586 CHINESE FOLKLORE AND SOME WESTERN ANALOGIES. 



" I come hither daily to (sob) and to weep, 

 For the promise I jjave (sob) I'll faithfully keep, 



I'll not wed till the mold is (sob) dry on his grave. 

 I don't want to marry ajrain (sob), I'm sure, 

 But poverty (sob) is so hard to endure, 

 And, oh! I'm so lonely, that I come (sob) to try 

 If I can't with my fan helj) the damp mold to dry, 



And that is the reason I'm fanning the grave." 



Hearing this, Chwang ex<'laimed, "Madam, give me the fan. 

 I'll willingly help you as much as I can 



In drying the mold on your j)oor husband's grave." 

 She readily handed the fan up to Chwang, 

 (Who in mairic was skilled, as he pnjved before long). 

 For he muttered some words in a low undertone, 

 Flicked the fan, and the grave was as dry as a bone; 



"There," said he, "the mold's dry on the top of the grave." 



Joy jilaiidy was seen on the i)Oor woman's face 

 As she hastily thanked him, ere quitting the i)lace, 



For helping her dry up the mold on the grave. 

 Chwang watched her go off with a cynical sigh; 

 Thought he, " Now suppose I myself were to die. 

 How long woidd ;//// wife in her weeds mourn my fate? 

 Would sht% like this woman, have jiatience to wait 



Till the MKild was well dry im her poor husband's grave?" ' 



The philosopher, upon his return home, rehites the adventure to his 

 wife, and .she is so violent in her deniuieiation of the faithless widow 

 that he resolves to test her. Soon he fall.s ill and dies; and while the 

 celebrated savant lies encottined in his hall man}' come to do him 

 reverence and try to console the stricken woman. Among the num- 

 ber is a handsome young man, a former pupil of the master, who 

 makes himself so attractive as to win her heart and hand during the 

 short period of his visit. While rejoicing in her rediscovered bliss, 

 the woman's newly attianced falls into convulsions, the only remedy for 

 which is himian })rains, fresh, boiled in wine. The case is pressing; 

 there lies the unburied corpse of her former spouse, now useless to 

 her, unless, indeed, she can appl}' his brains to restore her present lover 

 to health and even to life. So she seizes an axe, chops open the coffin, 

 and, behold, her old Chwang rises alive and well! He had been playing 

 with his wife, and actually assumed the form of the .young scholar 

 himself to test the constancy of her affection. Unable to conceal her 

 shame, the wretched woman hung herself with her own girdle, while 

 the disgusted Chwang, burning his house, withdrew from the world. 



A Semitic story of the Wife Tested has a different setting, but 

 descends evidentl}' from the same parent stock. In this the learned 

 and Beautifid Berurya, while reading an ancient text, comes upon the 

 sentence, "All women are tickle," and appends the marginal gloss, 

 " Except Berurya." Her husband, Rabbi Meir, the Light of the Law, 



^G. C. Stent, "The Jade Chaplet." 



