Littell's Living Age/Volume 173/Issue 2238/Solomon's Judgment in Chinese

Solomon's Judgment in Chinese - Two women came before a mandarin in China, each of them protesting that she was the mother of a little child they had brought with them. They were so eager and so positive that the mandarin was sorely puzzled. He retired to consult with his wife, who was a wise and clever woman, whose opinion was held in great repute in the neighborhood.

She requested five minutes in which to deliberate. At the end of that time she spoke:

“Let the servants catch me a large fish in the river, and let it be brought me here alive.”

This was done.

“Bring me now the infant,” she said, “but leave the women in the outer chamber.”

This was done, too. Then the mandarin’s wife caused the baby to be undressed, and its clothes put on the large fish.

“Carry the creature outside now, and throw it into the river in the sight of the two women.”

The servant obeyed her orders, flinging the fish into the water, where it rolled about and struggled, disgusted, no doubt, by the wrapping in which it was swaddled.

Without a moment’s pause, one of the mothers threw herself into the river with a shriek. She must save her drowning child.

“Without doubt, she is the true mother,” she declared; and the mandarin’s wife commanded that she should be rescued, and the child given to her.

“Without a doubt, she is the true mother,” she declared. And the mandarin nodded his head, and thought his wife the wisest woman in the Flowery Kingdom. Meantime, the false mother crept away. She was found out in her imposture; and the mandarin’s wife forgot all about her in the occupation of donning the little baby in the best silk she could find in her wardrobe.

For other varieties of the same story, see Rhys Davids, “Buddhist Birth Stories’s (vol. i., pp. xiii. and xliv.); “Tibetan Tales,” by Schiefner and Ralston (pp. xliii. 121); Max Muller, “India, what can it teach us?” (p II).