"Speak!" said the chief priest in great agitation, "what is your errand?"
"O Priest!" said the black guards, trembling with excitement, "we heard a great knocking at the gate."
"Yes, yes!" cried the priest, "I know it. What more?"
"O Priest!" said the guards, "we were affrighted, so great was the noise; so we opened the gate but a little way, and peeped through; and we saw—we saw—" They paused, and gasped for breath.
"Speak, sons of pigs!" shrieked the priest, "what did you see?"
"We saw the Golden Dragon!" said the soldiers, in a fearful whisper. "He is sitting up—on his hind-legs—with his mouth open! and he knocked—he knocked—"
But the priests of the Saki-Pan waited to hear no more. Rushing through the court-yards, they flung wide open the great bronze gates. They caught up the Golden Dragon, they raised it high on their shoulders, and with shouts of rejoicing they bore it back to the Temple, while the guards prostrated themselves before it.
"He went out!" sang the priests. "He walked abroad, for the glory and welfare of his subjects. He cast upon the city the eye of beneficence; he waved over it the plenipotentiary tail!
"Ai! ai! we know not why!
Wow! wow! we know not how!
Glory to the Holy Dragon, and happiness and peace to the city and the people!"