avenge his wrongs by the destruction of
human life.

Before many days had elapsed Sam-Chaong began to realize the perilous
nature of the service he had been called upon to perform. One
afternoon, the travellers were jogging leisurely along in a wild and
unsettled district, when suddenly two fierce-looking hobgoblins swooped
down upon them, and almost before a word could be said had swallowed up
both his poor followers. They were proceeding to do the same with
Sam-Chaong when a fairy appeared upon the scene, and sent them flying
with screams of terror to the caverns in the neighbouring hills where
their homes seemed to be.

For a moment or two, Sam-Chaong was in extreme distress. He had just
escaped an imminent peril; he was absolutely alone in an apparently
uninhabited region; and the shadows of night were already darkening
everything around. He was wondering where he would spend the night,
when a man appeared upon the scene and invited him to come home with
him to a mountain village on the spur of the hills which rose abruptly
some distance away in front of them.

Although an entire stranger, who had never even heard Sam-Chaong's
name, this man treated his guest right royally and gave him the very
best that his house contained. Deeply impressed with the generous
treatment he had received, Sam-Chaong determined that he would repay
his host's generosity by performing an act which would be highly
gratifying both to him and to all the members of his household.

Arranging a temporary altar in front of the image of the household god,
who happened to be the Goddess of Mercy, he chanted the service for the
dead before it with such acceptance that the spirit of the father of
his host, who had been confined in the Land of Shadows, was released
from that sunless land and was allowed to be reborn and take his place
amongst the living. Moreover, that very night, the father appeared
before his son in a vision, and told him that in consequence of the
intercession of Sam-Chaong, whose reputation for piety was widely known
in the dominions of Yam-lo, he had been allowed to leave that dismal
country and had just been born into a family in the province of Shensi.

The son was rejoiced beyond measure at this wonderful news, and in
order to show his gratitude for this generous action, he volunteered to
accompany Sam-Chaong right to the very frontiers of China and to share
with him any dangers and hardships he might have to endu