Note 2 — XII.—LEGENDS OF LOCALITY, HOUSEHOLD TALES, &c.

It would be interesting to know if the classical legend of the golden cup given by the Sun-God Helios to Hercules, who used it as a ship to convey him across stretches of ocean, owed its origin to the same source as a popular legend in South China. We want however in the latter case the connecting link between the original myth and the vulgar version so ingeniously shewn by Mr Kelly in his well-known work.2 A tea-cup here takes the place of the more valuable utensil, but is credited with similar powers of transport. Pei-tu (杯渡) “The Cup Traveller” was a renowned Buddhist priest who lived some five or six hundred years ago, and was accustomed to wander at will over the Canton province, his magic cup serving him as a ferry-boat whenever he had to cross water. On one occasion he carried off a golden idol belonging to the house where he had passed the night. Pursuit was given, but the priest, though walking on foot, easily outstripped the fastest horse of his pursuers, who, at length seeing him carried over a river in his tea-cup, abandoned the chase. The mountain not far from Hongkong, known to foreigners as “Castlepeak,” was named after this priest, Pei-tu (or in the local dialect Poi-tou). Can this legend be a dim reproduction of the Western myth?