universal
happiness and delight.

Then came fifty thousand archers of the blue dragon battalion, carrying
in their hands chowries of horses' tails to clear away the blue-bottle
flies.

Next appeared ten thousand virgins, all modest, lovely, and in light
drapery, singing hymns in praise of Ganesa on the Rat, the god of pure
Love.

Attended by ten thousand youths, who tickled the said ten thousand
virgins, singing hymns in praise of the upright Fo.

Fifty thousand archers of the green dragon battalion, each carrying a
long peacock's feather in his right band, to ascertain how the wind
blew.

Five hundred physicians attending the celestial court, each carrying a
silver box with golden pills.

The head physician to the celestial wits, and always in attendance upon
a crisis. He carried in his right-hand a bladder-full of peas at the
end of a wand, to recall his majesty's wits when they wandered; and was
followed by...

Fifty thousand fools marching five abreast in union.

And fifty thousand rogues, marching off with every thing they could lay
their hands upon.

Then came a notorious faquir and mendicant, who was leader of a
celebrated sect. He wore but one tail instead of the two usually worn
by our nation, but that tail was of forty feet. He was followed by
numerous devotees, who threw their worldly goods at his feet, and in
return he presented them with writings and harangues, which he declared
were infallible _in all diseases_.

Ten thousand young married women, each hushing an infant to repose upon
the left breast to the sound of clarions and trumpets, emblematical of
the peaceful and quiet state of matrimony.

The banner of impudence.

Five thousand political mountebanks, contradicting each other, and
exerting themselves for the amusement of the people, who, however,
suffered rather severely from their mad tricks.

The second in command, explaining their system in an unknown tongue.

The emperor's juggler, who astonished the whole empire by his
extraordinary feats, and the rapidity with which he relieved them of all
the money in their pockets.

The banner of Love.

The celestial secretary, with goose wings on his shoulders, goose-quills
in each hand, looking very much like a goose, mounted on a mule, gaily
caparisoned in colours quadripartite, and covered with jingling brass
bells.

Five thousand old women, singing the praises of the said secretary and
taking snuff to the flourish of hautboy