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upon him posthumous decapitation, so that he walks for ever disgraced among the shades. Poetics While two ladies of the Imperial harem held before him a screen of pink silk, and a P'in Concubine knelt with his ink-slab, Li Po, who was very drunk, wrote an impassioned poem to the moon. A Lament of Scarlet Cloud O golden night, lit by the flame of seven stars, the years have drunk you too. The Son of Heaven Like this frail and melancholy rain is the memory of the Emperor Kuang-Hsue, and of his sufferings at the hand of Yehonala. Yet under heaven was there found no one to avenge him. Now he has mounted the Dragon and has visited the Nine Springs. His betrayer sits upon the Dragon Throne. Yet among the shades may he not take comfort from the presence of his Pearl Concubine? The Dream When he had tasted in a dream of the Ten Courts of Purgatory, Doctor Tseng was humbled in spirit, and passed his life in piety among the foot-hills. Feng-Shui At the Hour of the Horse avoid raising a roof-tree, for by the trampling of his hoofs it may be beaten down; And at the Hour of the cunning Rat go not near a soothsayer, for by his cunning he may mislead the oracle, and the hopes of the enquirer come to naught. China of the Tourists Reflections in a Ricksha This ricksha is more comfortable than some. The springs are not broken, and the seat is covered with a white cloth. Also the runner is young and sturdy, and his legs flash pleasantly. I am not ill at ease. The runner interests me. Between the shafts he trots easily and familiarly, lifting his knees prettily and holding his shoulders steady. His hips are lean and narrow as a filly's; his calves might have posed for Praxiteles. He is a modern, I perceive, for he wears no queue. Above a rounded neck rises a shock of hair the shade of dusty coal. Each hair is stiff and erect as a brush bristle. There are lice in them no doubt-- but then perhaps we of the West are too squeamish in details of this minor sort. What interests me chiefly is the back of his ears. Not that they are extraordinary as ears; it is their very normality that touches me. I find them smaller than those of a horse, but undoubtedly near of kin. There is no denying the truth of evolution; Yet as a beast of burden man is distinc
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