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Page 49
"The discreet and sagacious will already have understood the nature of
King-y-Yang's intolerable artifice; but, for the benefit of the
amiable and unsuspecting, it is necessary to make it clear that the
words which he had spoken bore no sort of resemblance to affairs as
they really existed. The district around Yun was indeed involved in a
most unprepossessing destitution, but this had been caused, not by the
absence of any rare and auspicious insect, but by the presence of vast
hordes of locusts, which had overwhelmed and devoured the entire face
the country. It so chanced that among the recently constructed devices
at 'The Pure Gilt Dragon of Exceptional Symmetry' were a number of
elegant representations of rice fields and fruit gardens so skilfully
fashioned that they deceived even the creatures, and attracted, among
other living things, all the locusts in Hankow into that place of
commerce. It was a number of these insects that King-y-Yang
vindictively placed in the box which he instructed Sen to carry to
Yun, well knowing that the reception which would be accorded to anyone
who appeared there on such a mission would be of so fatally
destructive a kind that the consideration of his return need not
engage a single conjecture.
"Entirely tranquil in intellect--for the possibility of King-y-Yang's
intention being in any way other than what he had represented it to be
did not arise within Sen's ingenuous mind--the person in question
cheerfully set forth on his long but unavoidable march towards the
region of Yun. As he journeyed along the way, the nature of his
meditation brought up before him the events which had taken place
since his arrival at Hankow; and, for the first time, it was brought
within his understanding that the story of the youth and the three
tigers, which his father had related to him, was in the likeness of a
proverb, by which counsel and warning is conveyed in a graceful and
inoffensive manner. Readily applying the fable to his own condition,
he could not doubt but that the first two animals to be overthrown
were represented by the two undertakings which he had already
conscientiously performed in the matter of the mechanical ducks and
the inlaid boxes, and the conviction that he was even then engaged on
the third and last trial filled him with an intelligent gladness so
unobtrusive and refined that he could express his entrancing emotions
in no other way that by lifting up his voice and uttering the far-
reaching cries which he had used on the first of the occasions just
referred to.
"In this manner the first part of the journey passed away with
engaging celerity. Anxious as Sen undoubtedly was to complete the
third task, and approach the details which, in his own case, would
correspond with the command of the bowmen and the marriage with the
Mandarin's daughter of the person in the story, the noontide heat
compelled him to rest in the shade by the wayside for a lengthy period
each day. During one of these pauses it occurred to his versatile
mind that the time which was otherwise uselessly expended might be
well disposed of in endeavouring to increase the value and condition
of the creatures under his care by instructing them in the performance
of some simple accomplishments, such as might not be too laborious for
their feeble and immature understanding. In this he was more
successful than he had imagined could possibly be the case, for the
discriminating insects, from the first, had every appearance of
recognizing that Sen was inspired by a sincere regard for their
ultimate benefit, and was not merely using them for his own
advancement. So assiduously did they devote themselves to their
allotted tasks, that in a very short space of time there was no detail
in connexion with their own simple domestic arrangements that was not
understood and daily carried out by an appointed band. Entranced at
this intelligent manner of conducting themselves, Sen industriously
applied his time to the more congenial task of instructing them in the
refined arts, and presently he had the enchanting satisfaction of
witnessing a number of the most cultivated faultlessly and
unhesitatingly perform a portion of the well-known gravity-removing
play entitled "The Benevolent Omen of White Dragon Tea Garden; or,
Three Times a Mandarin." Not even content with this elevating display,
Sen ingeniously contrived, from various objects which he discovered at
different points by the wayside, an effective and life-like
representation of a war-junk, for which he trained a crew, who, at an
agreed signal, would take up their appointed places and go through the
required movements, both of sailing, and of discharging the guns, in a
reliable and efficient manner.
"As Sen was one day educating the least competent of the insects in
the simpler parts of banner-carriers, gong-beaters, and the like, to
their more graceful and versatile companions, he lifted up his eyes
and beheld, standing by his side, a person of very elaborately
embroidered apparel and commanding personality, who had all the
appearance of one who had been observing his movements for some space
of time. Calling up within his remembrance the warning which he had
received from King-y-Yang, Sen was preparing to restore the creatures
to their closed box, when the stranger, in a loud and dignified voice,
commanded him to refrain, adding:
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