"'Return not without the likeness of Woo How.'
"The minister forthwith went in search of this beauteous one, and when he found her she was fairer than any woman he had ever seen, and conducted herself in a modest way, yielding ready answers to all his questions. But alas, the father was very poor, and could not pay the price demanded by the mercenary minister, therefore this unworthy servant of a generous king drew a picture of exceeding ugliness, and under it he wrote the name of Woo How, for he was determined that no one should be Empress who did not first buy his favor. At last this scheming official—Maou-yen-show by name—came back to court, bringing with him a collection of pictures of the so-called beauties of the land, who had paid him well to be their ambassador. The Emperor examined them critically.
"'This one pleases me not. Her nose is too long,' he said, casting aside the first one.
"'And this one is ugly enough to scare the dragon away,' he exclaimed when he saw the second.
"'This one's mouth is all askew,' was his comment on the third, and so he ran through the whole list, finding none that pleased him.
"'I might as well send a blind man to pick out a beautiful female as this stolid Maou-yen-show,' he cried angrily, when he had finished. 'Truly he knows not the difference between a woman and a demon.'
"But the minister bowing obsequiously insisted that these were indeed the most beautiful in the land.
"'Then I want none of them,' his sovereign replied, 'for an uglier lot I never beheld.'
"After this Kaou-tsung made no further attempt to find himself a fitting bride, but was immersed in the affairs of state. One day, however, as he rode forth, surrounded by his troops, to take his annual hunt, he saw beside the road a young girl of such wondrous loveliness that he could not take his eyes from her face.