But, he
says, another ancestor, pretty near as distinguished, he discovered
that, if you put enough curry on your rice, it gives things an
appearance of reality. Which, says he, they discovered the
uselessness of things in Asia so long ago they've forgot when, and
then they discovered the uselessness of the discovery. They
discovered gunpowder, he says, long before we did, but they use it
for fireworks in the interests of irony. They've forgotten more'n we
ever knew, says he, the stuck-up little cast-eyed pig. Go on! I'm
disgusted. Haven't I put on curry till it give me a furred mouth and
dyspepsia of the soul? What's the use?"
Fu Shan chuckled again.
"What's the use?" says Sadler. "Things happen, but they don't mean
anything by it. You hustle around the circle. You might as well have
sat down on the circumference. Maybe the trouble is with me, maybe
it's Saleratus. One of us is played out!"
Fu Shan took the ivory pipestem from his mouth, and spoke placid and
squeaking. "My got blother have joss house by Langoon. Velly good
joss house, velly good ploperty. Tlee hundred Buddha joss and gleen
dlagons. My ancestors make him. Gleen dlagon joss house.
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