"When the minister of war explained how convenient it would be to build a wall the emperor was charmed, the court was charmed, and everybody was charmed.
"'And they said that my army was a flock of geese!' exclaimed the king.
"Following up the plan, the dimensions of the wall and the materials it was to be made of were discussed. One engineer said that it had to be six hundred leagues in length, and that to collect materials for it, it was necessary to ask the genie of stones for them, this being the only one who could help them in such an extraordinary enterprise.
"Moreover, the difficulty was that the emperor himself had to go and ask this aid: and who would disturb his majesty with such a long journey!
"'That does not matter!' exclaimed Tsi-Ching-Hoang-Ti, 'provided there are boiled eggs on the way.'
"The emperor and the engineer entered a palanquin and shortly afterwards set out to look for the genie of the stones. Behind followed another palanquin with a kitchen and then a hundred more palanquins full of boiled eggs. After twenty days' march the expedition arrived at the foot of the mountains of Chuang and rested there. Only the emperor and the engineer could go up to the abode of the genie, situated between horrible precipices, and therefore his majesty and his companion filled their pockets with boiled eggs for the journey. When they arrived at the foot of the grotto where the genie dwelt, a rain of rubbish met them which nearly swept them away. A bump appeared on the emperor which looked as if one of the hundred thousand eggs he had eaten had come out there; a wicked tile had torn out the architect's plait by the roots which caused the poor man much pain, because his pigtail was already three yards long and was still growing. The king became angry and went on valorously disposed to behead the daring rascal who had stoned him, and at last they found themselves in the chamber of the genie Marmolillo. The latter received them with great courtesy, asking them the object of their visit. When the emperor told him, the genie gave his forehead a slap, which sounded like stones knocking together.
"'Well, it is true!' he exclaimed. 'And it had not occurred to me! The truth is that I have a head of stone. Well, all right,' he added, 'I will help you, and with my aid and that of all the Chinese it may be that within twenty days you will see it finished.'
"And so, when Tsi-Ching-Hoang-Ti returned to the court, he arranged that all Chinamen from fifteen to fifty years should go to the frontier to begin the work: and in a few days sixty million workmen were working on the wall and setting themselves to work with truly Chinese ardour.
"That was twenty-one centuries ago, Mr. Ninin, so that you had not yet studied the map when the wall was already finished, which, as was seen afterwards, was of no use only to make the Tartars carry ladders. They came back and invaded China and made themselves kings of it. The present dynasty is Tartar, the same as the celebrated sauce which you like so much."
"Good, but I should like the story to have some sort of a moral."