the Ch'eng-huang P'u-sa told
him that the pin would be found under the floor of his aunt's house.

He hastened back, and informed his relatives, who took up the boards
in the place indicated, and lo! there lay the long-lost pin! The
women of the house then remembered that the pin had been used in
pasting together the various layers of the soles of shoes, and, when
night came, had been carelessly left on the table. No doubt rats,
attracted by the smell of the paste which clung to it, had carried
it off to their domains under the floor.

The young mandarin joyfully returned to the temple, and offered
sacrifices by way of thanksgiving to the Ch'eng-huang P'u-sa for
bringing his innocence to light, but he could not refrain from
addressing to him what one is disposed to consider a well-merited
reproach.

"You made me fall down," he said, "and so led people to think I was
guilty, and now you accept my gifts. Aren't you ashamed to do such
a thing? _You have no face!_"

As he uttered the words all the plaster fell from the face of the idol,
and was smashed into fragments.

From that day forward the Ch'eng-huang P'u-sa of Yen Ch'eng has had
no skin on his face. People have tried to patch up the disfigured
countenance, but in vain: the plaster always falls off, and the face
remains skinless.

Some try to defend the Ch'eng-huang P'u-sa by saying that he was not
at home on the day when his temple was visited by the accused boy and
his relatives, and that one of the little demons employed by him in
carrying off dead people's spirits out of sheer mischief perpetrated
a practical joke on the poor boy.

In that case it is certainly hard that his skin should so persistently
testify against him by refusing to remain on his face!

The Origin of a Lake

In the city of Ta-yeh Hsien, Hupei, there is a large sheet of water
known as the Liang-ti Lake. The people of the district give the
following account of its origin:

About five hundred years ago, during the Ming dynasty, there was no
lake where the broad waters now spread. A flourishing _hsien_ city
stood in the centre of a populous country. The city was noted for its
wickedness, but amid the wicked population dwelt one righteous woman,
a strict vegetarian and a follower of all good works. In a vision of
the night it was revealed to her that the city and neighbourhood would
be destroyed by water, and the sign promised was that when the stone
lions in front of the _yamen_ we