Eastern Shame Girl Part 16

Mei-chieh pretended to be asleep. She felt him gently move her leg to one side, and then she made as though to wake saying:

"Who are you who come in the night and insult me?" She pushed him away, but the bonze embraced her in his arms, and whispered: "I am a lo-han with a body of gold, and I have come to give you a son."

While speaking, he busied himself in accordance with his salacity.

It must be said that all bonzes have no mean talent in the matter of cloud and rain; and this one was full of vigorous manhood. Mei-chieh was a woman of great experience, but she was unable to resist him and had difficulty, at length, in repressing herself. However, she took advantage of his arriving at the supreme point of his emotion to dip her fingers in the box of vermilion and to mark his head without his perceiving it. After a certain time, the bonze glided from the bed, leaving the girl a little packet, and saying:

"Here are some pills to a.s.sist your prayer. Take three-tenths of an ounce each day in hot water, and you will have a son."

Weary in body, Mei-chieh was just dimly closing her eyes, when she was aroused by a fresh touch, and, thinking that the same bonze had returned, said in surprise:

"What? Are you able to come back again, when even I am so tired?"

But he answered without a pause:

"You are making a mistake! I have but just come, and the saviour of my comforts is as yet unknown to you."

"But, I am tired...."

"In that case, take one of these pills...."

And he handed her a packet. But she was afraid that it might be poison and placed it on the bed, contriving in the same movement to dip her fingers in the vermilion and to stroke the newcomer's head. He was even more terrible than the former, and did not cease before c.o.c.k-crow.

As the old song says:

In an old stone mortar Where so many pestles have been worn away, There is need of a heavy copper hammer, Or the work is lost.

At dawn, another bonze appeared and said to them in a low voice:

"Perhaps you have had your fill. Is not my turn coming?"

The first bonze gave a chuckle, but rose and went out. The other then got upon the bed, and very gently caressed Mei-chieh.

She pretended to repulse him, but he kissed her upon the lips, and said in her ear:

"If he has fatigued you, I have here some pills which will restore the Springtime of your thoughts."

And he thrust a pill into her mouth, which she could not avoid swallowing. A perfume rose from her mouth into her nostrils, and caused her bones to melt, imbuing her body with delicious warmth.

But, even while thinking of herself, Mei-chieh did not forget the Governor's orders. She marked the head of this new a.s.sailant also, saying:

"What a nice sleek old pate!"

The bonze burst out laughing:

"I am full of tender and reliable emotions. I am not like the unmannerly people of our town. Come and see me often."

And he retired.

Meanwhile the Governor had left his yamen by the fifth watch, before the day had yet broken, accompanied by an escort of about a hundred resolute men, carrying chains and manacles.

Arriving at the still closed gate of the monastery, he made the greater part of his train hide to the right and left, keeping only some ten men about him. The secretary knocked at the gate, crying that the Governor was there and wished to enter.

The first bonzes who heard his shout made haste to arrange their garments and receive the visitor. But the Lord w.a.n.g, paying no attention to their salutations, went straight to the apartment of the Superior, who was already up and prepared to begin the ritual of his greeting. But the Governor dryly ordered him to summon all the bonzes, and to show him the Convent register.

Somewhat alarmed, the Superior ordered bells and drums to be sounded, and the bonzes, s.n.a.t.c.hed from their sleep, ran up in groups. When the names written on the register had been called, the Governor commanded the astonished monks to remove their skullcaps.

In the full light of the morning sun three heads were seen to be marked with vermilion, but, Oh, prodigy, no less than eleven heads were covered with black ink!

"It no longer surprises me that these prayers should be so successful," murmured the secretary. "Indeed these bonzes are very conscientious!"

Lord w.a.n.g pointed out the guilty ones, and caused them to be put in chains, asking: "Whence come these marks of red and black upon you?"

But the kneeling monks looked at each other and could not answer, while the whole a.s.sembly remained stricken with wonder at this strange event.

Meanwhile the secretary had gone into the Babies' Chapel and, by dint of shouting, had roused the two harlots from a heavy sleep.

They quickly put on their garments, and came to kneel before the Governor, who asked them:

"What did you see during the night? Tell me the whole truth."

Since they had agreed to the mission, the two women rendered a plain account of the events of that night, showing the pills which the bonzes had given them, and also their boxes of vermilion and black.

The bonzes, seeing that their schemes were brought to light, felt their livers turn and their hearts put out of working. They groaned in their secret despair, while the fourteen culprits beat the earth with their brows and begged for mercy.

"Miserable wretches, you dare to preach divine intervention, so that you may deceive the foolish and outrage the virtuous! What have you to say?"

But the cunning Superior already had his plan. He ordered all the bonzes to kneel, and said:

"These unhappy ones whom you have convicted are without excuse. But they were the only ones who dared to act so. All my other monks are pure. You have been able to discover the shame of the guilty, which I in my ignorance could not, and there is nothing for it but to put them to death."

The Governor smiled:

"Then it is only the cells which these two women occupied that have secret pa.s.sages?"

"There are only those two cells," answered the unblus.h.i.+ng Superior.

"We shall question all the other women, and then see."

The female visitors, who had already been wakened by the noise, came in turns to give their evidence. They were all in agreement: no bonze had come to trouble them. But the Governor knew that shame would prevent them from speaking, and therefore had them searched. In the pocket of each was found a little packet of pills. He asked them whence these came; but the women, purple in the face and scarlet in the neck, answered no word.

While this examination was taking place, the husbands of the penitents came up and took a part in it. And their anger made them tremble like the hemp-plant or leaves of a tree. When the Governor, who did not wish to push his questioning too far, had allowed the visitors to depart, their husbands swallowed their shame and indignation, and led them away.

The Superior had not yet given up the fight. He a.s.serted that the pills had been given to the women as they entered the monastery. But the two harlots again affirmed that they at least had received them during the visit of the bonzes.

"The matter is quite clear," the Governor cried at length. "Put all of these adulterers in chains!"

The bonzes had some thought of resisting; but they had no weapons and were outnumbered. The only ones left free were an old man who kindled the incense, and the two little novices still in childhood.

The gate of the monastery was closed and guarded. On his return to the yamen, the Governor took his seat in the Hall of Justice, and had his prisoners questioned in the usual ways. Fear of pain loosened their tongues, and they were condemned to death. They were cast into prison to await the ratification of their sentence.