Jerry surveyed the latter for a few moments, then asked if that was what he lived on? upon which the old man nodded, and taking a handful of rice, threw a few grains into his mouth, then drank a sup of water. "Well," exclaimed the sailor in his native language, "here's a go. I've been and signed articles to a toad in a hole, and got to live in a box office, on dry rice and water." Their frugal meal having been partaken of, the old fellow chin-chinned his disciple, and with the assurance that no man would dare come up the gully at night (as he had declared it was haunted), the old gentleman dropped down upon his knees, and o-mi-tu-fuh'd at such a rate, that Jerry set it to music, and joined in a sort of chorus. "I wonder what the deuce it means? I used to hear poor Jow a saying of it. O-mi-tu-fuh (stretching himself, and yawning); don't I wish I had a tooth full of grog." When the sailor awoke the next morning he found the old bonze still at it,--"o-mi-tu-fuh, o-mi-tu-fuh!" and he kept it up all day, repeating the words in a mechanical sort of manner, which at times greatly irritated his companion. About ten o'clock a woman came, and asked what she should do to obtain luck. "Bring a dish of boiled rice and some tea, and place them in the road before my cell, as an offering to the evil spirits. Do this daily for a week." When she had departed another arrived, and the sailor amused himself, and improved his knowledge of the language by listening to their wants. At last one came whose story caused the man to be all ears. It was A-tae's mother, who thus detailed her daughter's symptoms. "She has devils in her brain, who speak for her, and I fear she will die." Nan-woo, who had great faith in a youthful constitution, gave the afflicted mother two slips of bamboo, upon one of which was written, "Decline present benefit, and receive greater reward in future," while the other ran as follows; "Ten thousand devils are not as tormenting as a bad heart." A-tae's mamma read these, and accepted them as the words of an oracle, of course torturing their meaning to suit her daughter's case. "When A-tae gets well, what shall she do?" "Bring me every morning, for one month, a basket of fruit and some young tea, then I will assure her perfect health." Jerry gave a sigh of relief. "I'll see her again somehow," he thought. It was a few days after this that the gossips were chatting around A-tae's mat, and the following is what they said: "Oh, Mrs. So-and-so, have you heard the news? You remember how two soldiers hunted the man who frightened this poor child so? Well, they chased him to Nan-woo's hermitage, and the bonze told them as soon as the thing saw him it burst into a flame and vanished." "Did you ever?" cried one gossip. "Bless us!" said another. And little A-tae winked behind their backs.