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Some Chinese Ghosts by Lafcadio Hearn
page 60 of 81 (74%)
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 aƫrial 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
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