Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/128



entertainment. The King received him graciously, and asked wherein lay his special proficiency. "Your servant," replied the conjuror, "will endeavour to execute whatever commands your Majesty may be pleased to lay upon me; but I have in readiness a certain piece of mechanism of my own, which I beg your Majesty to inspect first." "Bring it with you another day," said the King, "and then we will look at it together."

Next day the conjuror again sought an audience of the King, and was accordingly ushered into his presence. "But who is this person you have brought with you?" asked the King. "This is my handiwork," replied the conjuror, "and he can sing and act." The King, astonished at this statement, bent his gaze upon the figure as it stepped backwards and forwards, cast its eyes up and down, for all the world like a real man. The extraordinary creature, moving its jaws, then sang a tune, and, raising its hands, danced in time to it, throwing its body into a thousand diverting contortions in a most appropriate manner, so that the King was convinced that it was really a living person. Then he sent for the ladies of his harem to see it with him, when, towards the end of the performance, the actor winked at the Royal concubines, making signs to them with its hands. The King flew into a great rage, and, springing to his feet, made as though he would kill the conjuror on the spot; whereupon the conjuror, in a panic of terror, seized the actor, and then and there took him to pieces! He showed the King that it was simply an arrangement or combination of carved wood, glue, and varnish, painted white, black, scarlet, and blue; and the King, examining it himself, found that inside it contained liver, gall, heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, bowels, and stomach all complete, while the framework consisted of sinews, bones, limbs, joints, skin, teeth, and hair—every one of them an imitation of the real thing. Nothing was wanting; and when the whole contrivance was put together again it looked exactly the same as before. Then the King, to test it, removed the heart, whereupon its mouth could not speak. He removed the liver, and it could no longer see. He removed the spleen, and its foot refused to walk.