ttle one can disengage
a catch or handle the pole."

"It is as the Many-Eyed One sees," replied Ten-teh, with unmoved
determination. "This person has long desired a son, and those who walk
into an earthquake while imploring heaven for a sign are unworthy of
consideration. Take this fish and depart until the morrow. Also,
unless you would have the villagers regard you as not only deficient
but profane, reveal nothing of this happening to those whom you
encounter." With these words Ten-teh dismissed him, not greatly
disturbed at the thought of whatever he might do; for in no case would
any believe a word he spoke, while the greater likelihood tended
towards his forgetting everything before he had reached his home.

As Ten-teh approached his own door his wife came forth to meet him.
"Much gladness!" she cried aloud before she saw his burden; "tempered
only by a regret that you did not abandon your chase at an earlier
hour. Fear not for the present that the wolf-tusk of famine shall gnaw
our repose or that the dreaded wings of the white and scaly one shall
hover about our house-top. Your wealthy cousin, journeying back to the
Capital from the land of the spice forests, has been here in your
absence, leaving you gifts of fur, silk, carved ivory, oil, wine, nuts
and rice and rich foods of many kinds. He would have stayed to embrace
you were it not that his company of bearers awaited him at an arranged
spot and he had already been long delayed."

Then said Ten-teh, well knowing that he had no such desirable
relative, but drawn to secrecy by the unnatural course of events: "The
years pass unperceived and all changes but the heart of man; how
appeared my cousin, and has he greatly altered under the enervating
sun of a barbarian land?"

"He is now a little man, with a loose skin the colour of a
finely-lacquered apricot," replied the woman. "His teeth are large and
jagged, his expression open and sincere, and the sound of his
breathing is like the continuous beating of waves upon a stony beach.
Furthermore, he has ten fingers upon his left hand and a girdle of
rubies about his waist."

"The description is unmistakable," said Ten-teh evasively. "Did he
chance to leave a parting message of any moment?"

"He twice remarked: 'When the sun sets the moon rises, but to-morrow
the drawn will break again,'" replied his wife. "Also, upon leaving he
asked for ink, brushes and a fan, and upon it he inscribed certain
words." She thereu