and I have come more
than a thousand _li_ to find you. How can I be wanting in sincerity?"

"What special degree of ability have you attained during your course
of perfection?" asked Miao Shan.

"I have no skill," replied Shan Ts'ai, "but I rely for everything
on your great pity, and under your guidance I hope to reach the
required ability."

"Very well," said Miao Shan, "take up your station on the top of
yonder peak, and wait till I find a means of transporting you."

A Ruse

Miao Shan called the _t'u-ti_ and bade him go and beg all the Immortals
to disguise themselves as pirates and to besiege the mountain, waving
torches, and threatening with swords and spears to kill her. "Then
I will seek refuge on the summit, and thence leap over the precipice
to prove Shan Ts'ai's fidelity and affection."

A minute later a horde of brigands of ferocious aspect rushed up
to the temple of Hsiang Shan. Miao Shan cried for help, rushed
up the steep incline, missed her footing, and rolled down into the
ravine. Shan Ts'ai, seeing her fall into the abyss, without hesitation
flung himself after her in order to rescue her. When he reached her,
he asked: "What have you to fear from the robbers? You have nothing
for them to steal; why throw yourself over the precipice, exposing
yourself to certain death?"

Miao Shan saw that he was weeping, and wept too. "I must comply with
the wish of Heaven," she said.

The Transformation of Shan Ts'ai

Shan Ts'ai, inconsolable, prayed Heaven and earth to save his
protectress. Miao Shan said to him: "You should not have risked
your life by throwing yourself over the precipice, I have not yet
transformed you. But you did a brave thing, and I know that you have
a good heart. Now, look down there." "Oh," said he, "if I mistake
not, that is a corpse." "Yes," she replied, "that is your former
body. Now you are transformed you can rise at will and fly in the
air." Shan Ts'ai bowed low to thank his benefactress, who said to him:
"Henceforth you must say your prayers by my side, and not leave me
for a single day."

'Brother and Sister'

With her spiritual sight Miao Shan perceived at the bottom of the
Southern Sea the third son of Lung Wang, who, in carrying out his
father's orders, was cleaving the waves in the form of a carp. While
doing so, he was caught in a fisherman's net, taken to the market
at Yueeh Chou, and offered for sale. Miao Shan at once sent her
faithful Shan Ts'ai, in the g