. Peking and the overland route. al of a practiceinstituted when China had a strict curfew law. The Chung Lou, a hundred yards to the north, is amore graceful though less imposing structure. The firstBell Tower was also built by the Mongols, exactly in thecenter of their city. Its present site is not delinately 55 knoMu. A latter tower was built by the Ming EmperorYung Loh, and in it was placed a bell, a mate to that inthe Great Bell Temple, which still does service in sound-mg the watches, and about which tradition has wreatheda sad story, made Iainiliar to Europeans by LafcadioHcarns account
. Peking and the overland route. al of a practiceinstituted when China had a strict curfew law. The Chung Lou, a hundred yards to the north, is amore graceful though less imposing structure. The firstBell Tower was also built by the Mongols, exactly in thecenter of their city. Its present site is not delinately 55 knoMu. A latter tower was built by the Ming EmperorYung Loh, and in it was placed a bell, a mate to that inthe Great Bell Temple, which still does service in sound-mg the watches, and about which tradition has wreatheda sad story, made Iainiliar to Europeans by LafcadioHcarns account of The Casting of the IjcII. The )ne-sent structure was built by Clrien Lung and is 90 feethigh. The legend, still familiar to all classes of Pekmese, hasit that Yimg Lohs master-founder, Kuan Yu, an officialat Court, failed twice in the casting of the monster bell,which is IS feet in height and niore than 30 feet in cir-cumference. The Emperor, who had built the tower andwas impatient to see the bell hung in it, tlucatencd the. Ijl licil 1 uwi 56 unhappy ctfficial with disgrace and stxere punishraeut if hedid not sne(;eed at a third casting, so most careful pre-parations were nuidc for the event. Kuan Yus daugliter,who had all the traditional Chinese charms and hadmastered all the household arts, was much worried by herfathers predicament and consulted a court astrologerabout the matter. He told her, to her horror, that theblood of a maiden would have to be mixed with the moltenmetal to make it a success, x\fter much thought and nolittle depression the girl came to a resolution and assuminga cheerful mien encouraged her father in his work, assur-ing him that there could be no third failure. When the day came for the third and last casting, ahuge crowd assembled. Kuan Yu supervised the work,and his daughter stood by watching. Just as the moltenmetal was allowed to run from the furnace into the hugemould the girl threw herself headlong into the white-hotmass and disappeared. A
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Keywords: ., bookauthorthomasco, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1917
