Page:Chinese Fables and Folk Stories.djvu/169

Rh " ' "If you will make a new agreement," said Confucius, "and promise that you will never be the first to go to war, I will give you this fan that you so desire."

" 'The young king made the agreement. And the fan was given him by Confucius. And the king said to himself, "This fan is more than many kingdoms to me. In all the world of man, there is nothing else so beautiful. My heart has desired above all things this wonderful fan of the San-Chi feathers and the rare carving." ' "

When the Kwung-Lun Mountain had told this story to the Tai-San Mountain, he said, "Although I have the San-Chi birds, the most beautiful of all creation, yet it is to me a strange thing that a thousand and a thousand people bow their heads and worship you, while I stand here and am hardly noticed.

"You give no great thing to the people. You have no beauty. You are not tall and grand. Your head is not higher than the clouds. You can not see the dark and secret caves of the thunder, and the hidden places of the beginning of the storm. You never gave feathers, more beautiful even than flowers, to a king. Why do the people worship you instead of me? The hunter