Some Chinese Ghosts by Lafcadio Hearn
page 59 of 81 (72%)
page 59 of 81 (72%)
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and have their angles serrated as the claws of crabs are;
Also the _Ou-ni-yao_, black as the pupil of the eye, and as lustrous; and the _Hou-tien-yao_, darkly yellow as the faces of men of India; and the _Ou-kong-yao_, whose color is the dead-gold of autumn-leaves; Also the _Long-kang-yao_, green as the seedling of a pea, but bearing also paintings of sun-silvered cloud, and of the Dragons of Heaven; Also the _Tching-hoa-yao_,--pictured with the amber bloom of grapes and the verdure of vine-leaves and the blossoming of poppies, or decorated in relief with figures of fighting crickets; Also the _Khang-hi-nien-ts'ang-yao_, celestial azure sown with star-dust of gold; and the _Khien-long-nien-thang-yao_, splendid in sable and silver as a fervid night that is flashed with lightnings. Not indeed the _Long-Ouang-yao_,--painted with the lascivious _Pi-hi_, with the obscene _Nan-niu-ssé-sie_, with the shameful _Tchun-hoa_, or "Pictures of Spring"; abominations created by command of the wicked Emperor Moutsong, though the Spirit of the Furnace hid his face and fled away; But all other vases of startling form and substance, magically articulated, and ornamented with figures in relief, in cameo, in transparency,--the vases with orifices belled like the cups of flowers, or cleft like the bills of birds, or fanged like the jaws of serpents, or pink-lipped as the mouth of a girl; the vases flesh-colored and purple-veined and dimpled, with ears and with earrings; the vases in likeness of mushrooms, of lotos-flowers, of lizards, of horse-footed |
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