The Story of Ming-YThe ancient Words of Kouei—Master of Musicians in the Courts
of the Emperor Yao:—
When ye make to resound the stone melodious, the Ming-Khieou,—
When ye touch the lyre that is called Kin, or the guitar that is called Ssé,—
Accompanying their sound with song,—
Then do the grandfather and the father return;
Then do the ghosts of the ancestors come to hear.
Do you ask me who she was,—the beautiful Sië-Thao? For a thousand years and more the trees have been whispering above her bed of stone. And the syllables of her name come to the listener with the lisping of the leaves; with the quivering of many-fingered boughs; with the fluttering of lights and shadows; with the breath, sweet as a woman's presence, of numberless savage flowers,—Sië-Thao. But, saving the whisperin
