Kathleen Gray Nelson

“ You could live in my palace and have many servants to wait upon you, and if I were the most beautiful woman, you could become the richest man in the kingdom. It would be a sad thing for the pearl to crumble away and never be worn by a woman, and also for the great Cave Man to die a wretched death—perhaps of hunger—in this dirty hole.”
“If I were only free I could bring you the pearl,” the wizard answered. “No one save me can ever get it, for it is watched by a dragon with eyes that are always open and teeth that are sharp and cruel.” ”

“ In front was a surging crowd, uttering cries of delight, and behind came a throng of men bearing aloft huge, hideous dragons. The heads of these serpents were made of thin paper with lights inside, and their eyes were red as fire, while their wide-open mouths gaped hungrily. Their bodies were made of semi-transparent cloth over hoops of bamboo, and men walked underneath holding them high in the air with sticks which they so moved that the dragons made their way along in undulating heaps, much to the delight of the populace. But Tuen viewed it all very seriously. ”

“ As the fox strutted feebly and slowly through the leaves and over the dewy grass where he had once scampered and frolicked, suddenly he saw a procession of all the creatures of the wood, with the monkey ahead, coming to meet him, for they were very curious to know if he would get his golden tails. He stopped and stood silent and haughty, waiting for them. They gathered around him, but said never a word. And so he cried out shrilly:
“Behold your King! I am the most wonderful animal in all the world. ”

“ In fact he believed it to be the garden spot of the world, and as he had never been anywhere else, we must pardon his vanity. "We are the greatest and wisest nation in the world," he would tell Tuen pompously. "We are the most learned and prosperous of all people, and we have the oldest and the highest civilization. We have borrowed no foreign inventions or arts, we have not asked them to frame the laws to govern us nor to solve our difficulties. All we have ever asked of any of them is—let us alone. We are not like the barbarians—always quarrelling and fighting, and running about the earth. ”

“ Now a tankia glided by, with only a bamboo canopy as protection from rain and sun and cold, the mother at the helm, while around her clustered happy children who had never known any other home than this little "egg house." For so great is the population of China that many families live in boats upon the rivers, and have but little knowledge of mother earth, as they but seldom feel the ground beneath their feet. Tuen looked with delight at the many phases of life that surged around her as unceasingly as the ripples of the water, and then passed away. ”

“ The frog hopped away when it saw him coming, the grasshopper whirred up to the top of the tallest tree, the owls rolled their eyes at him, flapped their wings and away they went, and even the lazy old tortoise, that every day came out to take its nap in a little spot of sunshine, tried to crawl away in a hurry when it heard him coming, and sometimes in its haste rolled all the way down the river bank. ”

“ The wonderful wood, so dark, so still, so cool, put on patches of color with the passing month, and in the few spots where the sunshine sometimes crept, the trees grew vivid with the burning glory of autumn or pale and cold with the first blue blossoms of spring, then softly pink with azalea blooms or bright as a glowing sunset with the flowers of peach and cherry. ”

“ Frightened at his appearance, she arose and stood waiting for him to pass, but he said sadly:
"Your gods, my child, are but wood and stone, and cannot hear your prayers. The one true God lives in Heaven, watching over you, and loving you, and there is no other God but Him." ”

“ He could only turn up his nose and snarl slowly, for he was trying with all his might to plan what to do next. He was the richest fox in the world—the only living creature with nine golden tails—but what good were they to him if these silly creatures would not wait on him and worship him? In all the years he had lived among them he had been greedy and selfish and cross and ugly, and now he had not a single friend. ”

“ Now he smiled, openly, at her evident vexation, but he said, gravely:
"If you are born great, you will be great, no matter if you be man or woman, no matter when you live or where, but the great ones of earth are few and far between. Some who were not born great, have, by hard work and much patience, attained to it. But a woman is usually a stupid thing, and her head is much too light for climbing."
"If she were very wise, could she have power, even in the Forbidden City?" Tuen persisted. ”

“ Not even a bird was stirring as he sped over the cool, wet grass. The daylight had not yet crept through the thick leaves, and once he stumbled over a dead log and rolled headlong into a muddy hole. The only light he saw came from a frog who had filled himself with fireflies, and they now shone through his round stomach like a shaded lamp as he slept under a sheltering bush. ”

“ All the morning they squatted forlornly before the temple, hungry and desolate and sorrowful, and when at last Niu Tsang arose, and Tuen knew that the awful [Pg 32] moment when she must leave them forever had come, she felt as if she should surely die. Her mother caressed her, crying in a hopeless, patient way, but she managed to whisper encouragingly:
"After all, you will be better off," and Tuen answered bravely: "All of us will, I hope, be better off, mother. At least we shall not die of hunger." ”

“ Not only did the Kublai Khan feed his subjects, but he had countless public looms that were running all the time, where garments were woven and given to the poor, so that none could say that they were hungry or cold."
"I would have liked to be alive then," Tuen said, wistfully, and in this they all agreed with her.
"There has never been such another ruler in any land," Szu told her. "The whole world has heard of him, and marvelled at his greatness and his goodness." ”

“ The old woman crept closer to him.
“What did you say about a pearl?” she whispered breathlessly.
“Ah, it is a pearl fit for a Queen,” he said, pursing up his lips. “It is big as the egg of a swan, shaped like a perfect pear and white as a dragon’s tooth. The woman who wears it hung around her neck all men will adore. She will always be young, always the loveliest lady that was ever seen.” The eyes of the Queen glittered greedily.
“Where is that pearl, wizard?” she [Pg 56] asked, grasping his arm so tightly that her claw-like fingers dug into his flesh. But the wizard only smiled. ”

“ At night she slept on a pillow of shining black wood, and on it were sprawling, straggling letters of gold that spelled the name of the Baku, for the Baku in Japan has the body of a horse, the face of a lion, the trunk and tusks of an elephant, the tail of a cow and the feet of a tiger, and it [Pg 31] eats up evil dreams. In fact, it never eats anything else, and yet it is always fat. ”

“ Tuen followed the attendant, her form shaking with suppressed sobs, and he led the way from the main hall into a second court, larger and more beautiful than the first. A gnarled and twisted evergreen, simulating a canopy, stood in the centre of this court, and underneath its thick branches was a little pool, encircled by moss-covered rocks, and filled with brilliant gold-fish. ”

“ Sometimes they would eat and sleep all day, and at night, when the green eyes of the owls shone like lanterns and the fireflies lit up the wood with their little lamps, they would meet in a wonderful dell all lined with moss softer than velvet carpet, and there they would romp and play until morning. ”

“ The day was to have been celebrated throughout the Empire with a lavish magnificence that would render it the greatest event in Chinese history for many centuries, for her loyal subjects had planned to render fitting honor to this remarkable woman. The streets for ten miles were to have been covered with rich carpets and decorated with lamps and pictures, and the rarest wares—porcelains, bronzes, jade, and silver—were to have been arranged along this gorgeous avenue. ”

“ Sometimes in the day when she lingered by the lake and watched the little gold fish dart about like flames in the clear water and jump up on the bank to get the lard cakes and rice balls she had brought them, she sighed, and for no reason at all scolded the mincing, bias-eyed lady who carried a gorgeous parasol over her. ”

“ Gilded and painted fragments of helpless idols strewed the floor, the great stone altar, carved in writhing dragons, had been broken into many pieces, and incense vases of priceless porcelain, candlesticks of richest cloisonné, tables of carved ebony, stands of polished jade, and rosaries torn from the hands of frightened priests, had been ruthlessly destroyed, and now lay in great [Pg 8] heaps of rubbish. The guardians of the temple had fled before the wrath of the rebel reformers, and the dead gods were left alone in their temple. ”

“ Our language is our own, our literature has not sought for themes or inspiration in other climes, our institutions are the outcome of our own wisdom, and our land provides everything that is necessary for her children. We are the one independent nation. Confucius, the wisest of all men, left us our code of morals, and the Son of Heaven rules over us. Our kingdom contains one third of the population of the whole earth, and nearly every one of the inventions that these barbarians think they discovered they find have been in use by us long before they were a nation. ”

“ Oh, if he could only take off his golden tails long enough to whip the saucy monkey! And how very nice one of those downy little chicks would taste!
“I have all the gold in the wood,” he [Pg 83] said at last. “I am your King and you are too stupid to know it.”
“Only men are ruled by a man because he has gold,” said the wise old tortoise. “We know better. Had you been brave and kind and good we would now be proud of you. But you have thought only of yourself, now help yourself. You have all that you wanted—be satisfied.” ”

“ Great was the prosperity of the Empire, and rumors of its glories and of its wonders spread to the outer regions, and ambassadors came from Nepaul, Persia, and even from a far-away dominion called Rome, to pay tribute to the Son of Heaven. He had magnificent palaces and stately temples, and he numbered his warriors by thousands. Then, as it has ever been, for we are the one nation favored by the gods, we were civilized and wise, and all other people came to learn of us, even as it is to this very day. ”

“ The snail had been heard to stoutly declare he wouldn’t run from it anyway, but as the orang-outang reminded him, it was very easy to be brave before you saw it coming, but he had heard of snails that got in such a hurry they left their houses behind them. The bear asked the very important question: “How many legs has a dragon?” And when the tortoise said it must have at least a million, since a centipede had a hundred, the bear was comforted, for as he wisely told the fox, one need not be afraid of anything if it has more than four legs. ”

“ At the residence of the Viceroy everything presented a gala appearance. After cleaning and scrubbing in every available place, the house had been purified by prayers and ceremonies and incense, and when New Year's eve came nothing was lacking save the final decorations. Without the populace thronged the streets, and their loud shouts and beating of gongs and drums, and the popping of innumerable fire-crackers made a deafening din. ”

“ CHAPTER II NOW Nio Kuro, a Prince and the most famous hunter in the kingdom, had come in his boat down the river that ran through the haunted wood. With him he had brought many servants and his pack of trained leopards, with which he hunted, and which were swifter and had keener scent than any dogs. Possibly Nio Kuro had never heard of this forest, or it may have been that he became so excited when the leopards started on their wild chase that he forgot to be afraid of goblins. ”

“ Before one of the tombs, far more pretentious than any of its neighbors, the Viceroy stopped and alighted from his sedan.
His forefather had evidently been some high mandarin, for a stone wall surrounded a large, horse-shoe shaped enclosure, and in this teeming land, where earth was so precious that only a little portion could be allotted to a few of the living, it was a sign of great wealth to have so much space for an ancestor. ”

“ Wang cried hotly, and Tuen, her eyes shining like stars, said softly:
"It seems almost too wonderful to be true."
"Stranger things happen than have ever been told," Szu replied. "The affairs of life are past finding out, and who Tên Wang leads must follow, whether he will or not."
"This Woo How was very lucky," Tuen murmured. "She must have been loved by the gods." ”

“ And she added if he were smart enough to never, never let the dogs get after him, when he was a thousand years old a dragon would give him nine golden tails. It was true no one had ever seen a fox with more than one tail, but in the Kojiri, or Tails of Ancient Things, which was written on the bark of the oldest trees, it had always been told that there would be one fox who would in this way become the hero of his race, and perhaps he would be that very one if he learned to be clever and careful. ”

“ There he fell down, a heap of skin and bones, and called feebly for the dragon. When this terrible creature [Pg 48] came out it blew fire and smoke at him in awful wrath.
“I thought you wanted to be a fox with nine golden tails. Why have you disturbed me?” it thundered.
“A fox with nine golden tails is a nice thing to talk about,” the poor fox whimpered, “but a wise man is better than a dead fox, even if it had twenty golden tails, so make me a wizard, Great One, and then will I trouble you no more.” ”

“ Wo Ting made a sign of assent, and someone else remarked:
"Why not? 'Tis no small honor to be the handmaid of the Son of Heaven, the greatest king upon earth. Find yourself a son, and let the girl go."
"I do not wish to part with her, not just yet," the Viceroy said slowly.
"She will go away sooner or later to the household of her husband," the governor-general told him. "After all it is the same thing, for in either case she is lost to you. It is only a son who is a joy forever."
"True! True!" cried a dozen voices. "What matters a girl?" ”

“ Now a beautiful woman does very well in her place and it is a great honor to be a wise man, but a fox with nine golden tails is the most wonderful thing in all the world. For that reason when the fox was very young, only about sixty or seventy-five, he thought he would refuse to be changed into either a woman or a wizard and would wait for his thousandth birthday. ”

“ Nowhere can be found so many and such great cities as we have, and not only the land but the waters are covered with our towns. I wish we could shut ourselves off, as once we were, and never see another barbarian. But alas, we cannot, for they cannot get along without us."
Thus Szu, puffed up with pride, instructed Tuen in the facts of Chinese history, and she drank in every word he said eagerly. ”

“ Progress, the daring child of modern times, has not found entrance [Pg 6] there, and the Niu Tsang of to-day, leading his family through the forsaken country, was but a repetition of his long dead forefathers. That was the reason why, even now, as he toiled wearily along, his mind left the scenes of the present, so full of sorrow and suffering, and dwelt in placid contemplation on the events of the past. He was musing on the wisdom of the sages, on the maxims of Confucius, when, chancing to raise his head, he saw in the distance the dim outlines of a building. ”

“ A year had passed since Tuen came to live at the Viceroy's yâmen, and in that time she had grown taller, fairer, and now was budding into womanhood, or at least so it was considered in that land, where girls of twelve years old are thought mature enough to marry. She had become a great favorite with every one in the palace on account of her amiable disposition and kindness to every one, and even the Viceroy's wife had forgotten her former prejudice and took a kindly interest in her. ”

“ Niu Tsang said shortly. "All the gods hate the children of men, but because we offer prayers and incense they sometimes listen to us."
Tuen said nothing more, but that night from her bed in the open court she looked up at the silver river [2] winding among the golden stars, and wondered what god it was who lived so far away you could only dimly see his lamps shining through the blue, and she felt she would like to [Pg 19] know if all the gods really hated her, and if so, what she had done to make them angry. ”

“ She caught her breath quickly, and clung to Wang.
"We shall be killed!" she cried, and Wang was so terror-stricken that she could not answer. The sailors on Tuen's boat uttered loud, warning shouts, and pulled away lustily, and the men on the war-junk, seeing that the barge was directly in their path, rowed valiantly. ”

“ Even on a desert island she would have power over the wild beasts, for knowledge is power the world over. It is because females do not possess it that they are weak and of little repute. When they become wise they will rule the earth, for a man is but clay in the hands of a skilful woman. She pats him into whatever shape she wants him."
"I would like to be wise and great," Tuen said, with a sigh. ”