love as a brother! I beg of you, little sister, to cure him of his
illness!"

The maiden blushed with confusion; then she stepped up to the
sick-bed. While she was feeling his pulse, it seemed to him as though
she brought the fragrance of orchards with her.

Said the maiden with a smile: "No wonder that this illness has
befallen him. His heart beats far too stormily. His illness is serious
but not incurable. Now the blood which has flowed has already
gathered, so we will have to cut to cure."

With that she took her golden armlet from her arm and laid it on the
aching place. She pressed it down very gently, and the swelling rose a
full inch above the armlet so that it enclosed the entire swelling.
Then she loosed a pen-knife with a blade as thin as paper from her
silken girdle. With one hand she held the armlet, and with the other
she took the knife and lightly passed it around the bottom of the
ring. Black blood gushed forth and ran over mattress and bed. But
young Kung was so enchanted by the presence of the beautiful Giauna
that not only did he feel no pain, but his one fear was that the whole
affair might end too soon, and that she would disappear from his
sight. In a moment the diseased flesh had been cut away, and Giauna
had fresh water brought and cleansed the wound. Then she took a small
red pellet from her mouth, and laid it on the wound, and when she
turned around in a circle, it seemed to Kung as though she drew out
all the inflammation in steam and flames. Once more she turned in a
circle, and he felt his wound itch and quiver, and when she turned for
the third time, he was completely cured.

The maiden took the pellet into her mouth again and said: "Now all is
well!" Then she hastened into the inner room. Young Kung leaped up in
order to thank her.

True, he was now cured of his illness, but his thoughts continued to
dwell on Giauna's pretty face. He neglected his books and sat lost in
day-dreams.

His friend had noticed it and said to him: "I have at last succeeded,
this very day, in finding an attractive life companion for you."

Kung asked who she might be.

"The daughter of my aunt, A-Sung. She is seventeen years of age, and
anything but homely."

"I am sure she is not as beautiful as Giauna," thought Kung. Then he
hummed the lines of a song to himself:

"Who once has seen the sea close by,
All rivers shallow streams declares;
Who o'er Wu's hill the clouds watched fly,