of lizards, of horse-footed
dragons woman-faced; the vases strangely translucid, that simulate the
white glimmering of grains of prepared rice, that counterfeit the vapory
lace-work of frost, that imitate the efflorescences of coral;--

Also the statues in porcelain of divinities: the Genius of the Hearth;
the Long-pinn who are the Twelve Deities of Ink; the blessed Lao-tseu,
born with silver hair; Kong-fu-tse, grasping the scroll of written
wisdom; Kouan-in, sweetest Goddess of Mercy, standing snowy-footed upon
the heart of her golden lily; Chi-nong, the god who taught men how to
cook; Fo, with long eyes closed in meditation, and lips smiling the
mysterious smile of Supreme Beatitude; Cheou-lao, god of Longevity,
bestriding his aerial steed, the white-winged stork; Pou-t'ai, Lord of
Contentment and of Wealth, obese and dreamy; and that fairest Goddess of
Talent, from whose beneficent hands eternally streams the iridescent
rain of pearls.

* * * * *

And though many a secret of that matchless art that Pu bequeathed unto
men may indeed have been forgotten and lost forever, the story of the
Porcelain-God is remembered; and I doubt not that any of the aged
_Jeou-yen-liao-kong_, any one of the old blind men of the great
potteries, who sit all day grinding colors in the sun, could tell you Pu
was once a humble Chinese workman, who grew to be a great artist by dint
of tireless study and patience and by the inspiration of Heaven. So
famed he became that some deemed him an alchemist, who possessed the
secret called _White-and-Yellow_, by which stones might be turned into
gold; and others thought him a magician, having the ghastly power of
murdering men with horror of nightmare, by hiding charmed effigies of
them under the tiles of their own roofs; and others, again, averred that
he was an astrologer who had discovered the mystery of those Five Hing
which influence all things,--those Powers that move even in the currents
of the star-drift, in the milky _Tien-ho_, or River of the Sky. Thus, at
least, the ignorant spoke of him; but even those who stood about the Son
of Heaven, those whose hearts had been strengthened by the acquisition
of wisdom, wildly praised the marvels of his handicraft, and asked each
other if there might be any imaginable form of beauty which Pu could not
evoke from that beauteous substance so docile to the touch of his
cunning hand.

And one day it came to pass that Pu se