ing of Hsing Lin, have learned that
there dwells at Hsiang Shan an Immortal whose power and compassion
have no equal in the whole world. I have passed my fiftieth year, and
am afflicted with ulcers that all remedies have failed to cure. To-day
a priest has assured me that at Hsiang Shan I can obtain the hand and
eye of a living person, with which he will prepare an ointment able
to restore me to my usual state of health. Relying upon his word
and upon the goodness of the Immortal to whom he has directed me,
I venture to beg that those two parts of a living body necessary to
heal my ulcers be sent to me. I assure you of my everlasting gratitude,
fully confident that my request will not be refused."

The next morning Miao Shan bade the ministers take a knife and cut
off her left hand and gouge out her left eye. Liu Ch'in took the
knife offered him, but did not dare to obey the order. "Be quick,"
urged the Immortal; "you have been commanded to return as soon as
possible; why do you hesitate as if you were a young girl?" Liu
Ch'in was forced to proceed. He plunged in the knife, and the red
blood flooded the ground, spreading an odour like sweet incense. The
hand and eye were placed on a golden plate, and, having paid their
grateful respects to the Immortal, the envoys hastened to return.

When they had left, Miao Shan, who had transformed herself in order to
allow the envoys to remove her hand and eye, told Shan Ts'ai that she
was now going to prepare the ointment necessary for the cure of the
King. "Should the Queen," she added, "send for another eye and hand,
I will transform myself again, and you can give them to her." No sooner
had she finished speaking than she mounted a cloud and disappeared
in space. The two ministers reached the palace and presented to the
Queen the gruesome remedy which they had brought from the temple. She,
overcome with gratitude and emotion, wept copiously. "What Immortal,"
she asked, "can have been so charitable as to sacrifice a hand and eye
for the King's benefit?" Then suddenly her tears gushed forth with
redoubled vigour, and she uttered a great cry, for she recognized
the hand of her daughter by a black scar which was on it.

Half-measures

"Who else, in fact, but his child," she continued amid her sobs,
"could have had the courage to give her hand to save her father's
life?" "What are you saying?" said the King. "In the world there are
many hands like this." While they thus reasoned