Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/116



whereupon the magician gave him a gentle push;—he experienced a sensation of falling, falling, falling, and then suddenly awoke. He was sitting just where he had been before, with his attendants still around him; in front of him was his wine, not yet cooled, and his viands were not yet ready. The King asked what had happened. His courtiers replied, "Your Majesty has been sitting wrapped in silent contemplation."

Thereupon the King fell into a state of abstraction and self-oblivion, which lasted for three months, at the expiration of which he again interrogated the magician about what had occurred. The magician replied, "Your Majesty and I only journeyed in the spirit; how could our bodies have moved? What difference is there between the abodes we lately visited and your Majesty's own palace?—between the places through which we roamed and your Majesty's own grounds? During your Majesty's retirement you have been constantly filled with misgivings that these places were, for the time being, nonexistent. Do you think that in so short a time you are able to fathom all the depths of my enchantments?"

The King was greatly pleased at this reply. He lost all interest in the affairs of State, took no more pleasure in his harem, and gave free rein to his imagination. Then he commanded that the six noble steeds, Beauty, Jasper, Bucephalus, Alabaster, Topaz, and Swift-flyer, should be harnessed to his chariot, and off he set with his charioteers and retainers, the horses flying like the wind. They galloped furiously a thousand li, when they came to the land of the Mighty Hunter. The Hunter presented the King with the blood of a wild goose to drink, and prepared a bath of the milk of cows and mares for the royal feet. When all were refreshed they started again, and passed the night in a cavern of the Kwên-lun Mountains, to the south of the Vermilion Waters. The next day they ascended the mountain to visit the Palace of the Yellow Emperor, who invested the King with hereditary honours; after which His Majesty was entertained by the Royal Mother of the West, who spread a banquet for him by the side of the Emerald Pool. Then the Queen sang to him, and the King joined his voice with hers. The King's song was of a plaintive character,