Untitled

AMONG THE PORCELAIN MAKERS. l6l
To Fitz
" You look hungry, O bo-san, what will you
have?"
" A dozen
fellow.
blue points on the half shell," said the merry
The ameya grinned as though he were puzzled, bowed and
said,
"
Honorable sir, do not be too hard on a poor man who
has to earn his daily rice. When I said order anything, I
did not mean the blue dragons you refer to," adding aside,
"though I never heard of them having half a shell. I will
not wait for any more talk, but will make you a monkey eating
a peach."
He took a short piece of hollow bamboo from a little
drawer in the stand, dipped the end of it in a very thick, glu-
tinous paste, that was in a dish before him, and began to
distend it, just as a glass-blower does a molten mass of the
vitreous substance.
The young Americans watched him with the greatest in-
terest, and admired the way in which he manipulated the
sweetstuff.
After blowing out the mass until it was four times its orig-
inal size, he pinched it here, nipped it there, and, finally,
modelled a very correct representation of a monkey eating a
momo. He detached it from the blow-pipe and fastened it to
a short bamboo rod, then seized some brushes, placed them
between his fingers, charged their points with paint, dexter-
ously colored the model, and, holding it out, said,
" Honorable sir, here is your saru (monkey). I never
make any charge to honorable foreigners, they give me what
they like."
The boy handed him a few sen, which the ameya picked
up and put in his sleeve, saying in a grumbling tone,
" Merciful Kuwannon, these foreigners know as much as