ul of thy Vase!_"

And hearing these words Pu arose with a terrible resolve swelling at his
heart, and made ready for the last and fiftieth time to fashion his work
for the oven.

One hundred times did he sift the clay and the quartz, the _kao-ling_
and the _tun_; one hundred times did he purify them in clearest water;
one hundred times with tireless hands did he knead the creamy paste,
mingling it at last with colors known only to himself. Then was the vase
shapen and reshapen, and touched and retouched by the hands of Pu, until
its blandness seemed to live, until it appeared to quiver and to
palpitate, as with vitality from within, as with the quiver of rounded
muscle undulating beneath the integument. For the hues of life were upon
it and infiltrated throughout its innermost substance, imitating the
carnation of blood-bright tissue, and the reticulated purple of the
veins; and over all was laid the envelope of sun-colored _Pe-kia-ho_,
the lucid and glossy enamel, half diaphanous, even like the substance
that it counterfeited,--the polished skin of a woman. Never since the
making of the world had any work comparable to this been wrought by the
skill of man.

Then Pu bade those who aided him that they should feed the furnace well
with wood of _tcha_; but he told his resolve unto none. Yet after the
oven began to glow, and he saw the work of his hands blossoming and
blushing in the heat, he bowed himself before the Spirit of Flame, and
murmured: "O thou Spirit and Master of Fire, I know the truth of thy
words! I know that a Soul may never be divided! Therefore my life for
the life of my work!--my soul for the soul of my Vase!"

And for nine days and for eight nights the furnaces were fed unceasingly
with wood of _tcha_; for nine days and for eight nights men watched the
wondrous vase crystallizing into being, rose-lighted by the breath of
the flame. Now upon the coming of the ninth night, Pu bade all his weary
comrades retire to, rest, for that the work was well-nigh done, and the
success assured. "If you find me not here at sunrise," he said, "fear
not to take forth the vase; for I know that the task will have been
accomplished according to the command of the August." So they departed.

But in that same ninth night Pu entered the flame, and yielded up his
ghost in the embrace of the Spirit of the Furnace, giving his life for
the life of his work,--his soul for the soul of his Vase.

And when the workmen came up