Never before in her brief existence had Pacific
Simonson been afraid of anything, but if she had been in the street,
and had so much as caught the wink of the dragon's eye, or a wave of
its consecrated fin, she would have dropped senseless to the earth;
as it was, she turned her back to the procession, and, embracing with
terror-stricken fervour the legs of the Chinaman standing behind her,
made up her mind to be a better girl in the future. The monster was
borne by seventy-four coolies who furnished legs for each of the
seventy-four joints of its body, while another concealed in its head
tossed it wildly about. Little pigtailed boys shrieked as they
looked at its gaping mouth that would have shamed a man-eating shark,
at the huge locomotive headlights that served for its various sets of
eyes, at the horns made of barber poles, and the moustache of twisted
hogshead hoops. Behind this baleful creature came other smaller
ones, and more flags, and litters with sacrificial offerings, and
more musicians, till all disappeared in the distance, and the crowd
surged in the direction of the temple.
There was no such good fortune for the twins as an entrance into this
holy of holies, for it held comparatively few besides the
dignitaries, aristocrats, and wealthy merchants of the colony; but
there was still ample material for entertainment, and they paid no
heed to the going down of the sun.
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