Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/114



of the lower animals, together with a full understanding of their differentiations and of the sounds they uttered; so that when they called them together they assembled, and when they taught them they received the instruction that was imparted, exactly like human beings. . . . The conclusion of all which is, that the mental powers of all things that have blood and breath are very much the same in all instances.

King Mu and the Magician.

In the reign of Mu, King of Chao, there came from a far Western country a certain magician gifted with the most extraordinary powers. He was able to enter fire and water, pass through stone and metal, remove mountains and rivers, change the position of cities, ride through space without falling, and encounter solid substances without his progress being impeded. The changes and transformations he effected were innumerable and endless; indeed, not only could he alter the external shape of objects, but was actually able to turn the current of other people's thoughts. King Mu received him with the reverence due to a divinity, and served him as though he were a prince; he also prepared a pavilion for him to take his rest in, brought fish, flesh, and fowl to present to him, and told off certain music-girls to play before him for his delectation. The magician, however, looked upon the King's palace as a wretched and sordid hut, and declined to stay in it. The royal banquet, he said, was disgusting, and refused to touch it; while, as for the court ladies who attended him, he condemned them as both ugly and offensive, and would have nothing whatever to do with them!

Thereupon the King caused a new mansion to be built, and set the people at work to paint the walls red and white with the utmost carefulness and skill. All his treasuries were empty by the time the tower was finished, the height of it being ten thousand feet; and he called it the Tower of the Central Heavens. Then he chose the fairest virgins from the States of Chêng and Wei, bright-eyed, beautiful, and alluring; and to them he presented rich perfumes and fragrant