metal monster,--the vast lips inscribed with Buddhist texts from the
sacred _Fa-hwa-King_, from the chapters of the holy _Ling-yen-King_!
Hear the great bell responding!--how mighty her voice, though
tongueless!--_KO-NGAI!_ All the little dragons on the high-tilted
eaves of the green roofs shiver to the tips of their gilded tails
under that deep wave of sound; all the porcelain gargoyles tremble on
their carven perches; all the hundred little bells of the pagodas
quiver with desire to speak. _KO-NGAI!_--all the green-and-gold tiles
of the temple are vibrating; the wooden goldfish above them are
writhing against the sky; the uplifted finger of Fo shakes high over
the heads of the worshippers through the blue fog of incense!
_KO-NGAI!_--What a thunder tone was that! All the lacquered goblins on
the palace cornices wriggle their fire-colored tongues! And after each
huge shock, how wondrous the multiple echo and the great golden moan
and, at last, the sudden sibilant sobbing in the ears when the immense
tone faints away in broken whispers of silver,--as though a woman
should whisper, "_Hiai!_" Even so the great bell hath sounded every
day for well-nigh five hundred years,--_Ko-Ngai_: first with
stupendous clang, then with immeasurable moan of gold, then with
silver murmuring of "_Hiai!_" And there is not a child in all the
many-colored ways of the old Chinese city who does not know the story
of the great bell,--who cannot tell you why the great bell says
_Ko-Ngai_ and _Hiai_!

* * * * *

Now, this is the story of the great bell in the Ta-chung sz', as the
same is related in the _Pe-Hiao-Tou-Choue_, written by the learned
Yu-Pao-Tchen, of the City of Kwang-tchau-fu.