"It is a
dignified position to occupy, and one for which I am quite
incompetent. In the sixth month of the third year ago, it chanced that
this unworthy person, at that time engaged in commercial affairs at
Knei Yang, became inextricably immersed in the insidious delights of
quail-fighting. Having been entrusted with a large number of taels
with which to purchase elephants' teeth, it suddenly occurred to him
that if he doubled the number of taels by staking them upon an
exceedingly powerful and agile quail, he would be able to purchase
twice the number of teeth, and so benefit his patron to a large
extent. This matter was clearly forced upon his notice by a dream, in
which he perceived one whom he then understood to be the benevolent
spirit of an ancestor in the act of stroking a particular quail, upon
whose chances he accordingly placed all he possessed. Doubtless evil
spirits had been employed in the matter; for, to this person's great
astonishment, the quail in question failed in a very discreditable
manner at the encounter. Unfortunately, this person had risked not
only the money which had been entrusted to him, but all that he had
himself become possessed of by some years of honourable toil and
assiduous courtesy as a professional witness in law cases.
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