Page:The Chinese Boy and Girl.djvu/178

 in China. He did not want to obey the chief ruler, and invented for himself warlike weapons, thinking that in this way he might overthrow the government and place himself upon the throne.

"He had eighty-one brothers, of whom he was the leader. They had human speech, but bodies of beasts, foreheads of iron, and fed upon the dust of the earth.

"When the time for the battle came, he called upon the Chief of the Wind and the Master of the Rain to assist him, and there arose a great tempest. But the Chief sent the Daughter of Heaven to quell the storm, and then seized and slew the rebel. His spirit ascended to the Fire-Star (Mars)—the embodiment of which he was while upon earth,—where it resides and influences the conduct of warfare even to the present time."

"Tell me the story of the man who went to the mountain to gather fire-wood and did not come home for such a long time."

The old nurse began a story which as it progressed reminded me of

"A long time ago there lived a man named Wang Chih, which in our language means 'the stuff of which kings are made.' In spite of his name, however, he was only a common husbandman, spending his summers in plowing, planting and harvesting, and his winters in gathering fertilizers upon the highways, and fire-wood in the mountains.

"On one occasion he wandered into the mountains of 174