Three days later Ted received a radiogram from Peiping, reading as
follows:
Honorable Sir:
I avail myself of the privilege of submitting below the result of my
poor efforts at deciphering the written characters of the Moon People.
The spoken language was, with the exception of a few scattered words
which cannot be put together to make sense, wholly unintelligible to
me.
Here follows my sorry translation:
_Why have you destroyed Ur? You, the people of Du Gong have thrown to
us, the Imperial Government of P’an-ku, mightiest emperor of Ma Gong,
the tcha-tsi_ (meaning unknown to translator) _of war. We are greater
and wiser than you, and can crush you with ease._
_You have demonstrated that you are not fit to govern yourselves—that
you are a menace to the people of the great Lord Sun, his eight
apostles and their children. The Imperial Government of P’an-ku will
send a viceroy to rule over you. Submit, and you will live happily,
the subjects of P’an-ku. Resist, and you will be destroyed._
In my humble and unworthy opinion, the word, “_tcha-tsi_,” means
either some instrument of war or perhaps a challenge to war, and has
the same symbolical significance as does the gauntlet in English.