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Page 18
Not even the most venerable person in Si-chow could remember the time
when the magician had not lived there, and as there existed no written
record narrating the incident, it was with well-founded probability
that he was said to be incapable of death. Contrary to the most
general practice, although quite unmarried, he had adopted no son to
found a line which would worship his memory in future years, but had
instead brought up and caused to be educated in the most difficult
varieties of embroidery a young girl, to whom he referred, for want of
a more suitable description, as the daughter of his sister, although
he would admit without hesitation, when closely questioned, that he
had never possessed a sister, at the same time, however, alluding with
some pride to many illustrious brothers, who had all obtained
distinction in various employments.
Few persons of any high position penetrated into the house of the
magician, and most of these retired with inelegant haste on perceiving
that no domestic altar embellished the great hall. Indeed, not to make
concealment of the fact, the magician was a person who had entirely
neglected the higher virtues in an avaricious pursuit of wealth. In
that way all his time and a very large number of taels had been
expended, testing results by means of the four elements, and putting
together things which had been inadequately arrived at by others. It
was confidently asserted in Si-chow that he possessed every manner of
printed leaf which had been composed in whatsoever language, and all
the most precious charms, including many snake-skins of more than
ordinary rarity, and the fang of a black wolf which had been stung by
seven scorpions.
On the death of his father the magician had become possessed of great
wealth, yet he contributed little to the funeral obsequies nor did any
suggestion of a durable and expensive nature conveying his enlightened
name and virtues down to future times cause his face to become
gladdened. In order to preserve greater secrecy about the enchantments
which he certainly performed, he employed only two persons within the
house, one of whom was blind and the other deaf. In this ingenious
manner he hoped to receive attention and yet be unobserved, the blind
one being unable to see the nature of the incantations which he
undertook, and the deaf one being unable to hear the words. In this,
however, he was unsuccessful, as the two persons always contrived to
be present together, and to explain to one another the nature of the
various matters afterwards; but as they were of somewhat deficient
understanding, the circumstance was unimportant.
It was with more uneasiness that the magician perceived one day that
the maiden whom he had adopted was no longer a child. As he desired
secrecy above all things until he should have completed the one
important matter for which he had laboured all his life, he decided
with extreme unwillingness to put into operation a powerful charm
towards her, which would have the effect of diminishing all her
attributes until such time as he might release her again. Owing to his
reluctance in the matter, however, the magic did not act fully, but
only in such a way that her feet became naturally and without binding
the most perfect and beautiful in the entire province of Hu Nan, so
that ever afterwards she was called Pan Fei Mian, in delicate
reference to that Empress whose feet were so symmetrical that a golden
lily sprang up wherever she trod. Afterwards the magician made no
further essay in the matter, chiefly because he was ever convinced
that the accomplishment of his desire was within his grasp.
The rumours of armed men in the neighbourhood of Si-chow threw the
magician into an unendurable condition of despair. To lose all, as
would most assuredly happen if he had to leave his arranged rooms and
secret preparations and take to flight, was the more bitter because he
felt surer than ever that success was even standing by his side. The
very subtle liquid, which would mix itself into the component parts of
the living creature which drank it, and by an insidious and harmless
process so work that, when the spirit departed, the flesh would become
resolved into a figure of pure and solid gold of the finest quality,
had engaged the refined minds of many of the most expert individuals
of remote ages. With most of these inspired persons, however, the
search had been undertaken in pure-minded benevolence, their chief aim
being an honourable desire to discover a method by which one's
ancestors might be permanently and effectively preserved in a fit and
becoming manner to receive the worship and veneration of posterity.
Yet, in spite of these amiable motives, and of the fact that the
magician merely desired the possession of the secret to enable him to
become excessively wealthy, the affair had been so arranged that it
should come into his possession.
The matter which concerned Mian in the dark wood, when she was only
saved by the appearance of the person who is already known as Ling,
entirely removed all pleasurable emotions from the magician's mind,
and on many occasions he stated in a definite and systematic manner
that he would shortly end an ignoble career which seemed to be
destined only to gloom and disappointment. In this way an important
misunderstanding arose, for when, two days later, during the sound of
matchlock firing, the magician suddenly approached the presence of
Mian with an uncontrollable haste and an entire absence of dignified
demeanour, and fell dead at her feet without expressing himself on any
subject whatever, she deliberately judged that in this manner he had
carried his remark into effect, nor did the closed vessel of yellow
liquid which he held in his hand seem to lead away from this decision.
In reality, the magician had fallen owing to the heavy and conflicting
emotions which success had engendered in an intellect already greatly
weakened by his continual disregard of the higher virtues; for the
bottle, indeed, contained the perfection of his entire life's study,
the very expensive and three-times purified gold liquid.
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