Another of my friends told me, on his return from Pekin, that he had seen still more extraordinary things. One day, after the literary examinations, the candidates clubbed together and sent for a troupe of conjurers. The chief, having shown certain tricks, asked if the audience would like to see some rare thing that they might choose. “A peach,” cried one of the spectators. It was then the month of March, when the land is still ice-bound, especially in the north of China. “A peach!” said the conjurer; “that is the only fruit that it is impossible for me to procure. At this time of the year, peaches can only be found in Paradise.”
“But as you are a magician,” was the answer, “you ought to be able to bring one down from heaven.”
After grumbling a good deal, the conjurer said he would try what he could do for them, and began weaving a roll of ribbon, which he cast into the air, and which took the shape of a ladder, which went up and up to a tremendous height. He then placed a child on this ladder, who ran up the rungs with the agility of a monkey, and was soon lost to sight in the clouds. Some moments passed, when suddenly a peach fell from the skies. The magician picked it up, cut it into slices, and offered it to the audience. It was a real peach. Hardly had the peach been eaten, when something else fell from the skies. Horror! It was the head of the child, which was speedily followed by the trunk and the limbs. The sorcerer picked them up with tears in his eyes, and said that the audience was to blame for the loss of his child by its absurd request, and that the guardians of Paradise had taken his child for a thief, and had cut him into pieces. The spectators, touched at the sight of his sorrow, and believing that they were really to blame for a murder, and wanting to do all in their power to comfort the unhappy father, made a collection, and presented him with a handsome sum of money. Meanwhile, the magician had placed the fragments of his son’s corpse in a box, which he always carried round with him. As soon as he had received the amount of the subscription, he opened the box and cried out—
“Come forth, my child, and thank these kind gentlemen.” And out sprang the youth, alive and well.