of demons seized him and carried him back to the cave, holding him by the bristles, ears, legs and tail. Indeed:

A single demon is hard enough to destroy;

Countless disasters can barely be averted.

If you don’t know whether Pig lived or not, listen to the explanation in the next installment.