SHRIEKING YA-HIEN;
PREVAILED ON THEM TO SING ME A SONG OF THEIR
NATIVE LAND,--
THE SONG OF MOHLÍ-HWA,
THE SONG OF THE JASMINE-FLOWER

[Illustration: Line drawing of a man's head]

* * * * *




_PREFACE_


I think that my best apology for the insignificant size of this volume
is the very character of the material composing it. In preparing the
legends I sought especially for _weird beauty_; and I could not forget
this striking observation in Sir Walter Scott's "Essay on Imitations of
the Ancient Ballad": "The supernatural, though appealing to certain
powerful emotions very widely and deeply sown amongst the human race,
is, nevertheless, a _spring which is peculiarly apt to lose its
elasticity by being too much pressed upon_."

Those desirous to familiarize themselves with Chinese literature as a
whole have had the way made smooth for them by the labors of linguists
like Julien, Pavie, Rémusat, De Rosny, Schlegel, Legge,
Hervey-Saint-Denys, Williams, Biot, Giles, Wylie, Beal, and many other
Sinologists. To such great explorers, indeed, the realm of Cathayan