"And who is your master?" asked Dou.

"Oh, he doesn't live far off," replied the other; so away they went together, and after some time came to a place where there were innumerable white houses rising one above the other, and shaded by dense groves of lemon-trees. They threaded their way past countless doors, not at all similar to those usually used, and saw a great many official-looking men and women passing and repassing, each of whom called out to the man in serge, "Has Mr. Dou come?" to which he always replied in the affirmative.

Here a mandarin met them and escorted Dou into a palace, upon which the latter remarked, "This is really very kind of you; but I haven't the honor of knowing you, and I feel somewhat diffident about going in."

"Our prince," answered his guide, "has long heard of you as a man of good family and excellent principles, and is very anxious to make your acquaintance."

"Who is your Prince?" inquired Dou.

His Highness immediately descended to meet Dou, and made him take the seat of honor; after which ceremony exquisite viands of all kinds were spread out before them. Looking up, Dou noticed a scroll, on which was inscribed, The Cassia Court, and he was just beginning to feel puzzled as to what he should say next, when the Prince addressed him as follows: "The honor of having you for a neighbor is, as it were, a bond of affinity between us. Let us, then, give ourselves up to enjoyment, and put away suspicion and fear."

Dou murmured his acquiescence; and when the wine had gone around several times there arose from a distance the sound of pipes and singing, unaccompanied, however, by the usual drum, and very much subdued in volume. Thereupon the Prince looked about him and cried out, "We are about to set a verse for any of you gentlemen to cap; here you are: "Genius seeks the Cassia Court." [In this favorite pastime of Chinese literati, the point is that each word in the line should be a due and proper antithesis of the word in the first line to which it corresponds.]

While the courtiers were all engaged in thinking of some fit antithesis, Dou added, "Refinement loves the Lily flower," upon which the Prince exclaimed, "How strange! Lily is my daughter's name; and, after such a coincidence, she must come in for you to see her."

Dou remained in a state of stupefaction, and, when the prince proposed that they should pledge each other in another bumper, paid not the slightest attention to what he said. Then the Prince, perceiving who had distracted his guest's attention, remarked "I am anxious to find a consort for my daughter, but unfortunately there is the difficulty of species, and I don't know what to do"; but again Dou took no notice of what the Prince was saying, until at length one of the bystanders plucked his sleeve, and asked him if he hadn't seen that the prince wished to drink with him, and had just been addressing some remarks to him.

Dou started, and, recovering himself at once, rose from the table, and apologized ro rhe Prince for his rudeness, declaring that he had taken so much wine he didn't know what he was doing. "Besides," said he, "Your Highness has doubtless business to transact; I will therefore take my leave."

"I am extremely pleased to have seen you," replied the Prince, "and only regret that you are in such a hurry to be gone. However, I won't detain you now; but, if you don't forget all about us, I shall be very glad to invite you here again."

The latter was now sorry that he had missed his opportunity; meanwhile they reached his house, and he himself awoke.

The sun had already set, and there he sat in the gloom thinking of what had happened. In the evening he snuffed his candle, hoping to continue his dream; but, alas! the thread was broken, and all he could do was to pour forth his repentance in sighs.

One night, he was sleeping at a friend's house, when suddenly an officer of the Court walked in and summoned him to appear before the Prince; so up he jumped, and hurried off at once to the palace, where he prostrated himself before the throne. The Prince raised him and made him sit down, saying that since they had last met he had become aware that Dou would be willing to marry his daughter, and hoped that he might be allowed to offer her as a handmaid.

Dou rose and thanked the Prince, who thereupon gave orders for a banquet to be prepared; and when they had finished their wine it was announced that the Princess had completed her toilet. Immediately a bevy of young ladies came in with the Princess in their midst, a red veil covering her head, gliding with tiny footsteps as they led her up to be introduced to Dou.

"And how can it be a dream," asked the Princess, "when you and I are here together?"

Next morning Dou amused himself by helping the Princess to paint her face, and then with a girdle he began to measure the size of her waist and with his fingers the length of her feet. "Are you crazy?" cried she, laughing; to which Dou replied, "I have been deceived so often by dreams, that I am now making a careful record. If such it turns out to be, I shall still have something as a souvenir of you."

While they were thus chatting, a maid rushed into the room, shrieking, 'Alas! alas! A great monster has got into the palace: the Prince has fled into a side chamber; destruction is surely come upon us."

When Dou heard this, he was in a great fright and rushed off to see the Prince, who grasped his hand and, with tears in his eyes, begged him not to desert them. "Our relationship," cried he, "was cemented when Heaven sent this calamity upon us; and now my kingdom will be overthrown. What shall I do?" Dou begged to know what was the matter; and then the Prince laid a despatch upon the table, telling Dou to open it and make himself acquainted with its contents. This despatch ran as follows:

"The Grand Secretary of State, Black Wings, to His Royal Highness, announcing the arrival of an extraordinary monster, and advising the immediate removal of the Court in order to preserve the vitality of the empire. A report has just been received from the officer in charge of the Yellow Gate stating that, ever since the 6th of the 5th moon, a huge monster, 10,000 feet in length, has been lying coiled up outside the entrance to the palace, and that it has already devoured 13,800 and odd of your Highness's subjects, and is spreading desolation far and wide.

On receipt of this information your servant proceeded to make a reconnaissance, and there beheld a venomous reptile with a head as big as a mountain and eyes like vast sheets of water. Every time it raised its head, whole buildings disappeared down its throat; and, on stretching itself out, walls and houses were alike laid in ruins. In all antiquity there is no record of such a scourge.

The fate of our temples and ancestral halls is now a mere question of hours; we therefore pray your Royal Highness to depart at once with the Royal Family and seek somewhere else a happier abode."

The Princess, however, who was standing by bitterly lamenting the fate that had fallen upon them, begged Dou not to desert her; and, after a moment's hesitation, he said he should be only too happy to place his own poor home at their immediate disposal if they would only deign to honor him. "How can we talk of deigning," cried the Princess, "at such a moment as this? I pray you take us there as quickly as possible."

So Dou gave her his arm, and in no time they had arrived at Dou's house, which the Princess at once pronounced to be a charming place of residence, and better even than their former kingdom. "But I must now ask you," said she to Dou, "to make some arrangement for my father and mother, that the old order of things may be continued here."

Dou at first offered objections to this; whereupon the Princess said that a man who would not help another in his hour of need was not much of a man, and immediately went off into a fit of hysterics, from which Dou was trying his best to recall her, when all of a sudden he awoke and found that it was all a dream.

His friend now advised him to get a hive for them, which he did without delay; and immediately it was filled by a whole swarm of bees, which came flying from over the wall in great numbers. On tracing whence they had come, it was found that they belonged to an old gentleman who lived near, who had kept bees for more than thirty years previously.

Dou thereupon went and told him the story; and when the old gentleman examined his hive he found the bees all gone. On breaking it open he discovered a large snake inside of about ten feet in length, which he immediately killed, recognizing in it the "huge monster" of Dou's adventure.

As for the bees, they remained with Dou, and increased in numbers every year.

SOURCE: Strange Tales From a Chinese Studio, by Pu Songling (c.1679); Herbert Giles translation (1908; Tuttle reprint 2010). Tale #70, Princess Lily, pp. 273-7.