untrymen are at once the wisest of
mankind and the stupidest. They have invented an art for the preservation
of letters and the diffusion of knowledge, which the sages of Greece and
India never knew, but they have not learned to take, and they refuse to be
taught how to take, the one little step further necessary to render it
generally profitable to mankind."

And producing his tablets and types, he explained to the Caliph the entire
mystery of the art of printing.

"Thou seemest to be ignorant," said Omar, "that we have but yesterday
condemned and excommunicated all books, and banished the same from the
face of the earth, seeing that they contain either that which is contrary
to the Koran, in which case they are impious, or that which is agreeable to
the Koran, in which case they are superfluous. Thou art further unaware, as
it would seem, that the smoke which shrouds the city proceeds from the
library of the unbelievers, consumed by our orders. It will be meet to burn
thee along with it."

"O Commander of the Faithful," said an officer, "of a surety the last
scroll of the accursed ceased to flame even as this infidel entered the
city."

"If it be so," said Omar, "we will not burn him, seeing that we have taken
away from him the occasion to sin. Yet shall he swallow these little brass
amulets of his, at the rate of one a day, and then be banished from the
country."

The sentence was executed, and Fu-su was happy that the Court physician
condescended to accept his little property in exchange for emetics.

He begged his way slowly and painfully back to China, and arrived at the
covenanted spot at the expiration of the thirtieth year. His father's
modest dwelling had disappeared, and in its place stood a magnificent
mansion, around which stretched a park with pavilions, canals,
willow-trees, golden pheasants, and little bridges.

"Tu-sin has surely made his fortune," thought he, "and he will not refuse
to share it with me agreeably to our covenant."

As he thus reflected he heard a voice at his elbow, and turning round
perceived that one in a more wretched plight than himself was asking alms
of him. It was Tu-sin.

The brothers embraced with many tears, and after Tu-sin had learned Fu-su's
history, he proceeded to recount his own.

"I repaired," said he, "to those who know the secret of the grains termed
fire-dust, which Suen has not been able to prevent us from inventing, but
of which Wu-chi has taken care t