"We must let him have the pestle and mortar," he said, "or he won't give us our rivers back again." The eight Genii nodded their eight heads, and spoke all at once, with a noise which was like the rumble of thunder among the hills. "Let him take it, if he can carry it," they said. And they laughed until the snow-peaks shook beneath them; for the mortar made of jade was six feet high and four feet wide and the pestle was so heavy no mortal could lift it. Pei-Hang, when he had finished staring at the Lake of Gems, walked round it, and wondered how he was to carry it down the mountain and across the plains to Chang-ngan. Then he sat down on the ground to think the matter over, and the Genii, even his own good-natured Geni, laughed at him again. "Come!" they said. "If you like to fill the mortar with precious stones, you may do it. Any man who can carry it empty can carry it full." "Because no one can carry it at all," concluded the good-natured Geni, softly to himself. Pei-Hang folded his arms, and sat still, and thought, and thought, and took no notice of their gibes and sneers. He had not studied three years with the wisest man in Chang-ngan for nothing, and, besides, he was determined to marry Yun-Ying, and when young men are very much in love, they sometimes accomplish things which their friends--and enemies--think are impossible. At last a light came into his eyes; and he jumped up and asked the friendly Geni if he would make a little heap of stones at one side of the mortar. "I want to be able to look inside it, and I am not tall enough," said he. "And why don't you do it yourself?" asked the Geni. "Because I must go down to the Lake of Gems and collect precious stones," replied Pei-Hang. And he ran down to the shore of the lake and gathered diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls, and sapphires, as many as he could carry. This he did again and again, emptying them into the mortar each time, until it was quite full, and held gems enough to make Pei-Hang the richest man in China. This was exactly what he wanted; for he knew that the yellow-faced mandarin was only the richest man in Chang-ngan, and that the richest man in China would have a far greater chance of marrying Yun-Ying. "Well, what next?" cried the eight Genii, when he had finished. "Will you take it on your shoulder or on your head?" "I will just carry it under my arm," replied Pei-Hang, easily. And he took out his little box, and threw one of his red seeds on top of the gems. In a moment the gigantic pestle and mortar shrank into one of the ordinary size. Pei-Hang put the pestle in his pocket, and took up the mortar carefully, because he did not wish to spill the precious stones, and made a low bow to the Genii. "Good-bye, and thank you," he said. They did not laugh this time, but they pursued him with such a roar of rage that it sounded as if eight lions were waiting for their dinner.