patient awoke with precisely the same bodily constitution, old or young, as
he had possessed on falling into his lethargy; and though still liable to
wounds and accidents, he or she continued to enjoy undiminished health and
vigour for a period equal to the duration of the trance, after which he
sank back into the ranks of mortality, unless he could repeat the potion.
All the adepts who had come to life under his present Majesty's most
clement reign had immediately emigrated: the only persons, therefore,
capable of giving information were now buried in slumber, and of course
would only speak when they should awake. They were mostly concealed in the
recesses of caverns, those inhabited by wild beasts being usually preferred
for the sake of better security, as no tiger or bear would harm a follower
of Lao-tsze. The witnesses, therefore, advised the Bonze to ascertain the
residences of the most ferocious tigers in his diocese, and to wait upon
them personally, in the hope of thus discovering what he sought.

This suggestion was exceedingly unpalatable to the Bonze, who felt almost
equally unwilling to venture himself into a wild beast's den or to give any
other person the chance of making the discovery. While he hesitated in
unspeakable perplexity he was informed that an old man, about to expire at
the age of an hundred and twenty years, desired to have speech with him.
Thinking so venerable a personage likely to have at least a glimmering of
the great secret, the Bonze hurried to his bedside.

"Our master, Lao-tsze," began the old man, "forbids us to leave this world
with anything undisclosed which may contribute to the advantage of our
fellow-creatures. Whether he deemed the knowledge of the cup of immortality
conducive to this end I cannot say, but the question doth not arise, for I
do not possess it. Hear my tale, nevertheless. Ninety years ago, being a
hunter, it was my hap to fall into the jaws of an enormous tiger, who bore
me off to his cavern. I there found myself in the presence of two ladies,