However, as he had great
presence of mind, which consisted in never giving a direct answer, and
in looking as if he could, he replied, it was a question of too great
importance to be resolved on a sudden. How came you to know that? Said
the prince--This youthful impetuosity told the governor that there was
something more in the question than he had apprehended; and though he
could be very solemn about nothing, he was ten times more so when there
was something he did not comprehend. Yet that unknown something
occasioning a conflict between his cunning and his ignorance, and the
latter being the greater, always betrayed itself, for nothing looks so
silly as a fool acting wisdom. The prince repeated his question; the
governor demanded why he asked--the prince had not patience to spell the
question over again on his fingers, but bawled it as loud as he could to
no purpose. The courtiers ran in, and catching up the prince's words,
and repeating them imperfectly, it soon flew all over Pekin, and thence
into the provinces, and thence into Tartary, and thence to Muscovy, and
so on, that the prince wanted to know who the princess was, whose name
was the same as her father's. As the Chinese have not the blessing (for
aught I know) of having family surnames as we have, and as what would be
their christian-names, if they were so happy as to be christians, are
quite different for men and women, the Chinese, who think that must be a
rule all over the world because it is theirs, decided that there could
not exist upon the square face of the earth a woman whose name was the
same as her father's.
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