Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/148

RV 143 (LADY T'AI CHÊN)

Lady T'ai Chên bathed luxuriously in the fabulous bathing establishment of His Majesty. It consisted of ten rooms, rooms for leisure, festivities, dancing and more intimate pursuits. The pool itself was so large that it was able to accommodate a small boat built of silver and steel, lacquered and set with pearls and jade. Within the boat were embroidered cushions, silken coverlets, and numerous bamboo cricket cages. His Majesty loved the chirping melodies of the little prisoners.

"A cricket's music," he often said, "is a love song, a mating call, nor does he hesitate because with one supreme embrace, his sexual life is done. To his dying day he goes on chirping, vainly, as though believing that his brave music will make him potent once more."

Ming Huang was well aware that the chirping sound of crickets was not a voice at all, but the friction of their wings. But it pleased him to exaggerate. At least, it was true that the chirping was a sexual characteristic. At the Imperial Palace only the females of one species—the black tree cricket—were kept. As soon as the females of all other species were old enough for the sex to be determined they were fed to the geese and the cormorants.

Ming Huang loved his insect musicians more than any other of his animals, with the possible exception of bold Fêng, the cat, who when the opportunity presented RV 143 (143)