of beauty.

Now there was a certain mandarin, whose daughter had long been extolled
through the province of Kartou, as a miracle of beauty, and her father,
Whanghang, brought her in a litter to the minister Suchong Pollyhong
Ka-te-tow. He felt that her charms were piercing as an arrow, and that
he had found a fit mate for the brother of the sun and moon; but his
avarice demanded a sum which the father would not pay. Refuse to send
her portrait he dare not; it was therefore ordered to be taken, as well
as the others, and Whanghang considered himself as the father-in-law of
the celestial Youantee. The young painter who was employed finished his
task, then laid down his pencil, and died with grief and love of such
perfection, which he never could hope to obtain. The picture was sent to
the vile minister, who reserved it for himself, and wrote the name of
this pearl beyond price, under that of another, unworthy to unloose her
zone as her handmaiden. The committee of taste did, however, select that
picture among the hundred to be placed in the Hall of Delight, not
because the picture was beautiful, but because the fame of her beauty
had reached the court, and they thought it right that the emperor should
see the picture. The virgins whose pictures were thus selected, were all
ordered to repair to the imperial palace, and the magnificent Youantee
entered the Hall of Delight, which was illumined with ten thousand
lanthorns, and cast his eyes over the portraits of the hundred
beauties, but not one feature touched his heart, he turned away in
disgust at the degenerate countenances of the age, "Is this all,"
exclaimed he, "that the world can lay at the feet of its lord?" And the
committee of taste prostrated themselves when they beheld his
indignation. "And this," exclaimed he, pointing to the supposed portrait
of the daughter of Whanghang, "who is this presumptuous one who hath
dared to disgrace with her features the Hall of Delight?"

"That, O emperor," said the wily Suchong Pollyhong Ka-te-tow, "is the
far-famed beauty _Chaoukeun_, whose insolent father dared to say, that
if it was not sent, he would lay his complaint at the celestial feet. In
her province the fame of her beauty was great, and I did not like to be
accused of partiality, so it has been placed before the imperial eye."

"First, then," exclaimed the emperor, "let it be proclaimed that the
whole province of Kartou is peopled by fools, and levy upon it a fine of