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139 A CHINESE STUDIO 139

magician beheaded, himself taking charge of the dwarf. He was subsequently very anxious to get him cured, but unable to obtain the proper prescription.^

XXXII. HSIANG-JU'S MISFORTUNES

At Kuang-p'ing there Uved an old man named Feng, who had an only son called Hsiang-ju. Both of them were graduates ; and the father was very particular and strict, though the family had long been poor. Mrs. Feng and Hsiang-ju's wife had died, one shortly after the other, so that the father and son were obhged to 4o their house- hpld work for themselves.

Oiie night Hsiang-ju was sitting out in the moonlight, when suddenly a young lady from next door got on the wall to have a look at him. He saw she was very pretty, and as he approached her she began to laugh. He then beckoned to her with his hand ; but she did not move either to come or to go away. At length, however, she accepted his invitation, and descended the ladder that he had placed for her. In reply to Hsiang-ju's inquiries, the young lady said her name was Himg-yii, and that she lived next door ; so Hsiang-ju, who was much taken with her beauty, begged her to come over frequently and have a chat. To this she readily assented, and continued to do so for several months, until one evening old Mr. Feng, hearing sounds of talking and laughing in his son's room, got up and looked in. Seeing Miss Hung-yti, he was exceedingly angry, and called his son out, saying, " You good-for-notlung fellow I poor as we are, why aren't you at your books, instead of wasting your time like this ? A pretty thing for the neighbours to hear of I — and even if they don't hear of it, somebody else will, and

^ The Cantonese believe the following to be the usual process : — " Young children are bought or stolen at a tender age and placed in a ch'ingy or vase with a narrow neck, and having in this case a movable bottom. In this receptacle the unfortunate little wretches are kept for years in a sitting posture, their heads outside, being all the while carefully tended and fed. . . . When the child has reached the age of twenty or over, he or sh^ is taken away to some distant place and ' discovered ' in the woods as a wild man or voman«" — China Mail, May 15, 1878,