“O most excellent, reverend sir, accept my worshipful homage of your learning and holiness. I am come to ask of you the fate of my wife, who is sick of the white plague. All doctors I have rejected, and come to you, on the top of this amazingly high mountain, to ask your aid. And, that I may not seem to be wanting in reverence, I bring with me a jade anklet,—which may the reverend One accept!” and forthwith he proffered his gift. Oman looked at him long and steadfastly, striving to master the emotions that were welling up within him, the foremost of which seemed to be acute displeasure. He hesitated also to speak; for he realized, on listening to the speech of the man, that his own articulation had become almost unrecognizably altered. An answer seemed, however, to be a necessity; so, presently, he nerved himself to the effort, and said, slowly, with great difficulty: “Do not bow down before me, O man, nor before any being like yourself. Return to your wife and keep your place beside her bed; nor neglect to obtain doctors for her in her sickness. I will not take your gift, for what need have I of jade? Return to your dwelling and trouble me no more.” Vainly the man protested, tried propitiation, prayer, demand. Oman would pretend to no knowledge concerning the sickness of his wife. But when the stranger asked for food before beginning his arduous homeward journey, Oman could not refuse him, but offered what he had; and, when they had eaten together, the man continually exclaiming that he was not worthy of the honor, he departed, unsatisfied, carrying with him his jade anklet. Oman was left in a state of great agitation. The single hour of human companionship had brought down on him, in a torrent, all the old desires, fears, worries, hopes, in fine the inevitable emotions of human life; and he was whirled into the stream of the old problem. That day, and the next, and three or four nights, were filled with restlessness. Then, as time passed, and he found himself unmolested, calm returned, and the thoughts of the other life faded again.