e distance of one hundred _li_, like a
pealing of summer thunder; and yet also like some vast voice uttering a
name, a woman's name,--the name of Ko-Ngai!

* * * * *

And still, between each mighty stroke there is a long low moaning heard;
and ever the moaning ends with a sound of sobbing and of complaining, as
though a weeping woman should murmur, "_Hiai!_" And still, when the
people hear that great golden moan they keep silence; but when the
sharp, sweet shuddering comes in the air, and the sobbing of "_Hiai!_"
then, indeed, all the Chinese mothers in all the many-colored ways of
Pe-king whisper to their little ones: "_Listen! that is Ko-Ngai crying
for her shoe! That is Ko-Ngai calling for her shoe!_"

[Illustration: Chinese calligraphy]

The Story of Ming-Y

THE ANCIENT WORDS OF KOUEI--MASTER OF MUSICIANS IN THE COURTS
OF THE EMPEROR YAO:--

_When ye make to resound the stone melodious, the Ming-Khieou,--
When ye touch the lyre that is called Kin, or the guitar that is
called Sse,--
Accompanying their sound with song,--
Then do the grandfather and the father return;
Then do the ghosts of the ancestors come to hear._

THE STORY OF MING-Y

_Sang the Poet Tching-Kou: "Surely the Peach-Flowers blossom over
the tomb of Sie-Thao."_

Do you ask me who she was,--the beautiful Sie-Thao? For a thousand years
and more the trees have been whispering above her bed of stone. And the
syllables of her name come to the listener with the lisping of the
leaves; with the quivering of many-fingered boughs; with the fluttering
of lights and shadows; with the breath, sweet as a woman's presence, of
numberless savage flowers,--_Sie-Thao_. But, saving the whispering of
her name, what the trees say cannot be understood; and they alone
remember the years of Sie-Thao. Something about her you might,
nevertheless, learn from any of those _Kiang-kou-jin_,--those famous
Chinese story-tellers, who nightly narrate to listening crowds, in
consideration of a few _tsien_, the legends of the past. Something
concerning her you may also find in the book entitled "Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan,"
which signifies in our tongue: "The Marvellous Happenings of Ancient and
of Recent Times." And perhaps of all things therein written, the most
marvellous is this memory of Sie-Thao:--

Five hundred years ago, in the reign of the Emperor Houng-Wou, whose
dynasty was _Min