The Méen

As grow the gourds, with ever length’ning stem,
From elder sires sprang ours, as we from them.
When first by Ts‘eu and Ts‘eih our people grew,
And o’er them ruled the ancient duke T‘an-foo,
There kiln-like huts and caves for them he made,
Hre any house its walls and roof displayed.

The ancient duke Tan-foo came with the morn,
In car along the western rivers borne,
Nor stayed his steeds, until he reached mount K‘e.
The lady Keang came in his company.
With eager eyes they travelled o’er the ground,
To find a site on which a town to found.

The plain of Chow, with violets o’erspread
And sonchus plants found sweet on such a bed,
Lay wide and rich. He asked his men their mind,
And by the scorchéd tortoise-shell divined.
Both answer gave :— Now is the time and here!”
His followers straight their homes began to rear.

He cheered them on, and placed them on the land,
On left and right their different sites he planned.
Divisions, large and small, soon marked the plain,
And channels, or to irrigate or drain.
From east to west the acres he defined ;
Nought that was needed ’scaped his active mind.

He named two officers who should preside
O’er all these labours, and the people guide.
These to direct the building work he calls ;
True to the plummet rise the many walls.
They bind the frame-boards, till they stand aright,
And rear th’ ancestral temple in its might.

With earth in baskets crowding workmen came,
Which then with shouts they cast into the frame.
There with responsive blows the earth they pound,
And trim and pare until the walls are sound.
At once, five thousand cubits long, these rise,
The drum unheard amidst the toilers’ cries.

The palace next they built. Its outer gate
Arose with lofty and imposing state.
The inner portal of the court they reared,
With massive pomp. Anon, hard by, appeared
The altar for the Spirits of the land,
Where the State’s greatest movements should be

Thus though his foeman’s rage he could not tame,
T‘an-foo preserved and left a noble. fame.
In time the oaks and thorns were cleared away,
And roads for travellers opened to the day.
The savage hordes of Keun all disappeared,
Panting, and trembling at the name they feared.

Then came king Wan, and stirred to nobler life
The chiefs of Joo and Juy, who ceased their strife.
Some sought our prince, whom yet they had not seen;
Some, led by those who at his court had been ;
Some came who dreaded his avenging arm ;
And some, who knew he screened the weak from harm.