order to ask the help of her family. In the afternoon, clad in the white
dress of mourning, and accompanied by her four brothers, she started
again.
What was her astonishment and fear when, approaching the place where she
had found the body, she saw her husband walking towards her. He was all
covered with blood, and the stench was so strong that everybody pinched
his nose.
When he had explained what had happened, they all returned to the
village. The-tenth knelt reverently before his ancestors' tablet,
offered butter and rice, and burnt incense.
This very day he asked a Taoist priest what was the river he had worked
in. The priest explained to him it was called the River-of-sorrows. It
took its source in the outer world in every tear that was shed. The
people that killed themselves out of despair were floated down its
stream to the kingdom of shadows.
Sometimes the sorrows on earth were so great that people killed
themselves by thousands and did not shed any tears; the blood then was
too thick to wash away the decayed remains, and the river-bed had to be
cleaned lest it should overflow and drown the whole world. Living men
alone were employed in this work, for only living men can cure living
men's sorrows.
_THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND_
In the beautiful Chu-san archipelago there is a small island where the
flowers never cease blooming, and where the trees grow thick and high.
From the most remote antiquity nobody has been known to live in the
shade of this virgin forest; the ferns, the creepers, are so entangled
that it is impossible for a man to cross this wilderness without
clearing his way with a hatchet.
A young student named Chang, who lived in the City-over-the-sea, used to
rest himself from his daily labour by going out to sea in a small junk
he managed himself.
Having heard of the mysterious island, he resolved to explore it,
prepared wine and food, and sailed out on a beautiful summer's morning.
Towards midday he neared the place where the island was supposed to be.
Soon a delicious perfume of flowers was brought to him by the hot
breeze. He saw the dark green of the trees over the light green of the
sea, and, when still nearer, the yellow sand of the beach, where he
resolved to disembark.
The junk touched the shore; he tied it to a large fallen tree whose end
dipped into the gentle waves, and proceeded at once to a hearty meal.
While he was storing again in the boat what remained of his provisions,
he was suddenly startled by a subdued laugh. Turning his head, he saw
among the wild roses of the shore, a young girl covered with a long blue
dress, who looked at him with dark eyes full of flame.
"Your servant is most happy to see you here. I did not suppose I should
ever have the pleasure of meeting you."
"Who are you?" asked Chang, forgetting, in his astonishment, the proper
forms of inquiry.
"I am only a poor singer who has been brought here by
The-Duke-of-the-sea."
Chang, hearing these words, was afraid in his heart; The-Duke-of-the-sea
was a renowned pirate who used to plunder every village of the coast,
and was reputed to be cruel and vindictive. But the girl was so
attractive that he soon forgot everything in the pleasure of her
chatter.
Seated at the foot of a big tree, they were laughing, when a noise came
from the forest.
"It is The-Duke-of-the-sea! It is The-Duke-of-the-sea!" murmured the
girl. "I must be off at once."
And she disappeared behind the foliage.
While Chang was asking himself what he should do, he suddenly saw a huge
snake coming straight to him. Its body was as thick as a cask, and so
long that the end was still hidden in the forest, while the head was
balancing over the frightened student.
Chang could not say a word and dared not move: the snake entwined
himself round a tree and round the man, holding fast its prisoner's
arms. Then, lowering its head, it threw out its tongue, and, pricking
the student's nose, began to suck the blood which came out and fell on
the ground.
Chang saw that, if he did not immediately free himself, he would
certainly die. Feeling cautiously with his hand round his waist, he took
from his purse a certain poisoned pill that he kept there and intended
to try on wolves and foxes. With two fingers he took the pill and threw
it into the red pool at his feet.
The snake, of course, sucked it with the blood; it immediately stopped
drinking, straightened its body, and rocked its head to and fro,
knocking the tree-trunks and hissing desperately.
Chang, feeble and hardly able to stand, dragged himself as fast as he
could out of reach on to the beach and quickly untied his boat.
Nevertheless, before going out to sea, he fetched a sword and went
cautiously into the wood again. The snake did not move. Chang flourished
his sword, and with a mighty stroke cut the head off and ran to his
boat.
He returned to the City-over-the-sea, went to bed and was ill for a
month. When he spoke of his experience, he always said that, to his
mind, it was the beautiful girl he had seen at first who had come again
in the form of a snake.
_THE SPIRIT OF THE RIVER_
In a small village along the river Tsz lived a fisherman named Siu. He
started every night with his nets, and took very great care not to
forget to bring with him a small jar of spirits. Before throwing his
cast-net, he drank a small cup of the fragrant liquor and poured some
drops into the slow current, praying aloud:
"O Spirit-of-the-river, please accept these offerings and favour your
humble servant. I am poor and I must take some of the fishes that live
in your cold kingdom. Don't be angry against me and don't prevent the
eels and trouts coming to me!"
When every fisherman on the river brought back only one basket of
fishes, he always proudly bore home a heavy charge of two or three
baskets full to the brim.
Once, on a rosy dawn of early spring, when the sun, still below the
horizon, began to eat with its golden teeth the vanishing darkness, he
said aloud:
"O Spirit-of-the-river! For many years, every night I have drunk with
you a good number of wine-cups; but I never saw your face; won't you
favour me with your presence? We could sit together, and the pleasure of
drinking would be much greater."
Hardly had he finished these words when, from the middle of the stream,
emerged a beautiful young man clothed in pink, who slowly walked on the
smooth surface of the limpid water, and sat on the boat's end, saying:
"Here I am."
The fisherman, being half-drunk, was not troubled in any way; he bowed
to the young man, offered him, with his two hands, a cup of the strong
wine, and said:
"Well! I long wished to receive your instructions, and I am very glad to
see you. You must be mighty tired of living in that water; the few drops
of wine I pour every night are quite lost in such a quantity of
tasteless liquid. You had better come up every night; we will drink
together and enjoy each other's company."
From this day, when darkness closed in, the Spirit waited for the
fisherman and partook of his provisions. As soon as the sun rose above
the horizon he suddenly disappeared. The fisherman did not find that
very convenient; he asked his companion if he could not arrange to stay
with him sometimes in the daytime.
"Impossible; we can't do such a thing, we spirits and ghosts. We belong
to the kingdom of shadows. When the shadows, fighting the daylight,
bring with them the Night, we are free to go and wander about. But as
soon as the herald of the morn, the cock, has proclaimed the daily
victory of the sun, we are powerless and must disappear."
On the same day the fisherman was sitting on the bank, smoking a pipe
before going home with his baskets, when he saw a woman holding a child
in her arms and hastening along the river towards a ford some hundred
yards up stream. She was already in the water, when she missed her
footing, fell into the river, and was rolled away by the stream. The
child, by some happy chance, had fallen on the bank and lay there,
crying.
The fisherman could easily have gone in his boat and saved the woman,
who was still struggling to regain the bank, but he was a prudent man:
"This woman, whom I don't know, seems to be beautiful," thought he.
"Maybe it is my friend The-Spirit-of-the-river who has arranged all
this, and chosen the girl to be his wife. If I prevent her going down
to his cold lodgings, he will be angry and ruin my fishing. All I could
do is to adopt this boy until somebody comes and asks for him."
And he did not move, until the poor woman had disappeared in the yellow
stream; then he took the child. Once back in the village, he inquired
about the mother; nobody could tell who she was. The days passed and
nobody asked for the boy. This was strange enough, but, stranger still,
from this day the fisherman never saw The-Spirit-of-the-river again. He
offered him many cups of wine, and his fishing was as good as ever, but
though he prayed heartily, his companion of so many nights did not
appear any more.
When the boy was three years old he insisted on accompanying his adopted
father in his night fishing. Summer had come; the cold was no more to be
feared. The man consented to take his adopted son with him; they
started together in the twilight.
As soon as the darkness closed, the boy's voice changed; his appearance
was different.
"What a silly man you are!" said he. "Don't you know me now? For more
than two years I waited for an opportunity to tell you who I was. But
you always went out at night and you never came back before the sun was
high in the sky. You had never failed to present your offerings; so I
could not resist your prayer when you asked me to stay with you in the
daytime. Now, here I am, till your death; when the sun is up I shall
only be your son, but when the night closes I shall be your companion,
and we will enjoy together what longevity the Fate allows you."
_THE-DEVILS-OF-THE-OCEAN_
In the twenty-second year of the period Eternal-happiness, the
population of Chao-cheou's harbour, awaking on a bright summer's
morning, were extremely surprised and frightened to see, swaying on the
blue water of the bay, a strange and abnormally huge ship. The three
high masts were heavily loaded with transversal pieces of wood, from
some of which sails were still hanging; another mast projected
horizontally from the prow, and three sails were tightened from this to
the foremast.
A small boat was lowered from the ship's side and rowed to the quay.
Several hundreds of people were watching the proceedings, asking one
another if it was a human invention or a ship coming from the depths of
hell.
The small boat stopped at a short distance from the bank; one could see
that, beside the rowers, there were three men seated in the stern; their
heads were covered with extraordinarily long and fluffy grey hair; they
wore big hats with feathers of many colours. A Chinaman was in the boat
and hailed the people:
"Ha! Please tell the local authorities that high mandarins from the
ocean want to speak to them. We are peaceful. But if you do any harm to
our men or ships, our wrath will be such that we will destroy in one day
the whole town and kill everybody within ten miles' distance."
Three or four men belonging to the Yamen had heard these words; they ran
to the prefect's palace and came back with an answer they delivered to
the new-comers:
"His Excellency the prefect consents to receive your visit. If you are
peaceful, no harm will be done to you. But if you steal anything, or
wound or kill anybody, the laws of our country will be enforced upon you
without mercy."
Then the boat slowly accosted the quay; two of the men with feathered
hats disembarked with the Chinaman, while six of the rowers, leaving
their oars in the boat, shouldered heavy muskets, and cleared the way,
three walking in front of the feathered hats and three behind. The
rowers wore small caps and had long blue trousers and very short blue
coats.
The prefect, in his embroidered dress, awaited them on the threshold of
his reception-room. He bade the new-comers be seated and asked their
names and their business; the Chinaman translated the questions and the
answers.
"We come from the other side of the earth."
"Well," thought the prefect. "I was sure of it, the earth being square
and flat, the other side of it is certainly hell. What am I to do?"
"We only want to trade with your countrymen. We will sell you what goods
we have brought; we will buy your country's productions, and if no harm
is done we will sail away in a few days."
"Our humble country is very poor," answered the prefect. "The people are
not rich enough to buy any of the splendid goods you may have brought.
Besides, this country's products are not worth your giving any money for
them. If I can give you good advice, you had better sail away to-day and
get to the first harbour of the northern province; there they are very
rich."
"We have just come from it; they told us the very reverse. Here,
according to them, we should be able to find everything we want.
Besides, our mind is settled; we will remain here long enough to buy
what we want and to sell what we can. We are very peaceful people as
long as one deals justly with us. But if you try to beguile us, we will
employ all our strength in the defence of our rights. All we want is a
place on shore where we can store and show our goods."
"Well, well; I never intended to do anything of the sort," said the
prefect. "But the Emperor is the only possessor of the soil. How could I
give you a place even on the shore?"
"We don't want very much, and the Emperor won't know anything. Give us
only the surface of ground covered by a carpet, and we will be
satisfied."
Chinese carpets are not more than two or three feet broad and five or
six feet wide. The prefect thought he could not be blamed to authorise
the foreigners to settle on such a small piece of ground; on the other
hand, if he refused, there would ensue trouble and he would certainly be
cashiered.
"It is only as a special arrangement and by greatly compromising with
the law that I can give you this authorisation."
And the prefect wrote a few words on one of his big red visiting-cards.
The interpreter carefully perused the document. Then the foreigners went
back to their ship. The same day a proclamation was issued and pasted on
the walls of the public edifices, explaining to the people that
The-Devils-of-the-ocean had been authorised to settle on a piece of
ground not bigger than a carpet and that no harm should be done to them.
In compliance with these orders, nobody dared oppose the foreigners when
they began unrolling on the shore a carpet ten yards broad and thirty
yards long. When the carpet was unrolled, The-Devils-of-the-ocean put
themselves in ranks with muskets and swords on the carpet; nearly five
hundred men stood there close to one another.
The prefect, who had personally watched the proceeding, was so angry
against the foreigners for their cunningness that he immediately ordered
troops to drive them out into the water. But the foreigners had a
devilish energy nobody could resist; they killed a great many of our
people, burned the greater part of the city, and occupied for several
years all the northern part of the bay, where they erected a sort of
bazaar and a fortress, which still exist to this day.
_UNKNOWN DEVILS_
Suen Pure-whiteness was privileged with the possibility of seeing
distinctly all the creatures of the other world, who, for the greater
part of humanity, remain always mysterious and invisible.
One night he slept in a mountain monastery; he had closed and barred the
door; the full moon illuminated the window; everything was quiet. He had
slept an hour, when he was awakened by the hissing of the wind; the gate
of the monastery seemed to be thrown open; after a while the door of his
room was shaken, the bar dropped down, and the heavy wood turned on its
hinges.
Pure-whiteness thought at first that it would be better to close his
eyes and to wait; but his curiosity was aroused, he looked intently;
after a few seconds he could see a big devil, so big that he was obliged
to stoop in order not to break his head against the ceiling, and who was
coming slowly towards the bed. His face had the colour and general
appearance of an old melon. His eyes were full of lightning and his
mouth was bigger than a tub. His teeth were at least three inches long
and his tongue kept moving incessantly, while he uttered a sound like
"Ha-la."
Pure-whiteness was much afraid; but, seeing he had no way of escape, he
took a short sword from under his pillow and, with all his might, thrust
it into the devil's breast; it sounded as if he had struck a stone.
The devil hissed in a fearful way; he extended his claws to catch the
man. Pure-whiteness jumped on the right side; the devil could only catch
his dress and started; the man hastened to unfasten his dress; he
dropped and remained there on all fours, motionless and mute. When the
devil's steps ceased to be heard he screamed for help; the priests came
with lamps; everything was in order, but in the bed Pure-witeness was
yelling as in a nightmare.
On another day Pure-whiteness was in the country enjoying the pleasures
of harvest. The golden rice was piled high and everybody was busy. Some
armed men had been posted here and there, according to the custom;
everybody knows that when the rice is ripened in a place, people of the
neighbouring villages are always looking for an opportunity to make the
harvest themselves or to take away what has been cut by the owners.
Pure-whiteness, tired by the heat, laid down behind a rice-stack; after
a while he heard stealthy steps; raising his head, he saw a big devil
more than ten feet high, with hair and beard of a fierce reddish colour,
who was approaching. Pure-whiteness yelled for help: men with spears
came to the rescue. The devil bellowed like the thunder and flew away.
Pure-whiteness told them what he had seen; nobody would believe him, but
they nevertheless started in pursuit; people working in the fields all
round had not seen anything, so everybody came back.
The second day Pure-whiteness was among four or five men, when he saw
the same devil.
"He has come back!" cried he, flying away.
The other people ran away too. When they came back, everything was
quiet. But they always kept by their side some spears, bows and arrows,
and swords.
For two or three days, they had no trouble; the rice was being stored in
the granaries, when Pure-whiteness, looking up, screamed:
"The devil has come back!"
Everybody ran to his arms. Pure-whiteness fell down; the devil picked
him up, bit his head, threw him down, and went away.
When the man came back, Pure-whiteness bore the marks of teeth on his
head; he did not know anybody. Taken home and nursed, he remained
unconscious for a few days and died.
_CHILDLESS_
In the city of The-Great-name lived a rich idler named Tuan
Correct-happiness. He had then attained the age of forty and still he
had no son. His wife, Peaceful-union, was extremely jealous, so that he
dared not openly buy a concubine, as law authorised him, to continue his
lineage.
When he saw that, at forty, he had no son, he secretly bought a young
girl, whom he carefully left outside his own house.
A woman is not easily deceived--a jealous woman especially;
Peaceful-union soon discovered the whole truth. She had the girl brought
before her and took advantage of an impertinent answer to have her
beaten a hundred blows; after that, she turned on her husband and drove
him nearly mad with reproaches. What could the poor man do? He sold his
concubine to a neighbouring family named Liu, and peace was restored in
the house.
The days and years passed on without any change in the situation; the
nephews of Correct-happiness, seeing that he was old already and had no
son, began to fawn upon him, each of them trying to be the one that
would be elected as an adopted son to continue the family cult, as is
the custom.
Peaceful-union at last began to see her error and regretted bitterly
what she had done.
"You are only sixty years old," said she to her husband. "Is it too
late? Let us buy two chosen girls who will be your second wives; maybe
one of them will give you a son."
The old man smiled sadly; he did not entertain any great hope;
nevertheless, the concubines were bought. After a year, to the great
surprise and joy of everybody, both gave birth--one to a girl, the other
to a boy. But both children died a few months after.
Correct-happiness, when winter set in, caught a cold and was soon in a
desperate state of health. His nephews were always beside him; but,
seeing he would adopt neither of them, they began looting the house;
they found at last the treasure and took it away openly.
The moribund was too ill even to know what they did. Peaceful-union
tried in vain to stop them.
"Will you leave me to die of hunger? I am the wife of your uncle. I am
entitled to a part of his riches."
But they would not hear her.
"If you had borne a son to our uncle, or if he had adopted one of us, we
would not have touched a single copper cash of his treasure; but,
through your own fault, he has nobody to maintain his rights; we take
what is our own."
When the day ended, the widow found herself alone in the deserted and
emptied house, crying over the body of her dead husband.
Suddenly she heard steps outside the door; a young man appeared on the
threshold, his eyes full of tears, covered with the white dress of
mourning. He entered, kneeled beside the corpse, and, knocking the
ground with his forehead, he began the ritual lamentations.
Peaceful-union stopped crying and looked at him with astonishment; she
did not know him.
"May I ask your noble name? Who are you to cry over my husband's death?"
"I am the deceased's only son."
The widow started with surprise and a pang of her old jealousy; would
her husband have had a son without her knowing it? But the next words
of the young man explained everything.
Twenty years ago, when she had beaten and sold away the first concubine
of her husband, she did not know the girl bore already the fruit of this
short union. Six months later she had a son, to whom she gave the name
of Correct-sadness; but, bearing in mind the bad treatment she had
received, she asked the Liu family to keep the child as one of their
own. They consented and sent the boy to school with their children.
When Correct-sadness was eighteen, the chief of the Liu family died; the
family dispersed, and only a small legacy was left to the young man.
Believing he was a member of the family, he could not understand what
happened, and asked his mother; she told him the truth. Resenting the
hard treatment inflicted on his mother, he awaited the death of his
father to make his own identity known.
Peaceful-union was very happy to hear this story.
"I am no more without a son," said she. "All that my nephews have taken
away, treasure and furniture, they must bring back again. If not, the
magistrate will send them to die in jail."
In fact, the nephews refused to give back anything. The widow began a
lawsuit; everything at last was restored to the legal heir.
Peaceful-union hastened to choose him a wife, and as soon as the
matrimonial festivities were ended she told her daughter-in-law:
"My dear child, if I were you, I would ask Correct-sadness to buy
immediately one or two good concubines; if you have a son and they have
also, so much the better, but you can't realise how difficult to bear it
is to be childless."
_THE PATCH OF LAMB'S SKIN_
In the twenty-fourth year K'ang-hsi lived in a remote district of the
western provinces, a man who could remember his former lives. He was now
a "tsin-shi," "entered-among-the-learned," renowned, and much considered
by his friends.
When speaking of the existences he had gone through, he used to say:
"As far as I remember, I was first a soldier--it was in the last days of
the Ming dynasty; my regiment was encamped at The-Divided-roads on the
Ten-thousand-miles-great-wall. My remembrances are not very clear as to
whom we fought with, but I remember the joy of striking the enemy, the
hissing of the arrows, the yelling of the charging troops.