rated birds, is as fable-like a caricature as man himself, with his pointed pig-tailed pate, his reverences, long-nails, antique-crafty nature, and child-like tongue of monosyllables.[1] Man and Nature cannot there look at one another without suppressing a laugh. They do not laugh aloud, being by far too high-politely civilized; so to repress it, they make the most seriously comic faces. In that land is neither shadow nor perspective. Over houses which are like patchwork of many colours, rise rows on rows of roofs which look like outspread umbrellas on which hang many metal bells, so that even the wind when sweeping by makes itself droll by singing comic sounds.
In such a house with bells dwelt a princess whose feet were smaller than those of any other Chinese girl, whose obliquely slit little eyes blinked and winked more sweet-dreamily than
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"With ways which were dark
And tricks which were vain, . . .
But his smile it was gentle and child-like."—The Heathen Chinee, by Bret Harte.
—Translator.
quent representations of fruits grouped together as for dessert, which are so common in the baroque or degraded rococo style of decoration of the Regency, and which are still to be seen in many hotel dining-rooms. From their almost invariably exaggerated size and high colour, such pomological displays in art were jokingly described by an American critic in a burlesque catalogue as "some pumpkins," which became a popular saying for anything very remarkable of its kind. It is curious, as exactly conveying the sense of Heine's singular expression.—Translator.
