“The people of Three Bridges were not to be despised as enemies, and after the fifth day of our performance I was suddenly brought down from my exalted position as the idol of Ten Li by being arrested by the village constable on a most serious charge, no less than that of having murdered my honourable father. Iron fetters were put on my legs and arms, I was thrust into a small strong room and closely guarded, and from being the popular idol of the people I suddenly found myself the most despised and execrated of persons. My erstwhile friends of Three Bridges, maddened by jealousy at my performing so well for the people of Ten Li, had concocted a most cruel scheme whereby I should be destroyed. They had produced the skull and dry bones of a certain person whom they claimed to be my father; in the skull there still stuck the remains of a rusty knife thrust through the eye-socket. These bones, they asserted, were found in my father’s grave, and I alone having been present at his demise, was proclaimed a parricide. As a matter of fact my father had died some two years previously in a most pleasant manner, his final end being caused by a fit, induced by an over-indulgence in fat pork and wine. It is true that I alone had been present when he died, but the law required that it should be further proven that those same bones truly belonged to my parent and no other man. While lying in prison awaiting trial, Lung Fook, the juggler and conjurer of our troupe, came to visit me. Having politely inquired after my health and appetite he said:— “‘This matter, O brother, is most un-mirth-provoking. You will surely suffer the full penalty of a parricide, which is none other than “Ling Chi” or death by a thousand cuts. Let me be in all things your friend. Now it seems to me that you have much money owing you for your performances. It would be but seemly that you should make some will, and whom can you think of more worthy to receive the wealth you no longer desire than I, Lung Fook, your in-every-way bosom friend!’ “I saw the force of Lung Fook’s argument, and told him so, but begged him to explain further how the bones would be proved to belong to my honourable parent. “‘It is a simple matter,’ replied the juggler. ‘The bones are old and dry, and the test will be by the close affinity of blood for blood. Thus you will be made to gnaw your finger until the blood flows, the blood will then drop on the bones, and if it sinks in, then, indeed, the bones are those of your father; should, however, the blood not soak in, but remain on the surface of the bones, then they are those of a stranger and of no one having any blood-tie with you whatever. Alas! the bones are very dry, and I know any blood will sink into them.’ “‘But,’ I replied, ‘surely this is a very cruel punishment. Come, O friend, find some means of escape for me.’ “‘Indeed! there is none that I know of. Our laws are indeed just, but I think they do not err on the side of severity.’