A beautiful girl dressed green smiled at the scholar’s question. “I am Salix.” She waved at a girl dressed in white. “That is Miss Prunophora and the one who is wearing the rose gown is Persica. The one in the dark red gown is Punica.” Salix smiled at the scholar and thanked him again. “We were on the way to see our eighteen aunts and were tired from our travels. We are grateful that you let us stay in your beautiful meadow.”
The scholar’s servant came in at that time and he announced that a group of eighteen women were near the meadow. The servant nodded at the scholar. “They call themselves the zephyr aunts. They find your meadow very beautiful and want to come here.”
The maidens in the scholar’s house were thrilled on hearing this. They turned to the scholar. “Those are our aunts. Can they also come here to your meadow?”
The scholar was still dazed and agreed to this.
So now eighteen more women came to the meadow house.
The young maidens introduced their aunts to the scholar. As the scholar spoke with the zephyr aunts, he found them a little irresponsible in their talk and actions. Further, the scholar could not explain why he felt an unexplained chill when he was near the zephyr-aunts.
But the scholar kept his thoughts to himself. He had promised to let the people stay here for the night and he intended to do so.
When the women sat at the table for dinner, the tables were suddenly filled with excellent food, fruits and fragrant nectar the likes of which were not known to humans.
Adapted from Chinese folktales
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