[Footnote 282: The _Liu ch´ing jih cha_.] [Footnote 283: [Chinese]] [Footnote 284: In the _Liu ch´ing jih cha_.] [Footnote 285: See p. 72.] CHAPTER X MIRABILIA MANY strange things are recorded by the early Chinese writers in connection with pottery and porcelain, and the tales are solemnly repeated from book to book, though occasionally a less credulous author adds some such comment as "This may be true, or, on the other hand, it may not." It is difficult, however, entirely to discredit the serious and circumstantial account given by a provincial governor of a curious custom which prevailed in his district. Fan Ching-ta, who was appointed administrator in Kuang-si in 1172, tells[286] us that "the men of Nan (-ning Fu) practise nose-drinking. They have pottery vessels such as cups and bowls from the side of which stands up a small tube like the neck of a bottle. They apply the nose to this tube and draw up wine or hot fluids, and in the summer months they drink water. The vessels are called nose-drinking cups. They say that water taken through the nose and swallowed is indescribably delicious. The people of Yung Chou have already recorded the facts as I have done. They grow a special kind of gourd for the purpose." Another extract from the same writer's works alludes to "drums with contracted waist" made of pottery in the villages of Lin-kuei and Chih-t´ien. The village people made a speciality of the manufacture of this pottery (_yao_), and baked it to the correct musical tone. On the glaze, we are told, they painted red flower patterns by way of ornament. The allusion to painting in red on the glaze at this early period is interesting, but it is quite likely that the designs were only in some unfired pigment. Some of the stories may be regarded merely as figurative descriptions of the superhuman skill of the artist in rendering "life-movement." Thus we are told[287] of "four old porcelain (_tz´ŭ_) bowls painted with coloured butterflies. When water was poured in, the butterflies floated on the surface of the water, fluttering about as if alive." It was an unnatural proceeding for butterflies in any case, and we can quite understand why "those who saw this, all maintained secrecy and did not divulge it." A somewhat similar poetic licence is taken by the same author in another passage with reference to certain cups and bowls, apparently of the Sung dynasty, which were found in the K´ang Hsi period on the site of an old temple. "The bowls had a minute wave pattern which moved and undulated as in a picture by Wu Tao-tzŭ. As for the cups, when a little water was poured into them four fishes arose out of the sides and swam and dived."