Scary Stories

The Soul of the Great Bell - Lafcadio Hearn

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Duration:: 17m
Broadcast on:: 13 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

The Takono Music and Spirits Festival returns to Centennial Park, Saturday, August 3rd from 2 to 10 p.m. And it's free! Live music from The Warren Treaty! ♪ Live music ♪ Chris Daniels and the Kings is Callie and More. Enjoy a Spirits Competition, Kids Zone and Fireworks presented by Oxy and the City of Dacono. Admission and parking are free! The Takono Music and Spirits Festival brought to you by Breckenridge Brewery and City of Dacono. Go to thecityofdacono.com for more information. This summer, saddle up with the only sports book where you can bet on horse racing. FanDuel! Right now, new customers can get a no-sweat first bet up to $500. Just download the app or go to fanduel.com/horses to score your no-sweat bet up to $500. 21+ in present in Colorado. Offer valid on first real money wager of $5 or more. Verify an FD Racing account required. Bonus issued in non-withdrawable racing site credit that expires seven days after issuance. Max refund $500. Restrictions apply. See turns at racing.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem, Call 1-800-Gambler. The Soul of the Break Bell by Lefkadio Hearn. The water clock marks the hour in the Dajung Su, in the Tower of the Break Bell. Now, the mallet is lifted to smite the lips of the metal monster. The vase ups inscribed with Buddhist texts from the sacred Far Hwa King. From the chapters of the holy Ling Yang King. Hear the greek bell responding. How mike to her voice though tungless. Ko nai, all the little dragons on the high tilted eaves of the green roofs shiver to the tips of the gilded tales under that deep wave of sound. All the porcelain gargoyles tremble on the carbon perches, all the hundred little bells of the peccoders quiver of desire to speak. Ko nai, all the green and gold tiles of the temple are vibrating. The wooden goldfish above them are rithing against the sky. The uplifted finger of full shakes high over the heads of the worshippers through the blue fork of incense, Ko nai. What a thunder tongue was that. All the leckered goblins on the palace connoisseurs wriggle the fire-coloured tongues. And after each huge shock, how wondrous the multiple echo and the great golden mongen at last the sudden sipplin sopping in the ears when the immense tongue faines away in a broken whispers of silver, as though a woman should whisper, heye. Even so the greek bell bath sounded every day for well nai five hundred years. Ko nai, first was to pen this clang, then with immeasurable mong of gold, then with silver murmuring of heye. And there is not a child in all the many coloured ways of the old chinese city who does not know the story of the greek bell, who cannot tell you why the greek bell says, ko nai and heye. Now this is the story of the greek bell in the darjung su, as the same is related in the pea hao tojung, written by the learned nui paojang of the city of Guangzhou fu. Only five hundred years ago, the celestially august, the sun of heaven, yong lo of the illustrious or meng dynasty, commanded the worthy official kuang yu, that he should have a bell made of such size that the sun darjung might be heard for one hundred lee. When they further ordained that the voice of the bell should be strengthened with bras and deepened with gold and sweetened with silver, and that the phase and the greek lips of it should be graven with blessed sayings from the sacred box, and that it should be suspended in the centre of the imperial capital to sound through all the many coloured ways of the city of peaking. Therefore, the worthy mandarin kuang yu assembled the master motors and renowned bellsmiths of the empire, and all men of great repute and cunning in foundry work, and they measured the materials for the alloy, and treated them skilfully, and prepared the molds, the lives, the instruments, and the monstrous melting pot for fusing the metal, and they laboured exceedingly like giants, neglected only rest and sleep, and the comforts of life, toiling both night and day in obedience to kuang yu, and striving in all things to do the behest of the sun of heaven. So when the metal had been cast, and the earthen mold separated from the glowing casting, it was discovered that despite the great labour and ceaseless care, the result was void of worth, for the metals had rebelled one against the other. The gold has scorned a lines with the bras, the silver would not mingle with the molten iron, therefore the molds had to be once more prepared, and the fires rekindled, and the metal remounted, and all the work tediously and toil suddenly repeated. The sun of heaven heard and was angry, but spake nothing. The second time the bell was cast, and the result was even worse. Still the metals obstinately refused to blend one with the other, and there was no uniformity in the bell, and the sides of it were cracked and fissured, and the lips of it were slagged and split asunder, so that all the labour had to be repeated even a third time, to the greatness may of Kwangyu. And when the sun of heaven heard these things, he was angrier than before, and sent his messenger to Kwangyu with a letter, written upon lemon-coloured silk, and sealed with the seal of the dragon, containing these words. And the mighty young lo, the sublime tail-song, the celestial and august, whose reign is called Meng. To Kwangyu the full yin, twice thou hast betrayed the trust who have dained graciously to place in thee. If thou fail a third time in fulfilling our command, thy head shall be severed from thy neck, tremble and obey. Now Kwangyu had a daughter of dazzling loveliness, whose name, Ko Nai, was ever in the mouths of poets, and whose heart was even more beautiful than her face. Koai loved her father with such love that she had refused a hundred worthy suitors rather than make his home desolate by her absence. And when she had seen the awful yellow missive, sealed with the dragon seal, Sia fainted away with fear for her father's sake. And when her senses and her strength returned to her, she could not rest or sleep, for thinking of her parents' danger, until she had secretly sold some of her jewels, and with the money so obtained had hastened to an astrologer, and paid him a great prize to advise her by what means her father might be saved from the peril impending over him. So the astrology made observations of the heavens and marked the aspect of the silver stream, which we call the milky way, and examined the signs of the zodiac, the huang tao, or yellow road, and consulted the table of the five hymn, or principles of the universe, and the mystical books of the alchemists. And after a long silence, he made answer to her, saying, "golden brows will never meet in wedlock; silver and iron never will embrace until the flesh of a maiden be incited in the crucible, until the blood of a virgin be mixed with the meadows in the fusion." So Kongai returned home sorrowful at heart, but she kept secret all that she had heard, and told no one what she had done. At last came the awful day, when the third and last effort to cast Greg Bell was to be made, and Kongai, together with her waiting woman, accompanied her father to the fandry, and they took the places upon the platform, overlooking the toiling of the motors and the lava of liquefied metal. All the workmen rocked the tasks in silence. There was no song heard but the muttering of the fires, and the muttering deepened into a roar, like the roar of typhoons approaching. And the blood-red lake of metal slowly brightened like the vermillion of a sunrise, and the vermillion was transmuted into a radiant glow of gold, and the gold whitened blindingly like the silver phase of a full moon. Then the worker seized to feed the raving flame, and all fixed threw eyes upon the eyes of Kongyu, and Kongyu prepared to give the signal to cast. But here ever he lifted his finger, a cry caused him to turn his head, and all heard the voice of Kongai sounding sharply sweet as a bird's song above Greg's thunder of the fires. What I say, oh my father, and even as she cried, she leaped into the white flood of metal, and the lava of the furnace roared to receive her, and spattered monstrous flakes of flame to the roof, and burst over the verge of the earthen crater, and cast up a whirling fountain of many-coloured fires, and subsided quakingly with lightnings and with funders and with mutterings. Then the father of Kongai, wild with his grief, would have leaped in after her. But that strong men held him back, and kept firm grasp upon him, until he had fainted away, and he could bear him like one dead to his home. And the serving woman of Kongai, dizzy and speechless for pain, stood before the furnace. Still holding in her hands a shoe, a tiny dainty shoe, with embroidery of pearls and flowers, the shoe of a beautiful mistress that was. Or she had sought to grasp Kongai by the foot as she leaped. But had only been able to clutch the shoe, and the pretty shoe came off in her hand, and she continued to stare at it like one gone mad. But in spite of all these things, the command of the celestial in August had to be obeyed, and the work of the motors to be finished, hopeless as a result might be. Yet the glow of the metal seemed purer and whiter than before, and there was no sign of the beautiful body that had been entombed therein. So the ponderous casting was made, and low, when the metal had become cool, it was found that the bell was beautiful to look upon, and perfect in form, and wonderful in colour above all other bells. Nor was there any trace found of the body of Kongai, for it had been totally absorbed by the precious alloy, and blended with the well-blended brass and gold, with the intermingling of the silver and the iron. And when they sounded a bell, his tongues were found to be deeper and mellower and mightier than the tongues of any other bell, reaching even beyond the distance of one hundred lee, like a peeling of summer thunder, and yet also like some vast voice uttering a name, a woman's name, the name of Kongai. And still, between each mighty stroke, there is a long, low-moaning herd. An ever-demoning ends with a sound of sobbing and of complaining, as through a weeping woman should murmur, heye, and still, when the people hear that great golden moan, they keep silence. But when the sharp, sweet, shuddering comes in the air, and a sobbing of heye, then, indeed, do all the Chinese mothers in all the many-coloured waves of peaking whisper to their little ones. And that is Kongai crying for her shoe, that is Kongai calling for her shoe. End of The Soul of the Great Bell by Levkadio Hearn. The Dakono Music and Spirits Festival returns to Centennial Park Saturday, August 3rd from 2 to 10pm, and it's free, live music from The Warren Treaty. Chris Daniels and the Kings is Cally and More. Enjoy a spirits competition, Kid Zone and fireworks presented by Oxy and the City of Dakono. Admission and parking are free. The Dakono Music and Spirits Festival, brought to you by Breckenridge Brewery and City of Dakono. Go to thecityofdakono.com for more information. I'm Victoria Cash, thanks for calling the Lucky Land Hotline. If you feel like you do the same thing every day, press 1. If you're ready to have some serious fun, for the chance to redeem some serious prizes, press 2. We heard you loud and clear, so go to luckylandslots.com right now and play over a hundred social casino-style games for free. Get lucky today at luckylandslots.com.