"I will just carry it under my arm," replied Pei-Hang, easily.
And he took out his little box, and threw one of his red seeds on top of the gems.
In a moment the gigantic pestle and mortar shrank into one of the ordinary size.
Pei-Hang put the pestle in his pocket, and took up the mortar carefully, because he did not wish to spill the precious stones, and made a low bow to the Genii.
"Good-bye, and thank you," he said.
They did not laugh this time, but they pursued him with such a roar of rage that it sounded as if eight lions were waiting for their dinner.
But they did not dare to stop him, knowing that he had the power to turn the four brooks into four rivers again.
Pei-Hang hurried away, and on his journey did exactly what he had promised.
He jumped across the first brook, and threw a white seed into it, and turned it into a terrible inky black waste of waters a mile wide, full of fishes six yards long, and every fish covered with spikes.
The Genii stopped roaring then; they were relieved to see the Black River rolling once more between them and the outer world.