Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan.pdf/129

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In one day Tu Tzuchun became the richest man in the capital. He had done what the old man had told him, and had dug in the place where the sun had cast the shadow of his head the evening before. There he had found such a quantity of goldt hatgold that [sic] no waggon could be found large enough to carry it.

Tu Tzuchun, now a rich man, at once bought a magnificent mansion, and began to lead an even more luxurious life than the fabled king Genso. He drank the rich wine of Lanling, ate the longan of Kueichou, decorated his rooms with the peony that changes its colour four times a day, and rode in a carriage made from incense-wood, upon a seat of the purest ivory, and … if we were to describe his luxuries one by one, our story would never come to an end.

Hearing all this, his friends, who had never even nodded their heads when they had met him in the street, began to frequent his house day and night, and the number of his acquaintances increased day by day. At the end of six months there was no beautiful woman or accomplished gentleman in all the capital who did not visit him frequently as his guest. Tu Tzuchun gave great banquets every day, and how indescribably gay these banquets were! I will describe to you what happened at such feasts. Tu Tzuchun would drink from a golden goblet filled with costly European wine, while he watched the clever tricks of some HindoHindoo [sic] juggler who swallowed a naked sword