Page:The jade story book; stories from the Orient (IA jadestorybooksto00cous).pdf/367

Rh guide, and who had told the others about the wonderful red and white seeds while Pei-Hang was standing spell-bound by the beauty of the Lake. "If we don't he won't give us back our rivers."

The eight Genii nodded their eight heads, and spoke all at once, and the noise they made was like the rumble of thunder among the mountains. "Let him take it, if he can carry it," they said.

And they laughed until the snow-peaks shook beneath them; for the mortar made of jade was six feet high and four feet wide, and the pestle was so heavy no mortal could lift it.

Pei-Hang, when he had finished staring at the Lake of Gems, walked round it, and wondered how he was to carry it down the mountain and across the plains to Chang-ngan.

Then he sat down on the ground to think the matter over, and the Genii, even his own good-natured Geni, laughed at him again.

"Come!" they said. "If you like to fill the mortar with precious stones, you may do so. Any man who can carry it empty can carry it full."