Frank Owen

“ Coutts Cummings breathed deeply of the fragrant air. The memory of that ancient jar in the blue-velvet room haunted him. He sighed softly as he re-entered the palace. In a lounging room he found Kwoh Fan listlessly drinking tea.
At his entrance, Kwoh Fan looked up drowsily. “Come linger here awhile with me,” he said. “Before retiring I always drink a few cups of the supreme liquor of all—blue-poppy scented tea. It brings happiness through forgetfulness. Drink with me until the night grows old.” ”

“ Kwoh Fan clutched Coutts Cummings by the shoulder, “It is the rarest antiquity of earth,” he breathed intensely. “It is of more value than all the famed jewels of India. No rajah has treasure like unto this. For sealed within this jar are a few drops of the rarest perfume ever drawn from flowers. Within the perfume are hidden all the wondrous scenes and adventures through which this jar has passed. Some day I will remove the cover, permitting the sweet perfume to issue from it. I have purposely had this room builded for that precious day. ”

“ The bazaars of every country have their own particular odors. And in those odors are preserved pictures of the incidents and occurrences that have emerged from embryo there. Perfume possesses more divinity than any religion or any creed.”
Kwoh Fan rose abruptly to his feet.
“If you wish,” he said impulsively, “I will take you to a room like unto none other you have ever beheld. Nobody ever enters it but myself, though now I am moved to escort you there.”
Coutts Cummings needed no second bidding. Slowly he followed Kwoh Fan down marvelous halls dim-lit with glimmering lanterns. ”

“ China is different from all other countries primarily because of the presence of this pungent color. It swirls over everything like a flood. It brings on drowsiness and lassitude. My people are yellow people steeped in yellow. If white or red predominated, the whole history of China would be different. Its very existence is directly traceable to color, which in turn goes directly to the sun.”
As Kwoh Fan paused, Coutts Cummings surveyed him meditatively. After all, to a great extent, life was a mystical puzzle. ”

“ Perfumes can absorb pictures to smallest details. Not infrequently a piquant perfume floating to one's nostrils recalls the exotic vision of some beloved woman. One of your poets, Baudelaire, I believe, has fashioned this truth into verse that is lyrically beautiful. Lavender makes one think of old English ladies creeping softly through the ancient halls of gabled houses. ”

“ Drinking tea is as fine an art as etching or engraving.
“The real forces of life,” he continued musingly, “though seen are not realized. They are composed of lights and shadows, colors, tones, harmonies, rhythms, perfumes and sweet music. Color, I believe, is one of the main props of existence. Plants derive their gorgeous colors from the solar spectrum, especially in the Orient. That is why yellow predominates in China. The yellow-golden skin of gorgeous China girls—what could be more superb? ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1968, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 54 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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