Page:Works of Heinrich Heine 06.djvu/13



Do you know China, the native land of the winged dragon and of porcelain tea-pots? All the country is a cabinet of curiosities, surrounded by an inhumanly long wall and one hundred thousand Tartar sentinels. But the birds and thoughts of European scholars fly over it, and when they have seen till they are satisfied, returning home, they tell most charming things of the strange land and its more curious folk. There Nature, with its glaring contrasts and entangled flourishes, eccentric giant flowers, dwarfed trees, voluptuously baroque fruits, and absurdly deco