ht dragon, his scales being arranged in rows of nine each way,
a pearl showing within his throat, and upon his head the wooden bar. The
lights were extinguished incapably by the rain which fell continually in
his presence, but from his body there proceeded a luminous breath which
sufficiently revealed the various incidents.

"Kong Ho," said this opportune vision, speaking with a voice like the
beating of a brass gong, "the course you have adopted is an unusual one,
but the weight and regularity of your offerings have merit in my eyes.
Nevertheless, if your invocation is only the outcome of a shallow vanity
or a profane love of display, nothing can save you from a painful death.
Speak now, fully and without evasion, and fear nothing."

"Amiable Being," said this person, kow-towing profoundly, "the matter
was designed to the end only that your incomparable versatility might
be fittingly displayed. These barbarians sought vainly to raise phantoms
capable of any useful purpose, whereupon I, jealous of your superior
omnipotence, judged it would be an unseemly neglect not to inform you of
the opportunity."

"It is well," said the demon affably. "All doubt in the matter shall
now be set at rest. Could any more convincing act be found than that
I should breath upon these barbarians and reduce them instantly to a
scattering of thin white ashes?"

"Assuredly it would be a conclusive testimony," I replied; "yet in
that case consider how inadequate a witness could be borne to your
enlightened condescension, when none would be left but one to whom the
spoken language of this Island is more in the nature of a trap than a
comfortable vehicle."

"Your reasoning is profound, Kong Ho," he replied, "yet abundant
proof shall not be wanting." With these words he raised his hand, and
immediately the air became filled with an overwhelming shower of
those productions with which Kwan Kiang-ti's name is chiefly
associated--shells and pebbles of all kinds, lotus and other roots from
the river banks, weeds from seas of greater depths, fish of interminable
variety from both fresh and bitter waters, all falling in really
embarrassing abundance, and mingled with an incessant rain of sand and
water. In the midst of this the demon suddenly passed away, striking the
table as he went, so that it was scarred with the brand of a five-clawed
hand, shattering all the objects upon it (excepting the stone and
the books, which he doubtless regarded as sacr