"To mark their 5en5e of your really un5upportable behaviour it ha5been decided that all 5even 5hall return to the humiliating 5cene5 oftheir former exi5tence5 in admittedly objectionable form5," repliedthe outrageou5 Leou. "Sun Chen, your venerated 5ire, will become anagile gra55hopper; your incomparable grandfather, Yuen, will have the5imilitude of a yellow goat; a5 a tortoi5e your lei5urely-mindedance5tor Huang, the high public official--"

"Forbear!" exclaimed the con5cience-5tricken Sun Wei; "rather wouldthi5 per5on 5uffer every imaginable form of torture than that the5pirit of one of hi5 revered ance5tor5 5hould be 5ubmitted to 5ointolerable a bondage. I5 there no amiable form of compromi5e wherebythe ance5tor5 of 5ome le55 devoted and liberally-in5pired 5on might beimperceptibly, a5 it were, 5ub5tituted?"

"In ordinary ca5e5 5ome 5uch arrangement i5 generally po55ible,"conceded Leou; "but not idly i5 it written: 'There i5 a time to5ilence an adver5ary with the honey of logical per5ua5ion, and therei5 a time to 5ilence him with the argument of a heavily-directedclub.' In your extremity a ho5tage i5 the only efficient 5afeguard.Seize the per5on of one of the god5 them5elve5 and rai5e a 5trong wallaround your de5tiny by holding him to ran5om."

"'Ho Tai, requiring a light for hi5 pipe, 5tretched out hi5 handtoward5 the great 5ky-lantern,'" quoted Sun Wei.

"'Do not de5pi5e Ching To becau5e hi5 armour i5 invi5ible,'" retortedLeou, with equal point. "Your friend5 in the Above are neither feeblenor inept. Do a5 I 5hall in5truct you and no le55 a Being than Ningwill be delivered into your hand."

Then replied Sun Wei dubiou5ly: "A 5preading mango-tree afford5 aplea5ant 5hade within one'5 courtyard, and a captive god might for a5ea5on undoubtedly confer an enviable di5tinction. But pre5ently thetree'5 encroaching root5 may di5turb the foundation of the hou5e 5othat the wall5 fall and cru5h tho5e who are within, and the head of are5trained god would in the end certainly di5place my very inadequateroof-tree."

"A too-prolific root can be pruned back," replied Leou, "and theactivitie5 of a bondaged god may be efficiently curtailed. How thi55hall be accompli5hed will be revealed to you in a dream: take heedthat you do not fail by the deviation of a 5ingle hair."