ight_, to end in the misery of _exile_ without her, the
_return_ when the emperor passes again by the fatal spot, _home_ where
everything reminds him of her, and finally _spirit-land_. This last is a
figment of the poet's imagination. He pictures the disconsolate emperor
sending a magician to discover Yang Kuei-fei's whereabouts in the next
world, and to bear to her a message of uninterrupted love. The magician,
after a long search, finds her in one of the Isles of the Blest, and
fulfils his commission accordingly.

Her features are fixed and calm, though myriad tears fall,
Wetting a spray of pear-bloom, as it were with the raindrops of
spring.
Subduing her emotions, restraining her grief, she tenders thanks
to His Majesty.
Saying how since their parting she had missed his form and voice;
And how, although their love on earth had so soon come to an end,
The days and months among the Blest were still of long duration.
And now she turns and gazes towards the above of mortals,
But cannot discern the Imperial city, lost in the dust and haze.
Then she takes out the old keepsake, tokens of undying love,
A gold hairpin, an enamel brooch, and bids the magician carry
these back.
One half of the hairpin she keeps, and one half of the enamel
brooch,
Breaking with her hands the yellow gold, and dividing the enamel
in two.
"Tell him," she said, "to be firm of heart, as this gold and
enamel,
And then in heaven or on earth below we two may meet once more."

The magnificent House of T'ang was succeeded by five insignificant
dynasties, the duration of all of which was crowded into about half
a century. Then, in A.D. 960, began the rule of the Sungs (pronounced
_Soongs_), to last for three hundred years and rival in national peace
and prosperity any other period in the history of China. The nation
had already in a great measure settled down to that state of material
civilization and mental culture in which it has remained to the present
time. To the appliances of ordinary Chinese life it is probable that but
few additions have been made since a very early date. The dress of the
people has indeed undergone several variations, but the ploughs and
hoes, the water-wheels and well-sweeps, the tools of the artisans, mud
huts, carts, junks, chairs, tables, chopsticks, etc., which we still
see in China, are probably very much those of two tho