Some Chinese Ghosts — Preface

_THE MUSICIAN_

WHO, SPEAKING THE SPEECH OF MELODY UNTO THE

CHILDREN OF TIEN-HIA,--

UNTO THE WANDERING TSING-JIN, WHOSE SKINS

HAVE THE COLOR OF GOLD,--

MOVED THEM TO MAKE STRANGE SOUNDS UPON THE

SERPENT-BELLIED SAN-HIEN;

PERSUADED THEM TO PLAY FOR ME UPON THE

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 story belongs by right of discovery and conquest; yet the humbler traveller who follows wonderingly after them into the vast and mysterious pleasure-grounds of Chinese fancy may surely be permitted to cull a few of the marvellous flowers there growing,--a self-luminous _hwa-wang_, a black lily, a phosphoric rose or two,--as souvenirs of his curious voyage.

L. H.

NEW ORLEANS, March 15, 1886. _CONTENTS_

THE SOUL OF THE GREAT BELL

THE STORY OF MING-Y

THE LEGEND OF TCHI-NIU

THE RETURN OF YEN-TCHIN-KING

THE TRADITION OF THE TEA-PLANT

THE TALE OF THE PORCELAIN-GOD

* * * * * NOTES

GLOSSARY

[Illustration: Decorative motif]