Škržatov duh in ukradeno mazilo

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Škržatov duh in ukradeno mazilo

In the reign of Sun Hao of Wu, Zhu Dan, courtesy name Yongchang, the Administrator of Huainan, was serving as Governor of Jian’an. The wife of one of his servants suffered from a spirit affliction, and her husband suspected her of adultery. One day he pretended to go out, then secretly bored a hole in the wall to watch her. He saw her weaving at her loom, looking toward a mulberry tree some distance away and talking and laughing with someone there. The servant looked up into the tree and saw a youth of fourteen or fifteen, wearing a blue robe and a blue headcloth. Taking him for a flesh-and-blood person, the servant drew his crossbow and shot at him. The youth changed into a cicada as large as a winnowing basket and flew away with a whir of wings. At the same moment, the wife cried out in alarm, “Oh! Someone has shot you!” The servant marveled at what had happened. A long time afterward, he saw two boys talking together on a path between the fields. “Why haven’t I seen you lately?” one asked. The other was the boy who had been in the tree. He replied, “I had the misfortune to be shot, and suffered from the wound for a long time.” “How are you now?” the first boy asked. “Thanks to some ointment on a beam in Governor Zhu’s house, which I applied to the wound, I am healed.” The servant reported to Zhu Dan, “Someone has been stealing your ointment, my lord. Did you know?” Zhu Dan said, “I put that ointment up on a beam long ago. How could anyone have stolen it?” The servant replied, “It is true, my lord. Go and look.” Zhu Dan did not believe him at all, but went to inspect it. The seal and label were just as before. “You fellow, you are talking nonsense,” he said. “The ointment is exactly as it was.” “Try opening it,” the servant said. When it was opened, half the ointment was gone. They scraped through it and found traces of footprints. Zhu Dan was greatly astonished and questioned the servant closely, who then told him the whole story from beginning to end.