Third Chinese. I could find it without,
On an August night,
If I saw no more
Then the dew on the barns.
[The Second Negro makes a sound to attract their attention. The three Chinese come through the bushes. The first is short, fat, quizzical, and of middle age. The second is of middle height, thin and turning gray; a man of sense and sympathy. The third is a young man, intent, detached. They wear European clothes.]
Second Chinese [glancing at the baskets].
Dew is water to see,
Not water to drink:
We have forgotten water to drink.
Yet I am content
Just to see sunrise again.
I have not seen it
Since the day we left Pekin.
It filled my doorway,
Like whispering women.
First Chinese. And I have never seen it.
If we have no water,
Do find a melon for me
In the baskets.
[The Second Negro, who has been opening the baskets, hands the First Chinese a melon.]
First Chinese. Is there no spring?
[The negro takes a water bottle of red porcelain from one of the baskets and places it near the Third Chinese.]
Second Chinese [to Third Chinese].
Your porcelain water bottle.
[One of the baskets contains costumes of silk, red, blue and green. During the following speeches, the Chinese put on these costumes, with the assistance of the negro, and seat themselves on the ground.]
Third Chinese. This fetches its own water.