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The Spirit Of The River

Scary Books: Strange Stories From The Lodge Of Leisures

In a small village along the river Tsz lived a fisherman named Siu. He

started every night with his nets, and took very great care not to

forget to bring with him a small jar of spirits. Before throwing his

cast-net, he drank a small cup of the fragrant liquor and poured some

drops into the slow current, praying aloud:



"O Spirit-of-the-river, please accept these offerings and favour your

humble servant. I
am poor and I must take some of the fishes that live

in your cold kingdom. Don't be angry against me and don't prevent the

eels and trouts coming to me!"



When every fisherman on the river brought back only one basket of

fishes, he always proudly bore home a heavy charge of two or three

baskets full to the brim.



Once, on a rosy dawn of early spring, when the sun, still below the

horizon, began to eat with its golden teeth the vanishing darkness, he

said aloud:



"O Spirit-of-the-river! For many years, every night I have drunk with

you a good number of wine-cups; but I never saw your face; won't you

favour me with your presence? We could sit together, and the pleasure of

drinking would be much greater."



Hardly had he finished these words when, from the middle of the stream,

emerged a beautiful young man clothed in pink, who slowly walked on the

smooth surface of the limpid water, and sat on the boat's end, saying:



"Here I am."



The fisherman, being half-drunk, was not troubled in any way; he bowed

to the young man, offered him, with his two hands, a cup of the strong

wine, and said:



"Well! I long wished to receive your instructions, and I am very glad to

see you. You must be mighty tired of living in that water; the few drops

of wine I pour every night are quite lost in such a quantity of

tasteless liquid. You had better come up every night; we will drink

together and enjoy each other's company."



From this day, when darkness closed in, the Spirit waited for the

fisherman and partook of his provisions. As soon as the sun rose above

the horizon he suddenly disappeared. The fisherman did not find that

very convenient; he asked his companion if he could not arrange to stay

with him sometimes in the daytime.



"Impossible; we can't do such a thing, we spirits and ghosts. We belong

to the kingdom of shadows. When the shadows, fighting the daylight,

bring with them the Night, we are free to go and wander about. But as

soon as the herald of the morn, the cock, has proclaimed the daily

victory of the sun, we are powerless and must disappear."



On the same day the fisherman was sitting on the bank, smoking a pipe

before going home with his baskets, when he saw a woman holding a child

in her arms and hastening along the river towards a ford some hundred

yards up stream. She was already in the water, when she missed her

footing, fell into the river, and was rolled away by the stream. The

child, by some happy chance, had fallen on the bank and lay there,

crying.



The fisherman could easily have gone in his boat and saved the woman,

who was still struggling to regain the bank, but he was a prudent man:



"This woman, whom I don't know, seems to be beautiful," thought he.

"Maybe it is my friend The-Spirit-of-the-river who has arranged all

this, and chosen the girl to be his wife. If I prevent her going down

to his cold lodgings, he will be angry and ruin my fishing. All I could

do is to adopt this boy until somebody comes and asks for him."



And he did not move, until the poor woman had disappeared in the yellow

stream; then he took the child. Once back in the village, he inquired

about the mother; nobody could tell who she was. The days passed and

nobody asked for the boy. This was strange enough, but, stranger still,

from this day the fisherman never saw The-Spirit-of-the-river again. He

offered him many cups of wine, and his fishing was as good as ever, but

though he prayed heartily, his companion of so many nights did not

appear any more.



When the boy was three years old he insisted on accompanying his adopted

father in his night fishing. Summer had come; the cold was no more to be

feared. The man consented to take his adopted son with him; they

started together in the twilight.



As soon as the darkness closed, the boy's voice changed; his appearance

was different.



"What a silly man you are!" said he. "Don't you know me now? For more

than two years I waited for an opportunity to tell you who I was. But

you always went out at night and you never came back before the sun was

high in the sky. You had never failed to present your offerings; so I

could not resist your prayer when you asked me to stay with you in the

daytime. Now, here I am, till your death; when the sun is up I shall

only be your son, but when the night closes I shall be your companion,

and we will enjoy together what longevity the Fate allows you."



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