aspect of the Silver Stream (which we call the Milky Way), and examined
the signs of the Zodiac,--the _Hwang-tao_, or Yellow Road,--and
consulted the table of the Five _Hin_, or Principles of the Universe,
and the mystical books of the alchemists. And after a long silence, he
made answer to her, saying: "Gold and brass will never meet in wedlock,
silver and iron never will embrace, until the flesh of a maiden be
melted in the crucible; until the blood of a virgin be mixed with the
metals in their fusion." So Ko-Ngai returned home sorrowful at heart;
but she kept secret all that she had heard, and told no one what she had
done.

* * * * *

At last came the awful day when the third and last effort to cast the
great bell was to be made; and Ko-Ngai, together with her waiting-woman,
accompanied her father to the foundry, and they took their places upon a
platform overlooking the toiling of the moulders and the lava of
liquefied metal. All the workmen wrought their tasks in silence; there
was no sound heard but the muttering of the fires. And the muttering
deepened into a roar like the roar of typhoons approaching, and the
blood-red lake of metal slowly brightened like the vermilion of a
sunrise, and the vermilion was transmuted into a radiant glow of gold,
and the gold whitened blindingly, like the silver face of a full moon.
Then the workers ceased to feed the raving flame, and all fixed their
eyes upon the eyes of Kouan-Yu; and Kouan-Yu prepared to give the signal
to cast.

But ere ever he lifted his finger, a cry caused him to turn his head;
and all heard the voice of Ko-Ngai sounding sharply sweet as a bird's
song above the great thunder of the fires,--"_For thy sake, O my