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