Many years passed after this.
Sir We had no news of his daughter of Old Dschang.
But Sir We and his wife were longing to see their daughter. So they sent their son to make enquiries. The son walked for a long time and finally came across a plow-boy. “Do you know about Old Dschang and his wife?”
The plow-boy came near the son. “The village where Old Dschang and his wife live is not far from here. I will take you there.”
After that they crossed a hill, came to a brook and crossed it and crossed another hill. There was a valley there. In the middle between the green trees there were houses and towers.
That was where Old Dschang had his house.
There were plenty of servants taking care of the palace in the valley. One of the servants led Sir We’s son inside the palace.
There Sir We’s son saw a dignified man in a flowing turban with silk and red slippers come to the palace. The man seemed youthful.
Sir We’s son looked closely at the man and realized that this was Old Dschang.
Old Dschang smiled at Sir We’s son. “Your sister is combing her hair and she will come here to welcome you.”
Sir We’s son was finally shown to a huge room where the beams were made of sandalwood, the doors were made of tortoise-shell and the windows had blue jade and the curtains were made of string of pearls. The steps leading to his sister’s room were made of green nephrite.
The sister had a magnificently rich dress and looked beautiful.
The sister was however not very cordial to the brother and carelessly asked about the well being of the family and general and then prepared a room for the brother to live in.
That very evening, the sister and Old Dschang left the brother alone in the castle, because they were to go for an excursion to the Mountain of the Fairies.
Adapted from Chinese Folktales
No comments:
Post a Comment